Since Putin Began Expanded War in Ukraine, Consumer Prices in Russia Risen by More than 50 Percent, ‘Romir’ Data Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 23 – Despite Kremlin claims that it has inflation under control, the Romir news agency, which monitors economic developments in Russia, says that consumer prices in Russia have risen by 56.9 percent since February 2022 when Vladimir Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine.

            That means, the agency says, that prices have more than doubled over the last five years as a whole, figures far worse than those Rosstat, the Russian government’s statistical arm has announced, but that help to explain both the anger of Russian consumers and the behavior of Russia’s Central Bank, Krizis-Kopilka says (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/101621).

            The portal which tracks problems in Russia says that the Central Bank is desperately trying to bring inflation under control in advance of the March 2024 elections; but it cites the conclusion of Aleksandr Prokopenko, a research fellow at the Carnegie Berlin Center, that this won’t happen.

            “Officials,” she says, like firefighters with a bucket of water rush from fire to fire; but they can’t repeal the laws of economics [and] it is impossible to spend trillions on military operations, project economic growth based on injections from the budget, and keep prices stable at one and the same time.”