Wines and hard liquor all but disappeared from licensed store shelves following the July 1 introduction of an automated system to create a uniform database on the production and movement of alcohol in Russia, and a ban on old excise stamps that temporarily stopped imports.
The new regulations and a ban on Georgian and Moldovan wine were designed as part of a campaign to squeeze potentially fatal bootleg and low-quality alcohol out of the market, but technical difficulties left Russians with a slim choice of domestically produced beverages this summer.
Speaking during his annual question-and-answer broadcast, the fifth since he came to power in 2000, Putin said: "Officials and the government - top-level officials - appeared unprepared, failed to take into account all the problems and the scale of the work that was to be done, and did not take prompt measures to bring order [to the market]."
"I myself tried to find those responsible and punish them. I guess I failed to do that, because nobody wants to be responsible for poorly prepared decisions," Putin said.
Alcohol poisoning cases are regularly reported in Russia. Earlier in the year, the interior minister called them a national tragedy and urged a crackdown on bootleg alcohol sales in the country, saying that about 42,000 die and many become disabled from alcohol poisoning every year.
But Georgia and Moldova said Russia's ban on wine, a major source of revenue for the two former Soviet states, was political.
