The Kremlin is being urged to raise the price of vodka in Russia to match war-induced inflation in Ukraine.
From next year, vodka producers across the country want to see prices rise by 17 percent to cope with a rise in taxes, import fees and logistics costs, as well as a fall in the value of the ruble.
The increase will only correspond to the impact of inflation that has escalated since the start of the war.
Veniamin Grabar, the president of Lagoda vodka and spirits producer, told RBK news agency: “The government is adjusting the market for inflation, as well as for changes in cost prices and other components that make up the price of vodka.”
After the price rise, a pint of vodka will cost 349 rubles (£2.37) in Russia, up from 299 rubles in June.
Vodka is a staple of Russian culture and heritage. Like beer production in Britain, every city in Russia has a local producer. The average consumption of vodka per person in Russia is about 17.3 shots per month – the largest in the world.
Maxim Chernogovsky, an analyst who monitors Russia's illicit alcohol market, said the price hike would increase demand for illicit vodka, known as “samogon.”
“People, especially those with low incomes, are beginning to look for cheaper alternatives and turning to illegal alcohol and surrogates – samogon, ethyl alcohol-based medicines and other dangerous alcohol-containing products,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
Official inflation in Russia is around nine percent, but analysts say Vladimir Putin's attempt to put Russia's economy on a war footing by pouring money into arms production and military recruitment has pushed real inflation to three or four times that figure .
The Central Bank raised its key interest rate to 19 percent in September and is already talking about raising it again to levels last reached in the 1990s, when the Russian economy suffered the fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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