This article from Rupert Murdoch's Sky News/BSkyB isn't very good reporting, inasmuch as the licensing restriction for buying perfume is clear as mud, but it's nonetheless funny:

From next month all perfumes and cosmetics will require a special licence to stop them being used as a cheap alternative to vodka.

Russians may be known for their love of vodka but for decades poverty meant many were prepared to down anything from nail polish remover to toilet cleaner.

Now the head of the nation's consumer watchdog has announced that all perfumes and cosmetics will require a special licence from July 1.

Gennady Onishchenko said he hoped this would price out of the market unscrupulous traders who sell cheap perfume to alcoholics.

What is totally unclear is whether the seller or the buyer needs a license for perfume. For all I know, it could be both parties. I love this one woman's quote:

Moscow cosmetics shop owner Nadezhda Ivanova told the Telegraph: "Just because my husband is fool enough to drink brake fluid, why should I be deprived of the pleasure of wearing Chanel?"

Only in Russia, folks--only in Russia. At one point in time, Russians were notorious for spreading shoe polish on toast and eating that to get their high. Sure, you can joke about it, but it's really sad. I do remember touring St. Petersburg (which was called Leningrad back then) and Moscow in 1977. There were very long lines outside the liquor stores for Russians, although foreigners didn't have much of a wait to buy a bottle of Stoli if we wanted. Foreigners didn't have much of a wait to buy anything because hard currency was at a huge premium back in the iron curtain days, but we all knew the KGB was keeping tabs on us, and simply took it for granted that our hotel rooms were being bugged. Those days might not be as different from now as I think, given this news article.