SOVIET SUGAR CONSUMPTION UP AS HOME BREWING GROWS A sharp rise in Soviet sugar consumption since the start of the Kremlin's anti-alcohol drive indicates home brewing is costing the state 20 billion roubles in lost vodka sales, Pravda said. The Communist Party newspaper said sugar sales had increased by one mln tonnes a year, enough to be turned into two billion bottles of moonshine. At current vodka prices of 10 roubles a bottle, it said, this meant illicit alcohol consumption had reached the equivalent of 20 billion roubles a year, or annual revenues from vodka sales before the May 1985 anti-alchohol decree. "Official statistics show a reduction in consumption of vodka, but this is a deceptive statistic -- it does not count home-brew," Pravda said. "The epidemic first engulfed the villages and has now also firmly settled into cities, where the availability of natural gas, running water and privacy has made it much easier." Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched the anti-alcohol campaign shortly after taking office in March 1985 as a first step to improving Soviet economic performance, which had been seriously hurt by drunkenness among the working population.