MOSCOW, November 30 (RAPSI) – A bill prohibiting smoking within a 10-meter perimeter around educational, cultural, and sports facilities has been submitted to the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, the body’s records show on Wednesday.

The bill envisages to amend Federal Law aimed to protect citizens’ health from tobacco smoke and its harmful effects.

An explanatory note attached to the bill says that although the law in effect prohibits any sales of tobacco products within a 100-meter distance from educational institutions, it does not prevent smoking near such facilities, thus hampering the formation of negative attitudes to consumption of tobacco in students, and fails to protect them from related negative effects.

The bill is intended to extend the ban on smoking in the territories and on the premises of educational, cultural, youth, and sports facilities to a 10-meter perimeter around them; however, the prohibition on tobacco sales at a distance less than 100 meters from the said institutions should be abolished. The latter provision of the bill is needed, the initiators say, because it is corruption-prone as it allows local administrations to establish educational institutions like arts studios or early childhood development centers near tobacco sales points thus rendering their operations illegal and ruining involved businesses. Besides, the authors of the bill note, in many cases so-called kickbacks result in changes in the borders of the institutions so the kickback payers can sell tobacco products in desirable locations.