Russia's In-depth Reflection On Introducing Criminal Liability For The Circulation Of Specific E-cigarette Liquids

URA News Report: As of August 3, 2025, Russia officially implemented a law stipulating that those who distribute unlabelled nicotine-containing products (including e-cigarette liquids) will be held criminally responsible.
From now on, not only unlabelled tobacco products, but all nicotine-containing products without official special labels will be subject to legal punishment.
According to the legal text, producers and sellers who violate the labeling regulations can be fined up to 500,000 rubles. In addition, they may face forced labor or a maximum of three years in prison, and be subject to an additional fine of up to 120,000 rubles.
When the transaction amount of unlabelled products exceeds 100,000 rubles, it will be regarded as "a large amount" and criminal responsibility will be pursued; if the amount exceeds 1 million rubles, it will be regarded as "an especially large amount", and the punishment will be more severe. This law also sets corresponding sanctions for forging, selling and using counterfeit identification labels, alcohol and tobacco consumption tax marks, and special marks, etc.
1. This Russian bill is really aimed at suppressing e-cigarettes? Let's first take a look at the legal provisions themselves:
The objects subject to criminal liability in this case are unlabelled nicotine-containing products,
The key words are "unlabelled", "counterfeit goods", and "illegal circulation". That is to say,
This is about cracking down on smuggled goods, counterfeit products, shadow products, and non-compliant products,
primarily to clean up the gray and black markets, protect tax revenue and consumer safety,
and not to deny the electronic cigarette industry itself.
Just as "cracking down on counterfeit alcohol" is not aimed at eliminating the entire alcohol industry,
the compliant ones are not afraid, and those who are hit are always the players who survive by exploiting "loopholes".
2 As global regulation becomes stricter, it is a storm as well as a rebuilding process, from the United States, the United Kingdom, to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America,
we can clearly see that two major trends are happening simultaneously:

1 On one hand, regulation tightens, entering the "institutional deep water zone".
In the UK: Prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, but retention of recyclable products; initiation of a taxation plan.
In the US FDA: Frequent crackdown on illegal flavors, while有序推进PMTA review.
In Southeast Asia： Malaysia and Thailand continue to crack down on the black market, Indonesia raises import thresholds.
In Singapore： Start deploying AI monitoring of illegal e-cigarette platforms selling electronic cigarettes. These policies are indeed strict, but they all point to one goal：
Making the industry compliant and controllable, and entering the mainstream spotlight.

2 On the other hand： The value of harm reduction, and smoking cessation assistance are still affirmed by mainstream science.
The National Health Bureau of the UK has repeatedly publicly stated： Electronic cigarettes are a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes.
South Korea, Japan, and other countries have an open attitude towards heated non-combustible products.
Some international NGO organizations support including electronic cigarettes in "public health management tools".
This indicates： As long as the product is compliant and the narrative is professional, electronic cigarettes still have a "positive identity" to tell.

3 Why do we think it's all negative? That's because the "barbaric golden age" has ended. In the past five years, Chinese electronic cigarette enterprises have enjoyed the "low threshold overseas expansion golden age"：
Category explosion, relying on flavors and designs to attract attention without brands or registration, platforms rely on volume for distribution, tax avoidance, gray customs clearance, and overnight wealth.
But it was precisely this high growth + low compliance model that allowed the entire industry to overextend its trust in policies and social tolerance.
Now entering a strong regulatory period, what we face is a "late order settlement".
This is reality, not a disaster.
It is a pain, not a dead end.

4 What is the future path? These three points are particularly crucial：
1 Compliance is the only right path. Holding a license, operating legally, marking and paying taxes, exporting through legal channels, and not doing it once and running away.
2 Brand is the only moat. Establishing a "trustworthy name", breaking the consumer's perception that "electronic cigarettes are all the same", from packaging, flavors, image, content dissemination, full-chain brand operation.
3 Narration must break away from the "quick money thinking".
From "a substitute for cigarettes" to "a public health management tool", from "trendy consumer goods" to "a technological harm reduction product".
Be patient, be able to tell a story, and be able to enter the mainstream.
Finally, it's not that the industry has no way, but it has changed to a difficult but more legitimate path.
The electronic cigarette industry is entering a transformation deep water zone,
restructuring, purging, compliance, branding, localization, will become the main themes.
This Russian bill is not closing down, but setting thresholds. And truly visionary enterprises will not complain that the wind has stopped blowing, but quietly learn to build ships.