Russia, home to some of the world's cheapest cigarettes and most committed smokers, is to risk the wrath of the tobacco industry and raise cigarette taxes by up to 30%.

The excise increase has already been approved in a first reading in the country's Duma (lower house) and is expected to take effect on 1 January 2005.

For Russia the move is a radical step, but the traditionally smoker friendly country is starting from an extraordinarily low base.

Domestically produced unfiltered cigarettes, which are popular with many Russians on lower incomes, cost as …