Smoking section

The deadly Russian passion

By Marie St-Claire

The French like their cigarettes and are paying for it by dying early. They aren't, however, in the same league as the Russians. There are 70 million smokers in Russian, almost

half the population, according to David Zaridze, director of Moscow's Carcinogen Research Institute. Smoking costs the country a staggering 300,000 lives every year, he said. Cigarettes kill one smoker in two. Russians burn through 285 billion cigarettes a year -- enough for five a day for every man woman and child in the country. Higher taxes are unlikely to curb weed-want: a substantial portion of the tobacco business consists of smuggled product.