Country Overview
Key Facts
Number of Employees: More than 3,500
Main Brands:
Apollo-Soyuz, Bond Street, Chesterfield, L&M, Marlboro, Muratti, Next, Optima, Parliament, Virginia Slims
Welcome to Philip Morris International’s (PMI) affiliates in Russia, comprised of Philip Morris Izhora, Philip Morris Kuban, Philip Morris Management Services B.V., and Philip Morris Sales & Marketing Limited. PMI’s business in Russia dates back more than three decades to the mid-1970s when the company signed a breakthrough production agreement with the Soviet government. This agreement brought Marlboro and a new brand, Apollo Soyuz to local consumers. In 1993, PMI acquired a controlling interest in the Krasnodartabakprom factory, which became PMI’s first large-scale Russian production facility.
Today all PMI cigarettes sold in Russia are locally produced at our two state-of-the-art facilities in Krasnodar, in the South, and St. Petersburg, in the North. Our Izhora factory in St. Petersburg is the second-largest PMI production facility in the world. Our ongoing investments in infrastructure now amount to over $1 billion and every day our sales force assures availability and presentation of our brands at retail. PMI affiliates in Russia employs over 3,500 people at two factories and approximately 100 sales offices across Russia.
Our charitable programs in Russia primarily focus on addressing the critical needs of society. We support programs to eliminate hunger and poverty, improve and develop education, and protect and enhance the environment in rural communities.
Smoking and Health
Tobacco products, including cigarettes, are dangerous and addictive. There is overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases.
Addiction
All tobacco products are addictive. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.
Secondhand Smoke
Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes serious diseases in non-smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease. We believe the public health conclusions on secondhand smoke are sufficient to support smoking restrictions in public places.
Effective Regulation
Philip Morris International (PMI) supports comprehensive regulation of tobacco products based on the principle of harm reduction.
To be effective, tobacco regulatory policy must be evidence-based, apply to all tobacco products, and should take into account the views of all legitimate stakeholders including public health authorities, government finance authorities, tobacco manufacturers, and other members of the tobacco supply chain. Regulatory policy must consider the potential to trigger adverse consequences which undermine public health objectives, such as increasing the demand for illicit cigarettes. While we support comprehensive, effective tobacco regulation, we do not support regulation that prevents adults from buying and using tobacco products or that imposes unnecessary impediments to the operation of the legitimate tobacco market. In that regard, we oppose measures such as plain packaging, point of sale display bans, total bans on communications to adult consumers, and bans on the use of all ingredients in tobacco products.