Russian smokers behind international movement for smokers' rights

COP6 meets in Moscow next week.

COP (as you all know) stands for Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Fifteen hundred representatives from 195 countries will take part in this enormous state-funded beano.

Agenda items include 'Control and prevention of globally emerging products' (including e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) and 'Implementation of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC: evolving issues relating to the interference of the tobacco industry'.

Bizarrely, because Interpol has accepted money from a tobacco company to help crack down on illicit trade, WHO has taken the extraordinary step of banning the organisation from attending. (See Interpol versus the World Health Organisation.)

I could have been in Moscow myself last week for a smaller, less publicised event. But first, let me take you back to July when I found myself in Zurich meeting the mysterious Mr A (aka Andrey, executive director of the All-Russian Smokers’ Rights Movement).

I couldn't say much about it at the time but it boiled down to this: Andrey had plans to organise a smokers' rights conference in Moscow in October and bill it as the First International Conference on Smokers' Rights. Would I support the project?

Through an interpreter he explained he runs a cigar club in Russia and has contacts with other smoking clubs worldwide. (I suspect they are cigar clubs mostly.)

I'm always happy to support new initiatives if the people involved appear sane and sensible so I agreed to attend, if I could.

Andrey wanted me to speak at a press conference to announce plans for a global movement but I was reluctant to commit until I'd seen the full "declaration".

Five weeks later, having heard nothing more, I was sent an invitation to the conference that not only featured a photo of my beaming face, it listed me as one of three organisers.

I hadn't organised anything! This was the first time I'd seen an agenda and I still had no idea who was participating.

More to the point, I couldn't go because the conference was now taking place not in October but on Tuesday September 30, the day after Forest's late night reception at the Conservative party conference and the day before I was due to fly to America for GTNF.

Believe me, I did everything I could to make it happen.

I found I could catch an Easyjet flight to Moscow leaving at 7.00am (UK time) on Tuesday. I would miss much of the conference but I would be in time for the media briefing and the gala dinner.

The next problem was: how to get to West Virginia from Moscow in time for GTNF which began on Wednesday evening? I spent an entire morning searching for flights. Logistically it proved impossible so, regretfully, I pulled out.

I'm told the conference was a success but whether it will lead to anything more remains to be seen. A Russian-led revolt against the tobacco Taliban takes a bit of getting used to. (Does Putin know?!)

You can download an interview with Andrey here (the original is online here), and if you click here you'll see some photos of the conference.

There don't appear to be a huge number of delegates but I'm told participants came from Australia, Belarus, Cuba, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Latvia, Peru, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Venezuela.

Goodness knows who they all are but they agreed to set up the International Movement for Smokers’ Rights and several organisational models are now being considered. Should anything develop I'll keep you posted.

PS. Technically this wasn't the first International Smokers' Rights Conference. That was at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in June 2005.

I suspect however the US event was more World Series than World Cup.