An older woman complained to Russian President Vladimir Putin last month about the price of eggs, prompting Putin to deliver an unusual apology.
Video footage from Putin’s year-end Q&A session with the press and Russian citizens ringing in from the country showed elderly Irina Akopova sitting at the kitchen table and speaking to the president. The astronomical price increases of eggs, chicken breasts, and wings were among her grievances.
She asked that Putin show pity for the elderly. Their pensions do not amount to millions, and they are at a loss as to who to ask for help. She said she depended on him for assistance and thanked him.
Putin has already admitted that inflation would reach 8% this year. Thus, the query expressed genuine worry among Russians about the expense of life.
Putin assured the audience that the crisis would be remedied soon. It resulted from incompetence on the administration’s part, and he regretted it.
Putin used the Q&A format to demonstrate that he understands the public’s concerns and is directing the appropriate authorities to address them.
To help control the over 50% increase in costs this year, the government announced last month that 1.2 billion eggs will be free of import duties in the first six months of 2024.
To boost local supply and maintain low prices, the Russian government announced that they would waive import duties on up to 140,000 metric tons of frozen chicken for the whole year of 2024
During the session, the President immediately addressed the concerns of several attendees. Just minutes after a bunch of kids from Crimea complained to Putin regarding their sports hall’s dismal condition, TV host Pavel Zarubin said that volunteers within the Russian-annexed region had contacted to say they would fix it up.
According to the statistics office’s report, egg prices increased by 4.62% in the week ending December 18, 2023, and by 4.55% in the week before that.
Compared to the central bank’s aim of 4%, yearly consumer inflation is much higher at 7.48%.
