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It's hard enough living on a pension of 500 dollars (350 euros) a month in Moscow. Now Moisei Kelmanovich has to cope with rising inflation and his faith in politicians is taking another hit.
"Food prices have risen sharply, mainly on dairy and meat," said Kelmanovich, 87, as he shopped at a local market in central Moscow. "Only the price of matches hasn't gone up."
Even President Vladimir Putin's promise to fight inflation during a televised question-and-answer session with Russian citizens on Thursday failed to hearten Kelmanovich. "I don't really believe him," he said. The Russian government has predicted inflation of 10 percent this year, well above the previous estimate of eight percent, and some officials are expecting the final count could be even higher.
Officials have blamed inflation on a number of factors, including rising global energy prices, higher prices for EU food exports, as well as inefficiencies in Russia's own market, such as monopolies.
"It is indeed a big problem in the Russian economy, as in the world economy as a whole.... This has not been a good year," said Alexei Savatyugin, a senior official from the Finance Ministry.
It is also a problem that is beginning to weigh on the minds of Russians ahead of December parliamentary elections where Putin is set to dominate as the main candidate for the ruling United Russia party.
"Inflation is worsening the mood of the people. I think it could affect the turnout. But measures have been taken and people have softened up," said Pavel Medvedev, a member of parliament from United Russia. The government has announced price-cutting measures, including increasing export tariffs for grain producers to force them to sell on the Russian market and lowering import duties on dairy products from Europe.
The Russian government has also extracted a promise from major producers and distributors to impose a temporary freeze on the price of food staples amid reports that Russian pensioners have begun stockpiling.
"This is a problem against which the government must fight. To move effectively we need to increase revenues for the population, particularly for pensioners," Putin said in his televised address on Thursday. But Andrei Nechayev, head of an investment holding called the Russian Financial Corporation and a member of the opposition Union of Rightist Forces party, said the government's anti-inflation efforts would fail.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

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