Russia Bans Indoor Smoking, Citizens Groan Over 'Doomed Country'

In Russia, where more than half of the population smokes cigarettes daily, a law banning smoking on public transport, in train stations and at airports has gained steam.

Now, Russians will not be allowed to smoke in many public plances, including university campuses, hospitals and other institutions, NBC News reported.

Advertisements for cigarettes will also fade out from Russian streets, and all cigarettes and smokers will be taken out of Russian-made movies, including cartoon characters who smoke pipes.

Despite the high rate of smokers in Russia, many citizens claim they are glad that the government is banning the smoky mess.

One woman, named Yekaterina Temriazeva, who is pregnant, says she cannot wait.

"I can't wait for smoking to be prohibited everywhere. Every time I get in a taxi the first thing I ask the driver is to put down his cigarette," she told NBC. "Some cafes and restaurants can be simply intolerably full of smoke."

Temriazeva also mentioned that she was glad cigarette smoking would no longer be allowed at children's playgrounds, especially since young folks start smoking at very early ages in Russia.

"Children begin to smoke very early in our country, sometimes as early as age 10," the country's Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said during a press conference. "That concerns not just boys, but girls too-they do not stop when they get pregnant later. And as a consequence, we have orphanages with deeply sick and retarded children."

She also added that the ban will save up to 200,000 lives a year.

This number comes as little surprise, for the country is a smoke-heavy one. 55 percent of men and 16 percent of Russian women smoke daily, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Compare that figure to the United States', where only 17 percent of men and 13 percent of women smoke cigarettes.

Russia also hawks cigarettes on the cheap: you can buy smokes for prices between $1.50 and $2.50, so paying for a pack is no problem.

Not all are over the moon about the change, though. Two men talked to NBC on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow, smoking in the hallway of a car, which will soon be verboten to them.

"They banned smoking outside metro stations-what a doomed country," a man who identified himself as Nikolai said.