Smoking is strongly rooted in Russian culture and the country has one of the highest percentages of smokers in the world with a market for 220 billion cigarettes a year. Russian families spend an average of 1 percent of their family budget on tobacco products.
Smoking is equally popular among the poor, the middle class and the rich.
Especially popular are foreign brands. This is why about 50 percent of all cigarettes sold in Russia are foreign brands. This makes Russia and the other former USSR republics very attractive for foreign and transnational tobacco companies. Between 1993 and 1995, they pumped USD280 million into the industry and have since become an economic force to be reckoned with. In addition, Russia imports about 100 million cigarettes a year.