There are many ways to measure the deepening financial crisis spreading across Russia. The ruble is sinking more than any other currency in the world, foreign reserves have plunged to a four-year low and the economy is teetering toward recession.
Galina Mityaeva measures it in centimeters.
The half stick of braunschweiger sausage that the 69-year-old retiree used to buy for her husband each week is now just too expensive. Cut it a little shorter, she instructs the deli counter clerks at the supermarket she shops at outside of Moscow -- a quarter stick will have to suffice.
“Every time I go to the store, food is more expensive,” Mityaeva said as she strolled through the grocery aisles on a recent afternoon. “People are angry right now. In the store lines, you can hear people complaining: ‘What can I afford to buy with 1,000 rubles?’”
Seven months after President Vladimir Putin initiated his foray into Ukraine, triggering international sanctions against Russia and the capital flight that has fueled the ruble’s plunge, consumers across Moscow are feeling the squeeze. Annual inflation soared to a three-year high of 8 percent last month, led by a 17 percent surge in prices on meat and poultry, 28 percent on tobacco and 13 percent on international airfare and travel-related services.
