Smoking cartoon characters to be cured of their bad habits

by Nathan Toohey at 29/08/2012

The Moscow news

The protagonist wolf in "Nu Pogodi!" is to be cured of his nicotine habit and the gentlemanly Crocodile Gena will be retiring his pipe in "Crocodile Gena and Friends," as smoking scenes are to be cut from these cartoons shown on the children's program "Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi!"

"We are aware that from Sept. 1 the law ‘On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development,' comes into force, in which ‘Nu Pogodi!' falls into the category of 18+, and it can only be shown after 11 p.m. Therefore, as far as I know, the segments containing the smoking wolf and the crocodile are to be removed from the cartoons," Interfax quoted a source from TNK-Media, which owns the rights to "Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi!" as saying.

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Police seize large batch of fake flu medicine

by Alina Lobzina at 08/02/2012

The Moscow News

Moscow police officers seized a large quantity of sham antiviral medicine that was distributed through one of the city’s pharmacy chains, the police press service said on Tuesday.

Counterfeit Arbidol, a popular flue remedy, was produced in the Moscow region where 700 boxes were purchased by police in a covert operation.

The scam, however, was relatively harmless as regular starch was the main ingredient in the pills, according to tests.

 Poor quality packaging

Identifying the forged drug, however, didn’t require any special investigative skills, rather just some Russian literacy, as spelling mistakes in the instructions could have suggested that there was something wrong with the medicine. And the poor quality of its packaging was also easy to spot.

A criminal case has been opened over large scale fraud, the maximal penalty for which is six years in jail.

The amount of the fake medicine seized from Moscow’s pharmacy chains and the factory in the village of Mikhnevo in the Moscow region has not been revealed.

Popular preparation

Arbidol has become Russia’s most popular preparation in 2011, according to DSM Group’s estimations, Kommersant reported, with total sales worth 6.3 billion rubles.

But it’s also known for allegations that the Health Minister Tatyana Golikova offered a high-profile backing to it. Press reports at the time suggested that the manufacturing patent for the medicine is owned by Farmstandard, a company controlled by Viktor Kharitonin, who was said to be a close friend of Golikova’s husband, then industry and trade minister Viktor Khristenko.

Consumer caution

Muscovites hit by a long-lasting cold snap should be more cautious buying medicine, and the Russian Federal Monitoring Service in Healthcare and Social Development, or Roszdravnadzor, offered advice on how to protect oneself from forgeries.

Careful inspection of the packaging and spelling is a good way to keep trouble at bay, and the pharmacy should be able to provide all the documentation for medicines it sells, RIA Novosti reported.

“In principle, it’s possible to check on Roszdravnadzor’s website whether the medicine is recorded using its number and the registration date,” Roszdravnadzor’s representatives told the agency. 

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