Moscow
Laying off the booze: Russian alcohol consumption is down 43 percent since 2003, and the World Health Organization says that’s partly because of measures President Vladimir Putin has taken to curb heavy drinking. Putin, who has served as president or prime minister for 20 years, is a fitness buff and largely abstains from alcohol. Under his tenure, Russia has banned liquor store sales after 11 p.m., prohibited advertising of alcohol in almost all media, and raised the price of vodka and other spirits. At this point, Russians drink less than the French or Germans, and Russian male life expectancy has increased from 57 years in the early 1990s to 68 years in 2018. “Bars have become more civilized,” said Roman Pechnikov, a patron at a central Moscow watering hole, “and people do not drink until the end of the night.”