“The lobby of the owners of such businesses is also not sitting idle, and there will definitely be attempts to negotiate a resolution.”
A new draft amendment to the law on regulating alcohol circulation has been submitted to the State Duma. The document, signed by 37 deputies and 3 senators at once, is a powerful attack on the so-called “nalivayki”, that is, draft beer stores. Regional authorities are expected to be given the right to prohibit trade, including low-alcohol products, together with public catering in residential buildings, as well as set the time for such trade. The consequence may be increased social stratification in society.
The bill provides for amendments to several legislative acts at the federal level. First of all, the law “On state regulation of the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products and on limiting the consumption (drinking) of alcoholic products,” which has gone through many revisions since 1995.
Thus, it is proposed to add to Article 11 of this law: “The production of alcoholic products with the addition of ethyl alcohol is not allowed if such addition is not provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation or the requirements of state standards and technical regulations.” And this is the only norm that has federal application: the rest, which will be discussed below, remains at the discretion of the regions.
According to the authors of the bill, regional authorities will be able to prohibit “the retail sale of beer and beer drinks, cider, poire, mead in one place with the retail sale of such products when providing public catering services, including in apartment buildings and (or) in adjacent areas.” nim territories.» It is this point that concerns “nalivaki”: the retail sale of weak alcohol for takeaway in the same premises where there is a bar may be prohibited. The bartender poured it — the client is obliged to drink it right at the point.
In addition to this paragraph, it is proposed to narrow the list of establishments that can sell alcohol “drinking” to the following: “restaurants, bars, cafes, buffets.” Left behind are fast food/service establishments (unless they, those that serve beer with burgers and fries, are re-registered as restaurants and cafes), as well as “cafes” at grocery stores, which usually do not register their «corner» as a full-fledged catering establishment.
Further, regional authorities can introduce time limits for the sale of alcoholic beverages in public catering if the establishments are located in apartment buildings. This restriction means that cafes and restaurants located in residential buildings will close the bar at a certain time — and 24-hour “points” can only be located in non-residential premises where there is no housing nearby. Such restrictions will be supported by a timely upgrade of the electronic control system of Rosalkogolregulirovaniya — that is, pouring alcohol in a restaurant bar after hour X should become as risky as selling a bottle in a store at an inopportune time.
“Currently, in many constituent entities of the Russian Federation, there is an acute question about the activities of organizations that, under the guise of providing public catering services, actually carry out round-the-clock retail sales of alcoholic beverages, contributing to the disruption of public order in the evening and at night, including in the courtyards of apartment buildings,” — write the authors of the bill in the explanatory note. We are talking about a format that was very popular in Moscow about a decade ago — draft beer stores, which were proud of their assortment of several dozen (sometimes hundreds) varieties of “foamy”.
At the same time, they really caused complaints from the residents of that building , where they were: in the early 2010s, a typical sight was people “drinking” right in the courtyard or on the sidewalk near the doors of this usually compact establishment, which therefore smelled of sticky taps. Now in Moscow the severity of the problem of “nalivaki” has subsided, but in other regions there are still many complaints about such establishments from the point of view of public order.
It is interesting that initially the question of whether to ban the operation of the “nalivayka” was proposed to be left to the residents of a particular apartment building: the general meeting had to authorize the operation by two-thirds of the votes. However, in the current version of the bill the mechanism is different — specialists from the regional administration will decide, and the decision, apparently, will be the same for the entire region.
“Such a scheme practically means refusal without any alternative,” says Alexander, the owner of a shawarma outlet in Moscow. — Although the “allow” option is theoretically possible, in practice it means that the official who signed the authorization document will be responsible for all possible complaints about the operation of the “nalivkas.” Agreeing with the residents of the house, getting them interested, and collecting two-thirds of the votes at a general meeting sounds somehow more realistic.
In addition, as political strategist Maxim, who conducted several gubernatorial election campaigns, explained to MK, the ban on “nalivikas” in the region will give any politician many more points than a permit.
“But it is clear that the lobby of the owners of such businesses is also not sitting idle and there will definitely be attempts to agree on a permit,” added MK’s interlocutor. — And here the difference between rich (primarily Moscow) and poor regions will appear: in the poor, “nalivika” may remain, but in the rich, entrepreneurs will not be able to afford to achieve their goal. Consequently, in already depressed areas there will be even more “drinking shops” — and this will worsen the cultural gap.