According to the latest news, Russia is set to encourage people to start vaping. They are actively implementing a tax scheme that would potentially make vapes desirable when compared to cigarettes. This is a very interesting approach that appeared during an interview with the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.
The interview was published in the Vedomosti business newspaper. Manturov states that Russia will have different regulations for cigarettes and vaping. This means The country would be unique, as they are members of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). FCTC members aren’t really focused on encouraging vaping, if anything they are against it.
Manturov says that smokers need to switch to things like electronic tobacco heating systems or ENDS. Vaping is safer according to him, so he wants to make sure that there will be laws to regulate this properly. Of course there will still be some restrictions like not smoking in schools and there will be a ban to minors as well.
In order to encourage the adoption of vapes, Russia is set to offer lower tax rates when compared to tobacco products. This type of approach does make a lot of sense for a country like Russia, where you can find a major smoking issue. But even so, it’s refreshing to see this type of approach coming from them, a country that’s mostly conservative. Yet again, this may be a sign that many countries are willing to make this change.
Based on data from the WHO, around 29.9% of Russian adults were smoking cigarettes, out of which 48.8% are men. What this means is that Russia is a country full of smokers, even more than the UK or the US that have much lower smoking rates.