Moscow announces widespread smoking ban
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail CNTV, May 31, 2014
A new law is coming into force in Russia banning smoking in restaurants and cafes. It's the latest part of the Russian government's attempts to clamp down on smoking. But the efforts have been getting resistance from smoker's rights groups and restaurants, who say the ban is too heavy handed.
At Vadim's restaurant in Moscow customers puff away at the tables. But a new law bans smoking in all restaurants and cafes. Vadim hates smoking personally, but says he'll lose business.
"Yes this law is needed, yes we need to reduce smoking, yes we need to fight for people's health. But what do we do with those people who can't fight it themselves. We need to think of something separate for them." GVadim Rokhlin, restaurant owner said.
From water pipes, to cigars and most of all cigarettes, Russians love to light up. It's the second largest tobacco market in the world after China. It's thought 39 million of 143 million Russians smoke.
|
|
|
A new law is coming into force in Russia banning smoking in restaurants and cafes. |
Russia smoked an estimated 340 billion of these in 2012. This new blanket ban is designed to reduce that number.
With so many cigarettes smoked the Russian government has already restricted tobacco advertising and banned smoking in places such as schools, hospitals and public transport in 2013. But there are few big organised quit smoking campaigns, and the new ban is facing resistance.
A recent petition against it fetched more than 100,000 signatures.
"We understood that this law isn't against tobacco. You can see essentially these measures aren't against tobacco manufacturers. It's a law against smokers. Against good people, taxpayers who earned their money, paid their taxes, went shopping, want to smoke and they tell them no, totally not." Andery Loskutov, Russia's Movement for Smokers Rights said.
A draft law might introduce minimum cigarette pricing by next year. But with few following or enforcing current anti-smoking laws, and the cheapest packs available in Russia at just over $1 it seems Russia's huge tobacco market hasn't gone up in smoke just yet.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)