MOSCOW - Right before its second reading, Russia pared down its antismoking bill, Bloomberg News reports. The proposal still has the prohibition against smoking in public places, but missing are restrictions on selling cigarettes and the ability to have a minimum price for cigarettes.

"This is a major victory for the tobacco lobby," said Dmitry Yanin, who heads the International Conference of Consumer Societies, a supporter of the original bill. "The tobacco companies have managed to hang onto their second-biggest market after China."

Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said watering down the bill was needed to garner key votes from lawmakers. Golodets has been promoting the bill since last October. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev supports the bill. Today, legislators cast a vote on the second of three readings of the bill.

The original bill would have immediately forbade all tobacco sponsorships and ads, as well as sales from kiosks. The revised measure allows tobacco manufacturers to sponsor charities and to have cigarettes sold from any retailer except kiosks.

British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris International Inc. lobbied against the original bill. The ban on lighting up in public places stayed intact and would take effect January 1, 2015.