Russia’s smoking laws under scrutiny

Russia’s parliament, the Duma, is due to consider revising the country’s anti-smoking laws by reintroducing smoking rooms and special outdoor smoking areas at the country’s airports and train stations, according to a RIA Novosti report quoting a Rossiyskaya Gazeta story.

But the proposals for alterations to the country’s anti-smoking laws, which have come into effect during the past two years, are not only aimed at their liberalization.

Further restrictions, which have also been proposed, would make it illegal to smoke around bus stops, in pedestrian overpasses and underpasses, and in the corridors and kitchens of the communal apartments still inhabited by about 7-10 percent of the Russian population.