Kremlin rejects analysis warning that Russia’s rising food prices could provoke unrest

During a press conference on Monday, March 1, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refuted recent analysis from Bloomberg that listed Russia as one of the “five hotspots” where rising food prices could provoke political unrest.

“With regard to this publication, we don’t agree with it. We have different data. We consider the conclusions that the authors of this publication reached to be incorrect…The fact that many felt a change in their income for the worse, that their [earnings] went down, is obvious. This happened all over the world. But we don’t agree with the fact that this is supposedly a more acute problem in Russia than in other countries.”

In its analysis, published on February 28, Bloomberg’s analystslisted Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey, and India as “some of the most populous places on the planet where food costs make up a larger share of consumer price baskets” and “where governments are under more pressure to act.”

In particular, Bloomberg warned that overall food prices in Russia will jump at the end of March, when price freezes on certain goods are set to be lifted.

In response, Russia’s Economic Development Ministry told RIA Novosti that Bloomberg’s analysis was “speculative.” In turn, Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry said that a drastic change in prices isn’t imminent.

“A shortage of products on the shelves of Russian stores has been ruled out entirely, there are also no fundamental prerequisites for a sharp unbalancing of the market in terms of prices — the Russian government has enough tools to react in time if the situation calls for it,” the Industry and Trade Ministry told RIA Novosti.