Medical sobering stations were created only in a third of Russian regions

Ministry of Internal Affairs: medical sobering stations have been created only in a third of the regions

There are currently about 60 specialized centers throughout Russia to provide assistance to people under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They are located in 26 regions of the country, including Bashkiria, Buryatia, Karelia, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Tuva, Udmurtia, Yakutia, Amur, Arkhangelsk, Volgograd, Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kostroma, Kurgan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Samara, Smolensk, Tyumen, Tambov and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

In the first six months of 2023, specialized centers provided assistance to more than 75 thousand people. This is 9 thousand more than in the same period of the previous year. People can go to these centers on their own or be taken there by police.

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs believes that the sobering-up system is one of the tools to combat the consequences of alcohol and drug abuse, and also helps to reduce the crime rate. For example, in the Samara region, the number of especially serious crimes committed while intoxicated decreased by 11.7%, in Tatarstan the level of street “alcohol crime” decreased by 14.2%, and in Tuva there were fewer crimes in public places.

The sobering up system has been revived in Russia since the beginning of 2021. The Ministry of Internal Affairs approved the procedure for delivering drunk citizens to these centers, and later the rules for the operation of medical sobering stations were established, which were certified by the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor. However, the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, said in September 2023 that most regions of the country do not use the sobering-up system to fight crime and called for this problem not to be ignored.