After upholding the tough bill on banning any amount of blood alcohol for drivers, the Russian government has started a campaign against smoking. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke about fighting smoking in his video-blog published on Tuesday.

He said that the advertising of tobacco should be banned and the taxes for tobacco producers raised. He also said that smoking should be banned in public places.

"Apart from banning smoking in public places and selling cigarettes at every corner, we should also completely ban the advertising of tobacco and significantly raise taxes for producers," Medvedev said.

He added that Russia "is the country with the most smokers in the world."

"Some 44 millions of Russians are dependent from nicotine , this is a third of the population of the country, including children!" the PM said.
He added that the new anti-smoking bill, which will be soon introduced at the parliament, is not aimed against those who smoke. According to Medvedev the bill will fight "discrimination" against non-smokers.

The anti-tobacco bill will be considered by the ministerial cabinet before November.