MOSCOW, December 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Anti-tobacco laws are driving smokers to quit the habit, a top specialist in preventive medicine at Russia's Ministry of Health claimed at a news conference on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately I cannot operate with figures at the moment as not much time has passed since the law came into effect on June 1,” Sergei Boitsov said. Results could be expected after another half-year at the earliest, he said.
Fines for smoking in places where smoking was banned had played their role, he claimed. Another result was expected after tobacco taxes were increased.
“So far it (the tax) is only 21 rubles in our country," Boitsov told reporters. "This is evidently insufficient. If we raise tobacco taxes to 78 rubles (by 2015) as the health ministry says, the flow of people wishing to quit smoking will grow sizably,” he said, adding that this had been proved in other countries.