October 17, 2012 / The Telegraph / — Russia has launched a crackdown on smoking with a bill to ban tobacco advertising and raise taxes on cigarettes to help tackle a public health crisis in the world’s second largest tobacco market after China.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a video blog that 44 million Russians, nearly one in three, were hooked on smoking, and almost 400,000 die every year of smoking-related causes.

Under Health Ministry proposals, tobacco advertising – now only allowed in some print media – would be outlawed, taxes increased on cigarette sales and smoking in cafés and other public spaces eventually banned.

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