At the beginning of 1992 the market reforms happened, and in particular almost complete alcohol deregulation. Very soon, in the Spring, Russia was flooded with those 1 liter bottles of very cheap, yet safely drinkable, 96% ethanol under trademark "Royal". Everybody was drinking it like a thirsty traveler in a desert coming upon water in a oasis. 1 such bottle of that ethanol with a 1.5 liter bottle of soda was making an equivalent of 5 standard 0.5l bottles of vodka at half the price.
In the Summer i went to work in a small remote town, and that is when the first delivery of "Royal" came into the town's grocery store. Next few days in that town is what the "Gin Lane" reminded me of. The things normalized only when the store ran out of "Royal". When 3 weeks later another delivery of Royal came in, this time double the amount, the situation repeated, only that time it was for almost 2 weeks, again until the store ran out.
The story in dry numbers https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Estimates-of-overall-lev... (in 1995 the regulations were brought back to some degree)