At an operational meeting of the State Duma, dedicated to the development of measures and countermeasures to counter sanctions against Russia to support socio-economic stability, it was proposed to fix prices for socially significant goods by law. This was announced on Wednesday, March 9, by Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the Information Policy Committee.
“I can understand the rise in prices for imported products, the purchase prices of which are pegged to the dollar. But the rise in price of our domestic goods, which are mined and produced within the country, is connected with the desire of merchants to fix their profits in foreign currency and cash in on the general difficult situation. I consider this unacceptable,” he stressed.
The politician noted that the Russian market brought billions in profits to manufacturers of goods and owners of retail chains, in conditions when the population needs support.
“We will not allow profit on people, and on the most vulnerable groups. My colleagues in the State Duma and in the United Russia party and I are in favor of introducing price controls. We already have such experience. <…> We plan to submit such an initiative to the State Duma in the near future,” Khinshtein announced.
On March 5, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that they had met the needs of large retail chains and allowed them to limit the sale of a number of goods to one hand in order to combat dealers. Thus, federal and regional retail chains wanted to minimize the risks of speculators acquiring socially significant food products, for which, under agreements with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), a minimum mark-up has been established. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture supported the initiative of retailers.
Retailers will determine specific products and parameters themselves within the framework of their specialized associations – AKORT and the Union of Independent Networks of Russia.
Igor Karavaev, chairman of the AKORT presidium, told Izvestia that the trade networks that are members of the association interact with the main departments, quickly make decisions to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food to the population. According to him, due to resellers in a number of regions who create “washout” of goods from store shelves, it was necessary to introduce quantitative restrictions on the sale of socially significant goods. However, he assured that now retail chains have increased volumes of commodity stocks.
On February 22, the Ministry of Industry and Trade at a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Antimonopoly Service decided to allow federal retail chains to limit the margin on socially important goods to a level of 5% from the beginning of March in order to keep retail prices down. We are talking about dairy and bread products, sugar, vegetables from the “borscht set”.
Prices for goods are rising against the backdrop of the fall of the ruble, including due to the sanctions of the West, which are introduced in response to Russia’s conduct of a special operation to protect the Donbass. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of this operation on February 24.
On February 21, the Russian leader signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR). Putin and the heads of both republics Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik signed treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, including military assistance.
The Russian leader made the corresponding decisions against the backdrop of the aggravation of the situation in Donbass that began on February 17. The DPR and LPR reported heavy shelling by Ukrainian security forces, including heavy weapons. The republics announced a general mobilization and evacuation of civilians to the territory of Russia.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
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