UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2018. Sverdlovsk Oblast’s division of the state-run consumer rights agency Rospotrebnadzor issued a total of RUR 9m in fines relating to anti-tobacco legislation offenses last year, the agency’s press service reports.

Last year’s inspections helped detect 934 cases of anti-tobacco laws violation (including, among others, sale of tobacco products within 100 meters (or closer) of a school/college, smoking at workplaces and work areas inside a building, and sale of tobacco produce without a registered list of products on offer).

The agency also tested 30,723 packets of cigarettes (including 3,011 packs of foreign-produced ones) and found 3,836 of them defective (including 2,836 foreign-produced ones). This amounts to 12% of all tested samples. The faults mostly consisted in irregular stamping and lack of accompanying papers.