Contextual Factors of Tobacco Epidemicin Russia
This article investigates into the basic contextual factors and the role of state, influencing the rise of smoking prevalence in Russia. The analysis of state tobacco policy interventions allows us to reveal the major contextual variables determining the tobacco epidemic on the national-level: provision of state benefits for the international tobacco investments, low tobacco prices, low tobacco excise tax, aggressive promotion and advertising of tobacco products enabled by authorities. The mutual impact of individual and contextual variables on tobacco epidemic in Russia is studied by the means of multilevel modeling approach.