Analysis of Federal Legislation on Protection of Citizens from Exposure toSecondhand Tobacco Smoke and Consequences of Tobacco or Nicotine Product Use

1. Background: In 2013, the Federal Law No. 15-FZ of February 23, 2013 on Protecting Health of Citizens from Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke and Consequences of Tobacco Use (hereinafter referred to as the Law) came into force. Objective: To analyze the Law development in 2013–2023 and to assess the effectiveness of implementing its norms. Materials and methods: To assess the effectiveness and level of implementation of the Law’s provisions, a survey of experts working in the field of tobacco control in the regions of the Russian Federation was conducted using a specially developed questionnaire entitled “Assessment of Effectiveness of Legislative Tobacco Control Measures”. The expert panel included 402 specialists nominated by state authorities of 76 regions of the Russian Federation. Results: In 2013–2023, the Law was amended and supplemented by adopting ten federal laws and a decree of the Russian Government. According to the experts, the most effective tobacco control measures included bans on advertising, marketing, and sponsorship by tobacco companies (26.2 %); informing the population about dangers of tobacco/nicotine use (25.6 %); offering stop smoking treatment (20.1 %), and protecting people from secondhand tobacco smoke/ESDN aerosol (19.5 %). Besides, 19.7 % of the experts believed that the level of implementation of measures was insufficient while 7.2 % rated it as low. Conclusions: Since its adoption in 2013, the Law has been continuously improved, taking into account the assessment of effectiveness of its tobacco control measures, new challenges and trends. According to the experts, the effectiveness of the Law may be further improved by strengthening control over its implementation.