At a time when concerns about inflation in Russia are mounting, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to personally check the price of goods in supermarkets on a regular basis, his spokeswoman told Interfax on Monday.
Following his visit to a school in the town of Korenovsk in the southern Krasnodar region on the first day of the academic year, Medvedev popped into a branch of supermarket chain Magnit and discussed the price of goods with shoppers, the report said.
Spokeswoman Natalya Timakova was quoted as saying that Medvedev's price checks will be unscheduled, so shop owners will receive no prior warning of his arrival.
Thrifty Russians have been keeping an eye on food prices since Moscow imposed a one-year embargo on food imports from countries that have targeted it with sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, including the U.S., EU, Australia, Canada and Norway.
Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Vedev said last week that the ministry saw inflation standing at 7-7.5 percent at the end of this year, up from its previous forecast of 6 percent, citing the embargo as the reason for the increase, Reuters reported.
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