Putin’s Russia proposed ‘ideologically correct’ generational tobacco ban in 2017

New Zealand and Malaysia are generally credited with being the first countries whose governments planned to ban the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.

Legislation to introduce the policy in New Zealand was repealed after a change of government late last year, and in Malaysia the plan was abandoned after the country’s Attorney-General ruled that the policy was ‘unconstitutional because it would create two sets of laws for two different groups of citizens based on age’ (Tobacco Reporter).

Before that, however, the first country that considered the idea was that hotbed of democracy … Russia. According to The Times in January 2017:

Anyone born after 2015 would be banned from buying cigarettes under long-term plans to eradicate smoking in Russia.

The health ministry proposal would make the country the first to introduce such a strategy to phase out tobacco. Similar policies have been put forward by anti-smoking campaigners in other countries but have yet to receive government backing.

“This goal is absolutely ideologically correct,” Nikolai Gerasimenko, a member of the Russian parliament’s health committee, said. However, Mr Gerasimenko also admitted he was uncertain whether such a ban would be enforceable.

Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the proposed ban would require serious discussion. He said that other ministries would need to be consulted before it was approved.

The BBC also ran the story, noting:

Russia's health ministry is considering a permanent ban on selling cigarettes to people born in 2014 or later.

It's part of a tough anti-tobacco strategy the country's politicians are trying to make a reality.

Meanwhile a photo of the country’s leader was captioned:

President Putin - famously a fitness fanatic - is a non-smoker and has reprimanded ministers for smoking

So there we have it. The first government to consider a generational tobacco sales ban just happens to be one of the most authoritarian in the world.

Meanwhile its despotic leader is not only waging war with a neighbouring country, and has threatened others with the use of nuclear weapons, but has continued Russia’s long history of autocracy ‘through severe repression of dissent and use of state-owned media outlets to spread propaganda’.

It says a lot though that, having considered the idea, even Putin’s government hasn’t gone ahead with it, even though it is “absolutely ideologically correct”.

It reminds me that ten years ago I was invited to address a meeting in Moscow. (See Russian smokers behind international movement for smokers.)

I couldn’t go because it clashed with the GTNF conference in West Virginia, where I was also speaking.

However it followed a slightly clandestine meeting with the mysterious Mr A in Zurich, which I wrote about here.

A few years before that I had addressed some visiting Russian journalists at a private meeting in London.

The aim, as I recall, was to explain the impact of the smoking ban on both consumers and the hospitality industry in the UK.

I invited one of my regular readers - a smoker - to speak as well, but I think our message may have got lost in translation because I don’t think they spoke English very well, if at all.

What I do remember is that none of them took the issue very seriously because, at that time (2010?), the threat of a public smoking ban in Russia seemed implausible to them.

(That type of complacency, even among consumers, has been a problem - in the UK and abroad - for decades, and look where we are.)

Anyway, the mysterious Mr A made a reappearance in September 2019 when it was reported that the authorities in Russia were planning to extend smoking bans to apartment balconies.

I wrote about it here, noting that Andrey Loskutov was head of the All-Russian Movement for Smokers' Rights.

The global smokers’ rights movement he envisaged in 2014 never came to pass, but I think that was partly because it was focussed on cigar smokers.

Also, a worldwide smokers’ rights movement based in Russia was never going to fly.

Still, going back to my original point, it amuses me that Rishi Sunak, and now Keir Starmer, are pursuing a policy first considered by Putin’s government.

The question is, why did Putin ultimately reject the idea? Was it too draconian, even for him?

Comments

[Cambridge Citizens (U.S.) for Smokers' Rights]

Smoking rates have declined steeply in the U.S. and obesity rates have increased. The population neither seems healthier nor are medical costs less. The American Indian prized tobacco, because it eased the passions and fostered tolerance. Since "smoky back rooms" no longer exist, our politics are rife with rancor and discord.