The main objectives of this paper are toestimate the burden of tobacco-caused mortality as a wholeand by main tobacco-related diseases in Kazakhstan, theRussian Federation, and Ukraine, and to assess thedistributional health impact of an increase in tobaccotaxation in these three countries. According to the resultsobtained, in 2012 smoking caused around 310,000 deaths inRussia, about 70,000 in Ukraine, and 14,300 in Kazakhstan,representing a key factor of mortality among the working-agepopulation. Using data from various sources, the paperestimates the distributional consequences of a hypotheticaltax rise in the three countries that leads to anapproximately 30 percent increase of the average retailprice of cigarettes. The analysis includes an estimation ofchanges in smoking prevalence, mortality, life expectancy,and public health expenditures by income quintile andgender. Considered excise growth can lead to about 3.5 to4.0 percent fall in smoking prevalence, which in turn canavert about 600,000 tobacco-related deaths in Russia,140,000 in Ukraine, and 30,000 in Kazakhstan over a 50 yearsperiod. Reduced tobacco-related morbidity will also resultin substantial decrease in health expenditures for thetreatment of tobacco-related diseases. Positive healtheffects are expected to be pro-poor, as almost 60 percent ofthe reduction in mortality is concentrated in the twolower-income quintiles of the population of the three countries.
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