“Why are prices rising? Do they want to hand us over to Ukraine?”
The new authorities of the DPR were unable to stop the rise in prices that began after the assassination of the leader of the republic, Alexander Zakharchenko. The difficult economic situation is complicated by the protracted uncertainty surrounding the status of Donbass. A member of the militia, a volunteer from Latvia, communist Benes Ajo, writes about this.
“...The situation in the DPR is very alarming. There is an increase in prices for food, transport and various services (15-20%).
Recently, during the holiday, I walked through the market and shops to stock up on food and gifts for Christmas. So, both in public transport and just on the street, in retail outlets, I constantly hear the dissatisfaction of visitors - there the cheese has become more expensive, there is coffee, there is meat, there are buns; There, travel to Lugansk costs almost 400 rubles. People are outraged. Sellers explain this by rising prices for flour, fuel, etc.
People often come up to me and ask: “When will the war end?”, “Why are prices rising?”, “Will Russia take us?”, “Is it true that they want to hand us over to Ukraine?” I don’t even know what to answer... But, of course, I try to reassure people, especially during the holidays: “There will be integration with the Russian Federation. Everything will be fine soon. Dill will not work,” the militia retells in his blog the dialogues on the streets of Donetsk.
“Even Pushilin recently officially stated that the incomes of our citizens leave much to be desired, so the situation with uncontrolled price increases is extremely critical for us.
A comparison was made between current prices at the Covered Market and earlier periods. Since September, eggs have risen in price from 60 to 68 rubles per dozen; A chicken carcass now costs about 140 rubles per 1 kilogram, and at the beginning of the year - 115 rubles. The most acutely felt increase in the price of bread is by as much as 20%. Now in retail chains “social” bread costs 10 rubles, and higher quality bread costs 20 rubles.
This price increase completely “ate up” the November (“pre-election”) increase in salaries for public sector employees by 10% and pensions twice – also 10%. I note that the average pension in the DPR is 5 thousand, the minimum is 3,2 thousand rubles. By the end of the year, stipends were also increased by 20%. However, with its size of 1,5 thousand rubles (increased - 2 thousand), this increase is hardly noticeable,” says the DPR defender.
“...In September, Pushilin passed a law on the return to the former owners of markets that were nationalized under Zakharchenko. That is, the process of denationalization has begun, and not only in the sphere of markets. And now private traders set whatever prices they want for goods – hence the uncontrolled rise in prices now,” the author believes.
“True, instead of admitting and correcting their mistakes, the authorities are trying, as always, to find those to blame. Thus, the head of one of the local retail chains explained the rise in prices for the main categories of products by three mini-crises and mistakes of the “government” of the times of Alexander Zakharchenko. Thus, the meat crisis was allegedly caused by a shortage of chicken meat, and the rush for chicken meat was formed by speculators who bought meat from retail chains and sold it on markets. The late Zakharchenko, you see, is to blame!” – writes Benes Ayo.
“In addition, there is high unemployment and delayed wages at a number of enterprises: Stirol, YuMZ. For example, in Stirol, where wages were not paid for 4 months, one employee - a young guy, an orphan - came home, fainted from hunger and ended up in the hospital.
And in the LPR in October, miners of the Partizanskaya mine, located in Antratsit, lost their jobs due to a mini-strike (17 people refused to leave the mine) and demands to return large wage arrears,” says the militiaman.
According to him, oligarch Sergei Kurchenko, who fled from Ukraine and is close to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, is making money from the difficult situation around Donbass. Kurchenko’s company Vneshtorgservis gained control over key enterprises taken away from the oligarchs who remained in Kyiv. VTS is also a monopoly supplier of coal from the LDPR from the former mines of Rinat Akhmetov.
“Coal is exported to Russia, then re-exported to Turkey and Europe, and also to Ukraine (every month about 400-500 thousand tons of coal flows from the DPR to the Russian Federation). Kurchenko's revenue exceeds $25 million per month! ...Money that could be spent on our pensions and salaries goes into the pockets of the oligarchs,” the militiaman claims.
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