UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 20, 2015. The number of Yekaterinburg restaurants that no longer serve hookahs to their customers went up by 50% compared with the start of the year, Roman Nelidov, manager at the hookah store Sharjah, says.

‘Places that only used to offer hookahs as an option are giving up on them, mainly because of the recent changes in the legislation and the dropping demand,’ Nelidov says.

According to the manager, the number of hookah bars, on the other hand, is growing dramatically. There are now twenty times more places that specialize in hookahs exclusively than in the previous season.

‘There used to be seven to ten hookah bars in Yekaterinburg altogether, but now you can find several bars in any remote neighborhood,’ he says.