It was organized by the CC RF Commission for Public Control and Work with Citizens' Appeals, the State Duma Expert Council on the shadow economy and the Association of Small-format Trade.
It was led by Artyom Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the Committee on Economic policy of the lower house of Parliament.
Tobacco is a key
MP Kiryanov stressed that the tobacco industry is an important source of funds for the country's treasury. Due to high excise taxes, it provides up to three percent of federal budget revenues. In 2024, excise taxes on tobacco products gave the budget more than 826 billion rubles. And illegal trafficking is a blow to both the budget and health.
"Of course, this topic is important for the country and it is important to work hand in hand with all public control structures, with the Public Chamber," Kiryanov stressed. "We discussed issues related to illegal tobacco trafficking in the State Duma. Two recent meetings were related to tobacco market control. There are system suggestions. In March, an expert council was held on the effectiveness of control and supervisory authorities and licensing issues.
Following the results of the round table, the participants agreed to develop methodological recommendations for the implementation of public control in the sphere of tobacco and nicotine-containing products. "I propose to develop methodological recommendations for public control of retail and wholesale trade in tobacco and nicotine-containing products. Today, we have about 700,000 caring and active people in Russia who could help in our field," Kiryanov said. The work is expected to be completed by the time of publication of the draft proposals of the Ministry of Finance on trade licensing.
The Urals as an example
Anna Sorochinskaya, executive director of the Public Council on Adolescent Smoking, said that in Yekaterinburg, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs created their own chat, which was joined by a thousand people, and it became a working tool.
- All information on illegal sales, not only of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, was dumped into this telegram channel. And they all click the "Complain" button. When a critical mass of complaints is received by the Telegram administration, they then block resources for the sale of these substances through TG, and this problem is solved.
We do a lot to ensure that cigarettes and vapes are inaccessible to children. Both in thorny places and on the Internet, with the mediation of adults. Our mission: to educate, inform sellers and encourage them to comply with the ban on the sale of these products to children.
According to Sorochinskaya, over the past year or so, volunteers in 16 regions have identified 400 points with violations.
- All materials have been processed and sent to the territorial departments of Rospotrebnadzor. The sanctions were applied to 185 locations only. But public figures cannot collect data from legal entities. And the RPN cannot organize a check without having this data. We need a single database so that the RPN can easily identify these data - this is the point of growth that needs to be worked on if we want public control to be effective.
The event participants also discussed the upcoming package of draft laws on licensing retail and wholesale trade in tobacco products. According to the participants, the documents are under consideration by the government and may be submitted to the State Duma at the autumn session.
Systemic struggle
Mikhail Cherkashchenko, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, recalled that the situation with illegal tobacco products is changing from year to year.:
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs systematically fights against the illegal trafficking of tobacco and nicotine-containing products. In 6 months of 2024, 1,452 crimes in this area were detected. And in the same period of 2025, 1,264 crimes were recorded. And plus 20 crimes related to nicotine-containing products. What is the reason for the decrease in crime detection? Due to the fact that paper excise stamps were abolished on September 1, 2024, digital stamps appeared, and in fact Article 171 did not work in this area. But the relevant amendments were adopted. After the article was amended, the amount of damage, which should have been 12 million rubles for criminal prosecution, has now been reduced to 1 million rubles in parts 5 and 6 of this article. And we predict that there will be an increase in the number of crimes being recorded and prosecuted.
This year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was connected to the Unified State Automated Information System. This increases the effectiveness of the fight against illegal trafficking, including tobacco products.
The problem with nicotine-containing products (vapes) is particularly acute. Due to high excise rates, the number of legal producers decreased from 117 to 5 companies, and production fell 97 times. At the same time, the share of illegal turnover in the vaping segment is 65.8%, which is five times higher than for regular cigarettes (10.8%).
Vigilance saves
Irina Bushina, Director of the ANO "National Scientific Competence Center in the field of combating Illicit trafficking in industrial products" (NSCC) presented a picture of the illicit trafficking of tobacco products in dynamics:
- Both the fiscal component and the tax component are important in reducing the share of "left-wing" tobacco products. The NSCC conducts research annually. This share peaked in the second quarter of 2023. Then a decrease — from the second quarter of 2024. Most of the counterfeit goods are illegal products imported into Russia from neighboring countries. But the share of cigarettes imported from the EAEU countries decreased from 3.2% to 2.2% - it is about counterfeit.
The share of packs with suspicious stamps in 2025 was no more than 1%, but in 2022 it was more than 27%!
Tobacco counterfeiting is still most often detected in specialized retail — up to 67% of the total.
It is significant that trade is moving to social networks, and the share of sites offering similar products has decreased by a quarter. And the number of identified sellers of illegal tobacco products has decreased by almost a third. Attention is drawn to the fact that more than half of violations are detected by appeals from vigilant citizens - in 2024, 60% of all violations were detected.
In general, the formation of effective public control is a strategy for countering illicit trafficking in tobacco products.
Regulate, not prohibit
During the discussion, experts opposed a complete ban on vaping, suggesting an alternative strategy for strict regulation of the market. "We can solve this problem simply by banning it. But in this case, the market will only be black. We will not control either the quality of products or the sale to minors," warned German Lukashov, director of the Union of Nicotine—containing Products Industry Enterprises.
Representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade supported this position. Vladislav Zaslavsky, Director of the Digital Product Labeling System Department, noted the "imbalance between fiscal and regulatory policies."
The medical community also opposed the restrictive measures. Konstantin Kunts, a member of the public council at the Ministry of Health, gave an ethical argument: "If we take a substance from a person, he will find an analogue — he will go to buy cigarettes or look for banned vapes on the darknet."
Public control
Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative (OPI) consumer protection organization, recalled that the budget loses from 50 to 80 billion a year due to illegal tobacco products.:
- We are actively conducting public control. A study was conducted from 2022 to 2024, and 8,241 warnings were issued. Individual entrepreneurs accounted for 96% of warnings in serial violations. Serial violations are not a one—time story. We understand how important it is not to touch the conscientious participants of this business. What is the structure of violations — as a rule, the sale of tobacco products without labeling. 98% of violations by individual entrepreneurs were related to cash registers.
According to experts, with the legalization of the vaping market, the state could receive an additional 50-80 billion rubles per year. Lukashev assured that the industry is ready for self-cleaning: "If the excise tax is lowered, the legal players will close all the black spots themselves."
And, by the way, the number of warnings in this area has increased by a third - the "Honest Sign" clearly captures everything. And a normal business sees where things are going, and tries to match.
And I must say that 890 billion rubles have been collected in the tobacco market as a whole. After the introduction of digital excise stamps, the collection rate increased from 30% to 45% after licensing was introduced.
Instead of an afterword
This Round Table lasted for almost three hours, and two dozen experts, including from the regions, spoke on this socially significant topic.
The presenter summed up the results: the legal, honest tobacco trade will not lose anything, and crooks will be flagged.
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