South Africa
October 7, 2004

Moscow — Russia destroyed over 40 million cigarettes seized last year in a raid on a factory near Moscow illicitly producing famous brands for export, a US-based property protection group said in a statement on Thursday.

"By undertaking today's destruction, Russian authorities have sent a strong message to counterfeiters that producing and trafficking in fake goods will not be tolerated," the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights said.

The statement said the cigarettes were seized in January 2003 after a plant in Ryazan, a city southeast of Moscow, was discovered to be producing fake Marlboro and L&M brand cigarettes for export to Europe.

The Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) is a Washington-based organization whose founding members including tobacco giant Philip Morris International and other major US corporations, according to its web site.

The statement did not place a potential value on the destroyed cigarettes.

According to Russian tax authorities, one in three cigarettes sold in Russia, including both domestic and foreign brands, is counterfeit.

Last July, US assistant commerce secretary William Lash said the production of counterfeit goods in Russia cost around one billion dollars a year to the US economy alone, and called on Moscow to crack down on the pirating.