Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are the leaders among the countries supplying contraband cigarettes in Russia

Almaty. December 18. Silkroadnews - Among the leaders of the countries supplying contraband cigarettes in Russia in 2015 are Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, writes the Russian newspaper "Izvestia".
"International research firm Nielsen estimated that the absolute leader in contraband of counterfeit cigarettes into the territory of Russia in 2015 became Belarus. The share of imports from this country falls 30.8% smuggled goods on the Russian market (another 3.5% from the Belarusian counterfeit) - according to experts, it is about 1% of the Russian cigarette market", - says the publication.
As noted, the second largest supply of illegal cigarettes is Kyrgyzstan - it accounts for 8.19%, the third - Kazakhstan with 8.08%, and the fourth place Ukraine with a share of 7.77%.
According to Nielsen, smuggling and counterfeit take 1% of the Russian cigarette market. According to estimations of the tobacco market, it is 2.6 billion cigarettes, which is 8.8 billion rubles in monetary terms.
With regard to specific manufacturers whose products are becoming contraband, the leader indicated Grodno Tobacco Factory "Neman" in Belarus. Manufacturers smuggling from other countries tend to be local units of multinational tobacco companies.
Russian representation of multinational companies believe that smuggling can not stop until the launch of harmonized tobacco excise taxes between the EAEC member states. The private delivery thrive without the knowledge of manufacturers, while individual dealers trade profitably in Russia by Belarusian, Kazakh and Kyrgyz cigarettes. However, a draft agreement on the harmonization of excise duties still have not agreed upon between the countries EAEC (the position had to agree before 1 December, but due to disagreements between Russia and Belarus was moved to December 18), the newspaper said.