In recent years of widespread tobacco control, there has been a growing interest in e-cigarettes with the increasing prevalence of their consumption worldwide. "Thanks to" the marketing strategy of the manufactures of these products, tobacco smokers see them as an alternative to conventional cigarettes and even as a way to quit smoking whereas the manufacturers, including tobacco companies, regard e-cigarettes as a means of strengthening their market position and maintaining their never decreasing profits. A new anti-tobacco law in Russia is making its first steps and an insufficiently tough stance against e-cigarettes can undermine potential achievements in the anti-tobacco policy of the country. When e-cigarette marketing and lobbying are active, it is very difficult not only for an ordinary consumer, but frequently also health workers to orient themselves in an attitude towards e-cigarettes and to estimate the risk posed by the use of these products both to smokers and non-smokers and the entire national tobacco control policy. The paper reviews the existing researches into the composition, properties, safety of e-cigarettes and their possible efficacy as a means of reducing harm and ceasing smoking, as well as into attitudes towards these products in the world.