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At the very least 19 folks have died this month of suspected alcohol poisoning in Russia’s western Leningrad area, native officers stated Friday.
Incidents of mass deaths from consuming low cost selfmade alcohol substitutes usually are not unusual in Russia, which has been blighted by excessive ranges of alcoholism for years.
The regional authorities’s press service stated in an announcement that “19 deaths after alcohol consumption have been recorded within the Slantsy District in September.”
It added that eight instances had to date been “laboratory-confirmed as methanol poisoning.”
Investigators stated they’d detained a person and a girl after prosecutors opened a felony case to probe “the poisoning of a number of residents of the Slantsy District with counterfeit alcohol.”
Earlier this week, prosecutors sentenced two folks to nearly a decade in jail for manufacturing and promoting a counterfeit cider drink that killed 50 folks in 2023.
Investigative Committee of Russia for the Samara Area/Handout by way of REUTERS 
And in 2016, greater than 60 folks died in Irkutsk in Siberia after consuming contraband tub oil that contained methanol.
Russia toughened its laws after that incident, however low cost selfmade spirits utilizing alcohol substitutes stay broadly accessible, significantly in rural areas with low requirements of residing and the place the value of vodka is prohibitively excessive.
Tainted alcohol has additionally had lethal penalties in different international locations in current months.
In Might, greater than 20 folks died in India after consuming tainted liquor. 9 folks have been in custody, police stated.
In January, 23 folks died in Turkey in 48 hours after consuming tainted alcohol.
In November 2024, six vacationers died in Laos from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported.
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