Moscow Still Leaving Russian North with Less Food than Its Residents Need and at Prices Few of Them Can Afford

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 8 – Because much of the Russian Federation is located in northern regions which can’t produce enough food to support their populations and lack highway and rail links to the south, Moscow has a system known since Soviet times as “the northern delivery;” but it isn’t managing to deliver the food residents of the north need and at prices they can afford.

            After the demise of the USSR, this highly centralized system collapsed, given that prices were no longer controlled and much of the distribution system was privatized. According to an EchoFM report, the situation reached “a critical point” in the so-called Pevek Crisis of 1921” (echofm.online/stories/neft-dovezut-yabloki-kak-poluchitsya-pochemu-severnyj-zavoz-ne-spasaet-arktiku-ot-dorogoj-edy).

            At that time, more than 20 vessels became trapped in the ice in the eastern Arctic. Officials decided to prioritize the escort and unloading of vessels carrying industrial cargo, leaving those ships carrying food supplied to the north “trapped in the ice for days” and the people they were supposed to deliver the food to without.

            That spurred Moscow to take action. In 2023, the Duma passed the first-ever Northern Delivery law; and in 2025, the Kremin named Rosatom Arctic as the single maritime operator for a 15-year term. But neither of those actions solved the problem. Rosatom continued to give priority to oil, gas and coal that could be exported leaving Northern consumers in the lurch.

            Last year, in fact, food accounted for only six percent by weight of the cargo carried by ships involved in the Northern Delivery. Many locations did not get the total amount of food they had been promised, and both they and others saw prices rise to levels where many of the North’s residents could not afford to buy what was on offer.

            EchoFm convincingly argues that one of the reasons for these continuing problems is “the inherent conflict” of priorities in Rosatom’s business model. Carrying food and related goods to the north is far from its most important task, and not surprisingly, the people of the North are short-changed.

            Unless that changes or unless Moscow imposes tighter control on Rosatom, these problems are likely to continue, accelerating the flight of population from the north, and making it impossible for Russia to develop this region in support of both the Northern Sea Route and the development of the natural resources across this region.