This may be the first and last time you ll hear us praise Vladimir Putin in the annals of Dispatch. But thanks to the Russian president, a personal fitness buff, the Kremlin seems poised to finally crack down on cigarette smoking.This may be the first and last time you ll hear us praise Vladimir Putin in the annals of Dispatch. But thanks to the Russian president, a personal fitness buff, the Kremlin seems poised to finally crack down on cigarette smoking.
Russia is the world s second-largest cigarette market, behind China, with nearly 40 percent of the country s 143 million people lighting up, including 60 percent of the male population. Russia s deadly habit causes an estimated 400,000 deaths annually, along with $48 billion in health costs and lost productivity.
Russia s Parliament is expected early next year to pass a measure that would establish Western-style restrictions on advertising and smoking in restaurants, the Wall Street Journal reports. Another bill that would raise excise taxes by 135 percent has passed a parliamentary committee.
If the Russian government is going to institute a huge increase in cigarette taxes, many will quit, which is obviously good, but many will also keep paying for their addiction with an even higher fraction of their scarce funds, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross says. To help the millions of addicted smokers who will be more amenable to quitting due to the higher price of smokes, increased education about and access to effective cessation products, including smokeless tobacco (snus), dissolvables and e-cigarettes, must be made available. Else, black marketeers will have a bonanza. It is to be hoped that no wrong-headed restrictions on reduced harm products are included when amendments to this bill are proposed.
