UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) inspected 834 tobacco-selling outlets in the nine months of this year and identified cases of non-compliance with the law in 306 instances (36.7% of all inspected outlets), the agency’s press service reports.

Rospotrebnadzor officers inspected 5,853 cigarette packs and found 501 packs defective, which comes to 8.6% of the entire amount. Mostly, the problem was that the packs lacked the necessary accompanying documentation.

Inspections targeted at checking businesses’ compliance with the healthcare protection regulations revealed 454 instances of non-compliance, including the following: promotion of tobacco and tobacco-containing products (Krasnoye & Beloye and Zalesye in Lesnoy); absence of ‘No Smoking’ sign on premises where smoking is forbidden; and sale of tobacco products within less than a 100m range of educational establishments (Krasnoye & Beloye and Apogey in Polevskoy, Lavka and Vityunin S.I in Kushva, Magnit and Tander in Karpinsk, Krasnoye & Beloye and Apogey in Yekaterinburg).