An amazing (and horrible) statistic on Russia's grim economic outlook can be found in a Quartz article just out. The article reveals that ordinary Russians are going to be spending half of their incomes on food alone this year.
Russian inflation is now back over 15% for the first time since 2008, and self-imposed import sanctions on food from the EU are biting hard, driving up food prices in particular.
Most amazing about the surge in Russian food spending is that it is not confined to this year or last: The share has been steadily climbing each year since at least 2007, when it sat at just 25%.
Russians now spend more as a portion of their incomes on food than some much poorer countries: Kenyans spend less than 50%, while those in China and India, with per-capita incomes far lower than Russia's, spend less than 30%.
Compared with those of advanced economies, the figures are eye-watering: The latest numbers suggest UK households spent about 11% to 12% of their incomes on food in 2012. Those in the US spent just 6.4%.
The extent of Russia's economic turmoil is raising memories of the 1998 financial crisis, during which food prices also took off (inflation rose to nearly 100% the year afterward). That crisis helped to force Boris Yeltsin out of office, and Russia had to ask the international community for food aid. Food crises also helped to speed up the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
The ease or difficulty in getting hold of enough food has been a major constant in Russian political history. President Vladimir Putin's regime still seems overwhelmingly popular, but ordinary Russians are now paying a huge price for Moscow's international brinkmanship.
Quartz cites analysts at VTB Capital, who expect Russian incomes to rise by about 7% this year — not even close to keeping up with the 20% food inflation expected in the first half of 2015 at least.
