Butter in Russia has become one of the most expensive products since the beginning of 2024. According to Rosstat, the average price of butter in retail, by 28 October, rose by 25.7%. Today, for 200 grams you will have to pay on average about 260 rubles ($2.67).
Against this background, butter has started to be stolen from Russian shops.
A video from Moscow, which was published in the Telegram channel of the capital’s prosecutor’s office, shows two men trying to steal 25 packs of butter from a supermarket at once. They were charged with robbery with the use of weapons. When an employee of the shop noticed what was happening, one of the suspects hit the woman several times and threatened her with a knife. The defendants were sent to the pre-trial detention centre.
The ‘cream’ crisis has several causes. One of them is international sanctions. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, a number of trade chains were disrupted. For example, butter was no longer imported from New Zealand
It was decided to import butter from ‘friendly countries’.
Turkey started supplying butter to Russia on 27 October. For the first two days, according to the Russian authorities, 20 tonnes of the product were imported into the country.
The United Arab Emirates started exporting butter to Russia on 18 October. Since then, 90 tonnes of butter have been imported from the UAE to Russia as of November 2.
‘The official version of the Ministry of Agriculture is that Russians’ incomes are growing at such an incredible rate that they are spending all their income on eating more butter, so there is no longer enough of it. This, however, is not confirmed by official statistics. Sales are steadily declining,’ explained Radio Liberty economic observer Maxim Blunt.