Video shows Russians crowding supermarket amid 'egg crisis'

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Transcripts

As the war grinds on in Ukraine, Russian

President Vladimir Putin

is trying to project

an image of economic stability in Russia.

But it's proving difficult.

Joining us now is Claire Sebastian.

You've been looking into this. Yeah.

So obviously inflation is a problem

in Russia.

We've seen it accelerating

since the summer.

At the same time

as the rest of the world has seen it

coming down.

So this is obviously unique to Russia.

It's directly linked to the war,

which we're going to in a minute.

But I think

what is more important about this

is that it's

not just about a gradual rise

in overall prices,

but what we're seeing

is that certain supermarket staples

and in particular we're looking at eggs

have gone up dramatically.

It's something like 60% every year.

It was almost 20% between November

and December.

That increases

the likelihood

that people are going to notice it

and they're going to start

to make the connection

between their grocery baskets.

And the war.

And what we're seeing is that

that is a situation

that the Kremlin has not been able

to ignore. Look,

there are higher.

The dollar is awash in money.

When your husband spoils

you with expensive presents,

reads the caption,

and social media brimming with egg means

they're making light of a new feature

of Russia's upside down war economy.

A sudden and unexpected price rises.

President drive

an hour outside Moscow, though,

and it's no

laughing matter for these pensioners.

Yes, it is not.

Of course we know it.

The pension is 13,000 rubles, says ruble.

That's less than $150 per month.

More meals.

Maybe we buy less meat, says Nadezhda.

There's still enough for medicines.

Egg prices rose 18% in December alone.

Russian official data shows

more than 60% over the year,

far outstripping

overall inflation at 7.4%.

These are still more questions

there as images spread of lines

forming outside supermarkets.

This purportedly

from Belgrade in December.

Russia's president

forced into damage control mode

socially precociously is union.

I am sorry about this

and want to apologize for this problem.

This is a setback

in the government's work,

although they say this is not the case.

I still think it is.

The problem

is related to a failure to increase

imports enough.

The government took

the not-so-subtle hint.

Eggs were exempted

from import duties for six months

and shipments started arriving

from Turkey, Azerbaijan

and staunch ally Belarus.

Also ramping up supplies.

Its president

unable to resist a rare dig.

A new term

put through our own production covers

our needs in terms of grain,

pork, chicken, milk, vegetable oils

and chicken eggs.

No. Stop stuffing.

Send some to us.

Don't be greedy.

In Putin's surprisingly resilient war

economy, the egg crisis reveals

the biggest problem is not decline,

but overheating.

Sees,

Putin says this is about higher demand

because of slightly higher wages.

Partly true, economists say.

But what Putin doesn't say is

why wages are up.

This labor shortage is a huge issue.

Where does that come from? Mobilization.

I think to me,

the key issue

here is the fact

that there are a lot of deaths at war

and then they have to be replaced

as people have to be replaced.

The Russian officials

are trying to keep it very quiet.

The numbers of how many people have died.

The weak

ruble, a direct

result of sanctions

has also pushed up import

costs for poultry producers.

And then there's the war time spending.

The budget for 2024 envisages

even adjusted for inflation,

record levels

of federal government expenditure.

So when you put that alongside

a supply side tightness

with a massive increase

in demand driven by the state,

you've got a recipe for inflation.

Chile's President

Putin now poised for the next price

spike A threat

to his image of stability

ahead of March elections,

though likely not

his presidential shelf-life

So it's not exactly a crisis

for Putin yet,

but it is

something that we are going to continue

to see the sort of Whac-A-Mole situation

where the Kremlin has to deal

with these pockets

of overheating as they happen

Now, obviously,

what this shows us deep down,

especially if you look

at the Russian budget

this year,

is that they are putting the wheel first

and the people are going to have to keep

paying the price.

Defense spending

according to projections for this

year, will be triple

what it was before the war.

They're paying more

to service their debt,

which they didn't even have

for any before the war

than they are on health

care and education.

Interest rates

are back up at some 16%,

which is close to the peak that we saw

at the start of the war.

So people are increasingly

paying for this.

And I think the question is

how many people

when people start to make the connection

between this

and the war,

especially as we're starting

to see the seeds of that already,

some sort of pockets of anti-war

sentiment rising.

And I think this is why the Kremlin

cannot afford to ignore this.

Okay. Thank you so much.