Talk politics.

Here's a question. If you're an arrogant autocrat and you find yourself in a situation where things are not going too well for your people, both economically, socially and politically, what's the first tactic you'd probably come up with to distract them from their troubles? You guessed right. Bread and circuses, as the old adage goes. Or in this case, booze. And for a nation like Russia, that is *THE* factor that tends to make or break a good tyrant. Case in point:


Basically, through a February 1 decision of the Russian government, the price of vodka has been brought down from 230 to 185 rubles - never mind that the value of the ruble has imploded quite a bit lately. Given the drastically skyrocketing living costs in the wake of the current fiscal crisis in Russia, one might assume Putin has jumped the shark, and the whole idea that the authorities sould be so utterly concerned with the soaring booze prices and make it such a high priority on their agenda, could seem a bit ridiculous - but only if you didn't know a thing about how the Russian mind ticks.

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