You suspect that only because of the heavy anti-Russian sentiment going around right now (leading to a negative bias without fact checking).

Alcohol consumption is down significantly there and has been on the decline. They’re not even in the top 15 countries who consume the most:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/01/russian-alcoho...

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-c...

Interesting, thanks for the links.

So curbs in alcohol sales work pretty well!

Maybe (but you can still buy booze illegally after 11pm - or at bars). I think it's more or less greatly improved economic conditions and improving quality of life. The 1990s and early 2000s in Russia (Belarus & Ukraine as well) were seriously dire. I was surprised by how many people didn't drink in my travels there. A good movie to check out on that time period is "Brother" (Brat).