State Duma approved a law to restore sobering-up stations in Russia

From January 1, 2021 Russia will revive the system of sobering-up stations, which will now be able to operate for money. Regions will be able to set a fee for “clients” of such institutions. The State Duma passed a law on this. Another law says that police will be able to take Russians who have drunk too much to sobering-up stations without their consent.

Regions will create sobering-up stations, the new law says – it was proposed by a group of deputies and senators. And the document gives the subjects of the Federation wide freedom in determining the procedure for providing such assistance to citizens, said Alexey Didenko, chairman of the State Duma committee on federal structure and local self-government. He specified that sobering-up stations can be formed as budgetary institutions, as well as on the basis of public-private or municipal-private partnerships. Charging people who end up in these institutions for services is allowed. But that will be decided by the regions themselves. According to Didenko’s estimate, the cost of a night’s stay in a sobering-up station will average 1,500 rubles across the country, the exact price will be set by each subject of the Russian Federation. One of the bill’s authors, chairman of the State Duma committee on information policy Alexander Khinshtein, told colleagues that the initiators see nothing wrong with charging a reasonable sum from the “clients” of sobering-up stations. The maximum fee will be calculated by the government. It is assumed that sobering-up stations will be created on the basis of health authorities.

  Police will be allowed to take drunk people to sobering-up stations
Another law adopted by the State Duma allows police to bring citizens to sobering-up stations without their consent – it is assumed that a medical examination will be a sufficient basis. According to the new law, police will be able to deliver citizens to such institutions “in the order established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in coordination with the Ministry of Health of Russia”. An ambulance doctor will determine what kind of help the person needs, and then decide where they should be taken. If, for example, they have a head injury, they will be taken to a hospital. And if they start to show aggression – they will be placed in a police station.