OREANDA-NEWS. Belarus has seen a sudden increase in illegal sales of Russian vodka, a representative of the Tax Ministry of Belarus told.

“Since early this year we have seized 3,000 litres of illegal Russian vodka, which is 3.5 times as much as in the whole of 2012,” the official said.

Inspectors check the identity of vodka by analysing numbers on excise stamp stickers glued to the bottle. “We have seen identical numbers on seized beverages, which gives makes us suspect that either the stamps or the beverages were counterfeited,” the official said.

Another telltale sign of illegal Russian vodka is its low price, which may stand at Br25,000 (USD 2.9) per half-litre, the expert said.