More Food Lines in Russia

So today, Anton Gerashenko pointed to more food lines in Russia. This time, it’s about fish. So let’s look at this not with quotes but with profound implications. When the war started, there was a sugar run. There are many uses for sugar beyond adding it to your tea.

It’s great for making jam, and baked goods, adding it to fruit, and making homemade alcohol. My dad used to make the Passover wine. Nope, don’t call the winery. Or, for that matter, truly trained noses and palates for fine wine. That was more like lovely juice with a high alcohol content.

I still remember it fondly.

However, potatoes, grains, sugar, and people make homemade vodka. Some die from alcohol poisoning, but that’s another story.

Then, there was a run on Buckwheat. Now this is as important as wheat in the daily calories of Russians. So having buckwheat has, ahem, availability issues started to point to problems. Unlike sugar, it’s locally produced. Sugar comes from friendly countries like Cuba. Or from sugar beets grown in the Federation.

Why did we have issues with buckwheat? Well, this is the statement back in March:

A decision was made this year to increase the cultivation of buckwheat and sugar beets, Abramchenko said. “We plan to sow 1.032 million hectares of buckwheat, which is 50,000 hectares more than last year. And sugar beets will be sown over 1.07 million hectares, 66,000 hectares more than last year. This means that the new harvest will ensure the presence of sugar and buckwheat on store shelves, and Russian confectioners and bakers will receive the necessary volumes of sugar,” she said.

The Russian agro-industrial complex is fully providing the country with main food products, Abramchenko said. “No prerequisites for a deficit of food products are being observed under sanctions pressure. We are continuing to expand import shipments from friendly countries, in addition, in order to saturate the market and increase the range available,” Abramchenko said, noting that the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has given permission for imports of products from more than 140 enterprises in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Turkey, India, China, and other countries, in particular, imports of fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat products, feed and feed additives, and pedigree material.

Well, the problem was severe enough, or people know the government lies, that there were runs on kasha. So then we jump to the current egg issues. There was an outbreak of bird flu in Russia. So while this may be the cause, the fact is the price of eggs will only drop after the new year.

Did I mention egg salad is a staple of the new year? Oh, I am linking to a recipe if you want to make some this new year. Our eggs are affordable.

So now we are down to fish. Oh, and Ambassador Michael McFaul is correct; that feels very Soviet. Back then, the truck came in, news traveled fast, and lines formed. So ever so slowly, it is starting to feel as if Russia is going back not just to the 1990s, but the 1960s.

Will the supermarket soon give way to the veggie store, the meat store, the fish store, the bakery, and the store for party members? In a way, the last one is kind of back already. Yes, the Beryoska is back for similar reasons it became a reality under Joseph Stalin. The party needs hard currencies.

So here is the reality. As Russia continues to tell the world the sanctions are not doing a thing, here we are. The food system was built out of both fear and necessity. Vladimir Putin remembered the food chaos of the 1990s. As a KGB agent in East Germany, he was able to get food and Western goods. If he went home on leave, he had access to those stores.

When the USSR collapsed, he came home to a much different country. One where tough free-market medicine was applied. One where food from the West was imported, while efforts were made to privatize the land. We see a reversal of all that, as Putin brings the country back to a dark past.