Source: Reuters
Date: 2010-06-26
Author:  Lidia Kelly

Russia slapped "smoking kills" warnings on cigarette packages
from Saturday in an effort to crack down on an addiction kills up
to 500,000 people a year and is on the rise.

According to World Health Organization statistics, 60 percent of
Russian men smoke and the number of smokers, particularly among
young women, has been growing since the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991.

As many as 350,000 to half a million of Russians die each year of
smoking-related causes, clouding the country\'s already gloomy
demographic. The United Nations warns that the population may
shrink from to 116 million by 2050 from 142 million now. . . .

But the fight against smoking is a tough one in a
nicotine-addicted nation where in 1990 a shortage of domestic
cigarettes led to a "tobacco rebellion" on the streets of
Russia\'s three biggest cities, forcing then-president Mikhail
Gorbachev to appeal for an international emergency shipment.