Food Crisis in Russian Far East Intensifying and Moscow has Few Options, Grashchenkov Says

Paul Goble

             Staunton, Nov. 10 – The current food supply crisis across the Russian Far East is intensifying, Ilya Grashchenkov says. Moscow officials promise to address it, but they have few options given the Kremlin’s push and China’s desire to use the Trans-Siberian to send good to Europe and the lack of sufficient food production in the region.

             As a result, the head of the Center for the Development of Regional Polities says, with China still getting priority, food isn’t reaching the domestic market in the Russian Far East – and people there are suffering severe shortages (rosbalt.ru/posts/2021/11/11/1930490.html; cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/10/chinese-ships-hoping-to-send-goods-via.html).

            Were Moscow to shift its priorities to supply people in the region with food and basic commodities, it might win some popular plaudits but only at the cost of infuriating the Chinese who have already shown their unhappiness with Russian logistics by cutting back on their purchases of fish and other products from Russia.

            If the central Russian government took stronger action, China would likely cut back further, undermining the economy of the Russian Far East, and quite possibly conclude that it can no longer trust Russian ports and railways to meet Chinese needs, a change that would have both economic and geopolitical consequences.

            As a result, Gerashchenkov says, Moscow is unlikely to be able to take any effective action in support of the population; and that too will have geopolitical consequences as well. Ever more Russians will leave the region for central parts of Russia, leaving a vacant land just north of an overpopulated China.