Today, National Public Radio has a piece on President Medvedev's plans to curb Russian consumption of vodka. If NPR's source is to be believed, czar Peter the Great fostered a culture where people were actually encouraged to drink more to raise their alcohol tolerance. Accurate or not, the World Health Organization reports that the average Russian consumes eighteen liters of pure alcohol annually--twice the volume they consider dangerous. The story was covered in a January post by Bruce Chapman.