Heineken, the Dutch brewer, has announced that it will buy Patra, a Russian brewer. Patra is based in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s third largest city.

Russia is the world’s fifth-largest beer market. At the end of the Soviet era, when Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet leader, beer was promoted as a healthier alternative to vodka, considered to be Russia’s national drink.

The acquisition increases Heineken’s share of the Russian market to 8.3 percent, up from 7.5 percent. Heineken will buy Petra for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The purchase comes at a time when Heineken has under performed the European beverages sector by about 30 percent for the past three years and continues the company’s practice of acquiring small regional breweries in growing markets.

In 2004, Petra had net profits of $1.2 million on a turnover of $27 million.