After the significant price increase of butter over the last month, which was obvious to the population of the occupied territories, the invaders’ “Sevastopol” propaganda predictably decided to “soften the edges” and to describe the “objective reasons for the price increase”, up to 1,350 rubles per kilogram of butter. In particular, they stated, with reference to the “federal press” and “federal retail chains”, allegedly “growing costs and a shortage of raw materials necessary for production”.
They also reported on the alleged “aggressive inflation of cream-raw materials”, and cited data from a “representative of one of the Sevastopol markets” that “producers … refer to a shortage of raw materials. And what happened to it, I don’t know.” Also, with reference to the “director of the Saki dairy plant” Yuri Obolentsev, it was stated that “prices have also increased for feed, 80% of which they import from the mainland, and for fuel”, as well as about the rise in packaging, “by at least 18%”.
As a “moment of optimism” they cite the words of the aggressor’s vice-premier, Dmitry Patrushev, that “the government intends to keep the situation with butter prices under control”, with “a number of instructions in order to stabilize prices”.
However, “for some reason” the population did not believe this “encouraging information”, stating that the city is discussing a further price increase and “stubbornly repeating about 2000 per kilogram”.
Regarding the “explanations” from Obolentsev, it is stated that we are always touched by the packaging, saying that the paints are imported, there is nothing to replace them with… So sell them in pieces, and the store will pack them up.” Regarding the “rising prices for cream,” it is added that “people, out of habit of their trust, pay not for a real, high-quality product of conformity, but only for the name,” and it is sarcastically noted that “there is no guarantee that you are buying a dairy product: the prices for palm oil have also skyrocketed.”
A certain elderly Sevastopol resident promises to give up butter, “even though I eat it once a day with my morning sandwich,” adding “what kind of 15% price increase are we talking about? Where do you get these figures? How much longer can you lie publicly? We spread butter and not only from TV and not from gadget screens on bread”.
It is also stated that in Belarus “a pack of butter… costs two to two and a half times less than here”. In general, Sevastopol residents emphasize that “the market… rummages through pockets with an invisible, but strongly felt hand” and that “New Year’s surprises are ahead, … there is a struggle for survival.., and the domino effect of price increases will rush through everything”, which “will be especially unexpected for armchair economists who do not understand the relationships, from the cost of fuel to the very shortage of personnel and the production of guns”.
Residents also recall that “before this, Dmitry Patrushev (son of Nikolai Patrushev) was the Minister of Agriculture, who … introduced cricket farms” instead of livestock issues, and therefore “now we will eat chitin”. Thus, the essence of the current Kremlin policy of “guns instead of butter” is quite systematically understood by the population occupied Sevastopol, despite the aggressor’s propaganda efforts.
