When West German Social Democratic Leader Willy Brandt arrived in Moscow in late May, the reception was, well, arid. The former Chancellor's delegation was sobered to discover that at banquets, once-free-flowing vodka had been replaced by fruit juice and mineral water. Remarked a member of Brandt's party: "We should have brought our own vodka." The dry state of affairs is the result of Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign against drunkenness. He has raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 and banned alcohol at official functions.
The temperance movement has even reached that most bibulous of regions, Georgia, where no meal is...
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