Russia is facing a “butter armageddon” as prices for the staple food product continue to rise sharply.
By the end of October, prices for dairy products in Russia had risen by an astonishing 25.7% compared to December 2023.
The steep hike in cost has led to a spate of thefts from shops around the country, forcing management to keep the product under lock and key.
Images have circulated on social media, showing butter locked in fridges and signs telling customers to contact staff if they want to buy some.
A CCTV video posted online also allegedly shows a Russian man stealing 25 packets of butter from a Pyaterochka supermarket in Moscow.
When confronted by a shop assistant, a fight breaks out as the man tries to make a run for it.
It comes as the Consumer Price Index reached a record high in October, and economists warned that food prices would continue to rise.
Economists on the MMI Telegram Channel – a Russian group that analyse inflation – said: “For the 43rd week of the year, the CPI growth of 0.27 percent is an ABSOLUTE RECORD FOR MANY YEARS!
“The average growth over the previous 12 years is 0.10 percent, with the maximum being 0.21 percent (2021).
“Compared to September, price growth accelerated. Particularly frightening is the fact that the acceleration is associated with prices across the entire shopping basket.
“Of the 107 items included in the weekly basket, 84 went up in price – this is another absolute record in recent years!”
The economists predicted that the “armageddon with butter” will continue, milk prices will also explode and that the “main disaster of the year will be potatoes”.
Currently, the cost for milk has risen by 12.75 percent since December of last year.
Putin had promised Russians that the economy would not suffer as a result of his war in Ukraine.
“You know, there is a well-known expression: guns instead of butter,” he said last February.
“The country’s defence is, of course, the most important priority, but in solving strategic tasks in this area, we must not repeat past mistakes; we must not destroy our own economy.”
The Kremlin is only too aware that, towards its end, the Soviet Union suffered from chronic food shortages, which fomented social unrest and undermined support for the political system.