Food prices under control in Russia

Russia’s prosecutor general’s office has taken control of the current food price situation in the country following a recent ban on certain Western food imports, spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said on Friday.
“Today, the prosecutor general’s office has established an interdepartmental working group to combat any speculative rises in prices for food and agricultural products, to prevent violations of consumer rights and to stop abusive trading practices,” Gridneva said.
The working group is comprised of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection, the Federal Customs Service, the Federal Tax Service, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
Particular attention will be paid to preventing price fixing and speculative price increases, and problems of identifying and stopping violations of the current legislation, the spokeswoman said.
In response to Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, Russia last week banned all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetable imports from the United States, the 28-nation European Union, Norway, Canada, and Australia for one year.
The ban fuelled fears of a shortfall and consequent spike in inflation. The government has warned suppliers against speculative price increases and ordered retail food prices be monitored on a daily basis.