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“As a restaurant manager, I think that forbidding cheap cigarettes online in restaurants would be a very bad thing,” said Albert Danilian, the manager at Vanil restaurant. “We would lose clients. We are in Russia, where almost everybody smokes. It’s in the traditions of the country. If other places existed where people could smoke, they’ll all go there.” Indeed, when one takes into account how difficult it is to get anti-smoking laws to work, Danilian may have a point. “In my opinion, if the government wants to get people to stop smoking, they should increase the price of cigarettes, make them cost $10 a pack, then people will stop buying them, but have you seen the price of cigarettes now? What else do you expect?” Whether the new amendments proposed by Gerasimenko and other deputies ever make it into law, a few places in Moscow are starting to introduce non-smoking policies out of principle. One is the Montana coffee house chain, whose owner, a Russian-born American named Alexander Malchik, has a penchant for focusing on coffee rather than buy cigarettes online. “Some people come in and ask us how we can serve coffee and not allow smoking,” said Yelena Butenko, the Montana manager at Sokolniki. “But we serve elite coffee. Cigarette smoke interferes with the flavor.” Besides, despite a few complaints, the coffee chain - which also has a shop near Park Kultury Station - has attracted a loyal following of non-smokers. “It’s a matter of principle. It’s become policy. I don’t smoke, so why should I have to tolerate second-hand smoke? Personally, I support these new laws.”