Smoking in Russia: kicking the habit

(opendemocracy.net – Diana Quirmbach – June 3, 2014)

Diana Quirmbach is a PhD candidate at University College London.

More people smoke in Russia than almost anywhere else in the world, but the government is finally catching up, in clamping down.

On 1 June 2014, the landscape of smoking changed dramatically in Russia. While efforts to control tobacco are not new in Russia, this latest law will be the most restrictive so far if it is fully implemented and enforced. With smoking bans already in place in public buildings and on public transport, smokers will also have to step outside at restaurants and the workplace to indulge their habit; and not only will smoking become largely confined to people’s homes and the road; it will also be more difficult for smokers to get hold of their daily fix, with the sale of cigarettes set to be banned from the small retail kiosks that surround metro stations and other pedestrian areas.

Moreover, when smokers do manage to track cigarettes down, they will find that this traditionally cheap pleasure will burn a deeper hole in their pockets. This year, tobacco taxes rose by 45% compared to 2013, and they will rise by another 20% in 2015, and 25% in 2016, with the ultimate goal of reaching the price level of the WHO European region.

With these changes, smoking will cost much more, both in terms of money and time. As well as being pushed out of public places, smoking will also disappear from the media, with a ban on any type of advertising, promotion, or sponsorship.

A Russian history of cheap smoking

Since the mid-20th century, there have been few if any constraints on smoking in Russia. While political upheavals led to short supplies and high prices for tobacco products in the first half of the century, the tobacco industry recovered quickly after the Second World War, and annual production levels soared. Nevertheless, demand continued to exceed supply, so that the Soviet Union additionally had to rely on imports, with about one third of Russians’ cigarette consumption coming from Bulgaria.

The domestic tobacco industry produced more than 300 different brands of cigarettes in various price ranges, but they were generally very cheap, and in contrast with other consumer goods, which were often difficult to get hold of, cigarettes were widely and easily available and even small kiosks would offer 15-25 different brands.

As in many countries, the social acceptability of the habit varied widely according to gender. Its association with masculinity made smoking ‘normal’ and accepted behaviour for men, whereas for women it was seen as a sign of moral laxity and was generally considered to be ‘unfeminine.’ These gendered social norms impacted upon men’s and women’s consumption of cigarettes: surveys suggest that from the 1960s onwards, male smoking rates in Russia exceeded 50%, while fewer than 5% of women smoked.

Towards the end of the 1960s, consumption patterns moved away from traditional papirosy (thin paper tubes with tobacco connected to a hollow cardboard mouthpiece) to filtered cigarettes, the international standard at the time. Eastern and Western cigarettes also contained different types of tobacco; the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc used the Oriental leaf, which was lower in nicotine but had a much stronger natural flavour than the tobacco used in American blends. So, although Western cigarettes were actually higher in tar and nicotine, they were milder in taste compared to papirosy, making them more attractive to women and younger people.

In the early 1970s, the Bulgarian state monopolist Bulgartabac began producing brands based on American tobacco blends. So, despite the fact that the Soviet Union was formally closed off to Western tobacco companies, Western-type cigarettes made their way onto the Soviet market in the form of Bulgarian cigarettes. The switch to filtered cigarettes and the availability of ‘milder’ blends, as well as smoking increasingly being associated with a ‘modern lifestyle,’ began, towards the end of the 1970s, to contribute to a rise in smoking among women.

The tobacco industry was also affected by the Soviet Union’s growing economic problems from the 1970s onwards, and domestic production began to decline. Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s cigarettes became steadily less available, and by 1990 the economic crisis was so severe that the production of cigarettes had ground to a halt.

In an attempt to calm down street protests by angry smokers in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and other major Soviet cities (known as the so-called ‘tobacco rebellion’), President Mikhail Gorbachev sought help from Western tobacco companies. In August 1990, the American tobacco companies Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds delivered 34 billion cigarettes to the Soviet Union in return for cash and goods in kind, allowing the two companies to enter the world’s third-largest tobacco market at a time when their domestic markets were shrinking. The desire to lead a Western lifestyle, combined with the deteriorating quality of Soviet cigarettes, fuelled the demand among Soviet citizens for imported cigarettes.

