Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov began a campaign this week to fight the production and sale of fake alcohol, RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service reports.
After several raids in recent months by local police and tax authorities on liquor stores, alcohol became expensive and even difficult to find in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
A Grozny resident told RFE/RL that "people are reduced to drinking industrial alcohol because this government seems to believe that vodka is bad for us."
Chechens do not traditionally drink alcohol excessively (drunkenness is widely frowned upon), but many occasional drinkers are worried that Kadyrov's new initiative is the first step towards a complete ban on alcohol.
-- North Caucasus Service