The Administrative Code wants to introduce fines for the movement of unmarked nicotine-containing products in excess of the established norm across the territory of Russia by individuals. Such a bill was adopted by a group of deputies of the State Duma in the first reading on June 29.
Currently, fines from 15 to 25 thousand rubles are imposed in the Administrative Code for the illegal movement of tobacco products without Russian labeling. They want to establish the same penalties for the illegal transportation of electronic cigarettes and vaping liquids.
According to the amendments, for personal consumption, one person can carry no more than 200 electronic cigarettes and vapes with a total volume of nicotine-containing liquid of no more than 50 milliliters without labeling.
"The need to adopt the bill is due to the fact that, according to expert estimates, the illegal market of nicotine—containing products is growing by an average of 20 percent annually and as of mid-2022 accounts for about 90 percent of the total market for these products in Russia," said Aidar Metshin, co-author of the initiative, a member of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition.
Unmarked electronic cigarettes are imported from border states to Russia, allegedly for personal use, and then sold to the Russian Federation, the authors of the bill previously noted. At the same time, there are no restrictions on the movement of such products.
"The current legislation does not allow to effectively counteract the illicit trafficking of nicotine—containing products, and this indicates the need for additional regulatory measures," Metshin said.
In turn, Nikolai Brykin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Legislation and State Construction, noted that the committee supports this initiative, taking into account the public danger to public health and the need to curb illegal trafficking of these products.
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