UPDATE: Russia wants to prohibit tobacco sales to people born after 2015

(Adds details in two last paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Jan 9 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Healthcare Ministry has included prohibition of tobacco sales to people born after 2015 into its 2017–2022 anti-tobacco draft concept, Oleg Salagai, head of the ministry’s public healthcare and relations department, told reporters Monday.

“The document envisages measures as follows…provision of conditions under which access to tobacco products for the new generation will be impossible throughout their lifetime, which means a complete ban on sales of tobacco products to citizens born after 2015,” he said.

The document also expands the number of public places, where smoking will be prohibited, including in public transport and on its stops, in private transport in the presence of children, on pedestrian crossings, he said.

Smoking in the presence of people objecting against tobacco, will also be prohibited regardless of their age.

The draft will be adjusted taking into account remarks of the government, he added.

Yana Guskova, head of the external relations department at the country’s largest cigarette producer British American Tobacco Russia, told PRIME that the draft is too radical and does not take into account interests of consumers, producers and sellers of tobacco products and may even hurt incomes of the budget.

“That is why we think it is necessary to conduct an independent in-depth assessment of the regulatory impact of these proposals,” she said.

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