President Putin has ordered his government to cut the surging cost of basic foodstuffs within the next seven days amid discontent over falling incomes and rising unemployment.
Mr Putin said that the price of sugar had gone up by 71 per cent, cooking oil by 23 per cent, grain by 19 per cent and flour by 13 per cent, although he did not specify over what time frame. He was particularly infuriated by an “unacceptable” 10 per cent rise in the price of pasta after a better-than-usual wheat harvest.
“Resolve this within a week!” he told Maxim Reshetnikov, the economy minister, in comments aired on state television. “Real disposable incomes fell by what? Three? 4.3 per cent? People limit themselves because they have no money