Egg inflation is latest symptom of painful trade-offs Moscow has made to fund its onslaught on Ukraine
For a microcosm of how the war in Ukraine has warped Russia’s economy, look no further than a carton of eggs.
The grocery staple has been in short supply in recent months and prices have skyrocketed, prompting Russians from Belgorod to Siberia to form lines reminiscent of Soviet times. President Vladimir Putin has publicly apologized, blaming the egg shock on the government. Last month, a poultry-farm boss known as “the Egg King” survived an assassination attempt shortly after authorities started investigating his farm due to high prices.
Behind the soaring price tag—up around 60% in December from a year earlier, according to data released Friday—is a convergence of factors symptomatic of the economy’s travails.
Eggs are likely the replacement for meat that’s not cheap too. If your income stays the same and expenses grow, you start to look around for cuts. Eggs provide calories, protein, and can still provide your with energy for cheaper. Until many jump to them and the market sees that as a lovely, profitable deficit to earn millions on. That makes the problem worse, and if you’d try to limit the price, that may make problems even worse as producers aren’t interested in that, and if you subsidize them, well, your money are always tight to make it endlessly. What’s their way out of that, and is it the first sign or a trend? We’d see.