Irish tobacco manufacturer Gallaher has signed an agreement with Sampoerna International to make ST Dupont Paris cigarettes in Russia.
The company has already started manufacturing ST Dupont cigarettes at its Moscow factory.
Gallaher currently produces 16 per cent of Russia's cigarettes.
The company - which was founded in Ballymena, Co Antrim, where it retains a manufacturing operation employing 1,200 people - also has a plant in Dublin where around 250 are employed.
READ MORE
It manufactures Benson and Hedges cigarette products in Ireland and numbers Hamlet cigars, and loose tobacco products Old Holborn, Amber Leaf and Condor among its best-known brands.