Russia. “Armagendon with butter”. Wave of theft

The Moscow prosecutor's office reported that an attempt to steal butter from a supermarket on Leningrad Highway took place at the end of October. The attackers entered the store and put 25 packages in a backpack. They didn't even try to hide from the surveillance cameras. An employee of the facility noticed the thieves and tried to stop them. One of them hit her and the other threatened her with a knife. The men – according to the prosecutor's office – were detained and face imprisonment.

Russians started stealing butter as its price skyrocketed. Price for a package of high-quality butter “Brest-Litovsk” (imported to the Russian market from Belarus) has increased by over 34 percent since the beginning of this year, Reuters reported, citing its reporters in Moscow.

According to the independent Russian-language website The Moscow Times, stores are fighting butter theft in various ways. There were announcements in supermarkets in St. Petersburg that “customers who want to buy butter are asked to contact sellers as this product has been removed from the shelves.” Other establishments store butter in refrigerators near checkouts, along with caviar and expensive alcohol. Some sellers have started placing individual sticks of butter in special plastic containers.

“Armageddon with butter is growing, we won't be surprised if butter repeats last year's story with eggs,” said the popular Russian business channel on Telegram MMI in one of its entries, referring to “egg crisis” in the country.

“Until 2022, butter was supplied to Russia from all over the world, but then imports decreased 10 times – from 40 to 4 thousand tons. After 2022, the only supplier of butter to the Russian market is Belarus, which is unable to fully meet the demand ” – commented the former deputy minister of interior affairs on the platform Ukraine Anton Herashchenko.

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The interlocutor of the Russian daily “Izvestia” said that it was due to the rising prices of butter Russia may introduce duty-free imports of this product from “friendly countries” such as for a few months IranUruguay or Argentina.

Nikolai Ariefyev, deputy chairman of the Commission for Economic Policy in the Russian State Duma, explained that the increase in butter prices in Russia is due to several factors, including: from milk shortages and ice cream exports.

– In Soviet times, there were 21 million cows in Russia, and now only seven million remain. We don't have milk from which butter is made, Ariefjev said, adding that the price of butter in Russia is also largely influenced by dollar exchange rate.

Pro-Kremlin analysts also pointed out that butter prices were rising not only in Russia, but also in EU countries and that Russia, despite the sanctions imposed, was still dependent on the world market, also in terms of prices.

Authorities who made every effort to assure their compatriots that war in Ukraine will not affect people's daily lives, they are closely monitoring the situation. Dmitry Patrushev, deputy prime minister responsible for agriculture, announced in late October that the government would monitor butter prices. He met with major milk producers and retailers, assuring them that imports of the product would increase, Reuters reported.

In May this year, the president Vladimir Putin he said at a meeting with army commanders that “Russian war economy is well balanced to supply both guns and butter,” Reuters recalled.