State Duma Agrees to Allow Outdoor Advertising for Russian Wine

The State Duma Committee on Economic Policy has recommended the lower house of parliament to adopt in the first reading a bill that allows outdoor advertising for Russian wine, reports TASS.

According to the idea of the deputies who came up with the proposal, such advertising, placed on roofs, walls, and other structural elements of buildings, as well as outside them and along highways, will only appear in those regions where the wine was produced. The advertisements will contain information about the available types of winemaking products and grapes used for production. Specific wine brands and images of bottles will be excluded.

The bill was introduced to the State Duma at the end of November. "Winemakers insist that it will help tell about the features of the territories and terroirs, attract tourists, and show that domestic wines are high-quality products," explained the deputy chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Sergey Altukhov. Among Russia's grape and wine-making zones, he listed Dagestan, Don Valley, Terek Valley, Crimea, Kuban, North Ossetia — Alania, Stavropol, Lower Volga, and Adygea.

A document on a similar theme, which received government approval and was presented for deputies' consideration in August 2022, was withdrawn by its own authors shortly before the introduction of the new version to the Duma, wrote "Interfax". The first reading of the bill is scheduled for December 14.