Smoking in restaurants, bars, hotels and trains is now illegal in Russia. The new law went into effect today as the country publicly tries to reduce its smokers.

The law has received pushback from both smokers’ rights groups and restaurants, the latter fearing it could hurt business.

Russia is also said to be working on an increase to excise taxes on cigarettes, it’s unclear whether or not cigars could be affected.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.