Since the beginning of September, at least 19 cases of fatal poisoning attributed to alcohol consumption have frequently registered in the Russian region of Leningrad, near St. Petersburg, local authorities said on Friday, September 26.
According to the Regional Health Committee, “19 deaths were recorded during September after alcohol consumption in the Slantsevski district.”
Laboratory analyzes have established that methanol was the cause of death in eight of these cases, according to the same source. Methanol is often used to make alcohol for free, a scourge in Russia.
An investigation into “alcohol poisoning by several people in the district of Slantesevski,” said the regional prosecutor’s office in a statement.
Two people arrested
For its part, the Research Committee, in charge of the main investigations in the country, announced the arrest of a sixty -year -old woman and a septuagenarian man, suspected of having sold this alcohol to the victims.
In 2016, more than 60 people died in Irkutsk, Siberia, after drinking bath oil containing methanol.
If the law that sanctions methanol traffic has been strengthened since then, the price of vodka is still unaffordable for millions of Russians, especially in rural areas with a very low standard of living.
Source: BFM TV
