With the minimum price of vodka in the country doubling, resourceful Russians began turning to illegally producing cheaper bootleg vodka which had disastrous results.
In December 2016,78 people died in the city of Irkutsk in Siberia after drinking scented bath lotion that had been mislabeled as drinkable bootleg alcohol.
The discovery is part of an investigation into the illegal spirits trade. More than 40 people died in the Czech Republic last year from drinking bootleg alcohol.
That has been blamed on bootleg spirits tainted with the industrial chemical methanol which was sold cheaply at markets and outdoor kiosks. Rob Cameron reports from Prague.
He spearheaded a children's milk program, opened soup kitchens, and provided work via the bootleg liquor trade. But Capone's gang wasn't as compassionate as they appeared.
By 2016, approximately 20% of Russia's entire alcoholic consumption was simply bootleg vodka and most of this was just pure alcohol that had been diluted down to feel like vodka.