And they just kept on smoking…

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the ending of the state monopoly over tobacco production in 1992, the major transnational tobacco companies began investing heavily in Russia, either acquiring domestic manufacturers or setting up their own production facilities to supply the market. Between 1992 and 2000, the tobacco industry accounted for 8% of foreign direct investment. Fierce competition and an oversupply of cigarettes led to downward pressure on prices, and prompted companies to invest large amounts into marketing, particularly targeted at women, whose smoking rates were still much lower than in the West.

The ubiquity of tobacco advertising, coupled with the psycho-social stresses of the transition period, promoted smoking as a readily available means of relaxation and an inexpensive status symbol. A sharp decline in real cigarette prices, combined with rising incomes, made cigarettes even more affordable in the early 2000s, contributing to further growth in consumption. The proportion of men smoking rose to over 60%, with rates among younger age groups as high as 70%. The habit also spread rapidly among young women, particularly in large urban centres such as Moscow and St Petersburg, and by 2009 every fourth woman between the ages of 25 and 44 was a smoker.

Anti-smoking legislation

Four decades of male smoking at rates of 50% and above have left their mark on Russian health statistics. In 2009, smoking-related deaths made up 29% of premature mortality among men (i.e. deaths of men aged between 35 and 69), compared to only 2% among women. This translates into a twelve-year gap in average life expectancy between men who have never smoked and men who have smoked 20 cigarettes or more per day, which is typical of Russian smokers. So reducing the number of smokers could make a big difference to male life expectancy, which, at 63, was 14 years lower than the EU average in 2010 (although high vodka consumption also plays a major factor here). A study simulating the effects of the latest anti-smoking legislation concluded that, if fully implemented and enforced, the combined effect could bring down smoking rates to 20% and 10% for men and women respectively by 2055, averting 3.7 million premature deaths.

The success of the various control measures will, however, hinge on their full implementation and stringent enforcement, traditionally a weak spot in Russian legislation. While, throughout the 20th century, public health officials tried to restrict smoking, their efforts were impeded by both the economic interests of the Soviet government and, in the post-Soviet period, the successful lobbying of big tobacco companies. Today, the Russian tobacco market is unique in that all four major transnational tobacco companies (British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Philip Morris) compete for market shares, and together they control about 90 percent of the market. Thus, if anything, Russia has become a more smoker-friendly environment over time.

The poor track record of anti-tobacco legislation so far could leave one feeling pessimistic about prospects for the latest attempt by the Kremlin. However, a number of factors give room for hope that the new law will be more successful than its predecessors. Firstly, in 2008, Russia joined the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), a legally binding treaty, which obliges the Russian government to bring in a wide range of tobacco control measures by 2015. This external commitment seems to have helped to contain industry lobbying and has resulted in a law that in some areas is stronger than the minimum FCTC requirement.

Secondly, the law brings not just restrictions, but also downright bans: for example, on advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and the sale in retail kiosks and smoking in public places including restaurants and workplaces, thereby leaving less room for interpretation. Surveys also show general public support for the law, with 60-80% approval ratings for the various measures.

Finally, as well as making life more difficult for smokers, the Russian government is trying to help people stop smoking. Free quit lines have been introduced where smokers can seek advice and book a free consultation in one of the health-care centres operating throughout Russia; and the internet and social media are being actively used to disseminate information and engage people, for example, through the 31 May Club, which currently has over 66,000 members who want to quit smoking.

Since 2008, smoking rates among men of all age groups have been decreasing, with the biggest drop in the 25-44 age range, and an overall 53% drop in 2010. Trends in female smoking are less uniform: rates in Moscow and St Petersburg are going down, although they are still rising in the rest of the country, particularly in the Ural and Siberian regions. So while the optimistic 2055 scenario is still a distant target, some trends are pointing in the right direction, and Russia may still, one day, manage to kick the habit.

Article also appeared at http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/diana-quirmbach/smoking-in-russia-kicking-habit bearing the following notice:

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