THE LAW WILL LEAVE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF RUSSIANS UNEMPLOYED

Sergei Zhavoronkov, Senior Researcher of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy made a comment to the URA.ru on lawmakers’ proposal to ban the sale of spirits at small bars.
“It is a silly law, which can bring about the closure of nearly 10,000 small businesses and lay-offs of tens of thousands of workers employed there”, Sergei Zhavoronkov said. The expert reminded that the authors of the initiative believed that small outlets should be closed down because of noise they produced.   “But if one follows this logic, the larger restaurant, the more visitors and noise.  Consequently, large restaurants should be banned, too”, the economist notes.  
“Russia is a country of apartment houses and a large number of institutions is situated in such houses. It is not a fault of the business, but the consequence of the Soviet housing development”, the expert noted and expressed a hope that the draft law would be postponed and amended before the second reading. This draft law banning the sale of spirits in premises with the floor space of the customer area of up to 20 sq. meters was developed by the group of the United Russia deputies; on September 18, 2019 it will be considered by the State Duma Committee on the Economic Policy.