The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has begun monitoring prices for glass and pre-assembled window units in the Chelyabinsk region in the wake of last week's meteorite strike, news reports said Wednesday.
The watchdog is also monitoring the price of labor associated with repairing the damage from the blast, Interfax reported.
The move was prompted by an order of the region's governor, Mikhail Yurevich, head of the Chelyabinsk branch of the anti-monopoly service Anna Kozlova told Interfax.
The meteorite shower over the Chelyabinsk region on Friday blew out windows in buildings with an overall area of 200,000 square meters, sending local demand for window glass and pre-manufactured window panes skyrocketing.
Kozlova attributed the price monitoring to the possibility of "unjustified price increases for these products." She noted that the anti-monopoly service had not yet received any verbal or written complaints on price hikes, however.
Chelyabinsk Governor Mikhail Yurevich said Monday there was no deficit of window glass in the region thanks to timely shipments from neighboring areas. He noted that window glass had already been replaced in 53 percent of the windows with undamaged frames, RIA-Novosti said.
The remaining broken windows will be replaced within a week, he said.
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