A Russian politician has accidentally revealed that Vladimir Putin plans to seize food in parts of occupied Ukraine to fill empty shelves in his own nation.
Western sanctions imposed since the invasion began in February have hit Russia hard, with crippling food shortages reported across the country.
Putin’s plan to solve his people’s hunger has drawn comparison to the Holodomor, a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. The horrifying mass starvation drove many to cannibalism, and many historians blame Joseph Stalin for deliberately causing the tragedy through a series of genocidal policies.
Vladislav Zyryanov, chair of the agriculture committee in the Krasnoyarsk regional assembly in Siberia, appeared to give the strategy away in a statement which said the Kremlin wants “to increase the volume of supplies for domestic Russian consumers by moving food from other southern [Ukrainian] regions taken under its control”.
The Putin ally called the move “economically justified, given the withdrawal of many suppliers of seeds and fertilisers from the Russian market” and suggested other parts of Russia could “successfully implement” similar policies of their own.
The Ukraine Agri Council, which represents Ukrainian farmers, said on Wednesday Russian occupiers had started seizing grain from the Zaporizhzhia region.
Zyryanov’s statement was taken down from the Krasnoyarsk assembly’s website on Wednesday.
It’s the first time a Russian official has acknowledged that Western sanctions are having an impact on the supply chain and economy.
On Wednesday Putin himself insisted the sanctions had failed, saying the rouble, banking system, transport sector and economy as a whole are still going strong.
Russia’s economy ministry expects gross domestic product to shrink by 8.8% in 2022 in its base case scenario, or by 12.4% under a more conservative scenario, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday, suggesting that sanctions pressure is taking its toll.
In March shoppers were spotted panic buying at Moscow supermarkets, with some filmed fighting over grocery staples such as sugar.
“There were empty shelves – no salt, no sugar, no pasta, no buckwheat, and only expensive rice,” a local woman named Anna told Podyom media.
“People suddenly saw a cart with sugar and ran towards it.
“They attacked this cart, pushing each other away aggressively.
“They were grabbing as much as possible for themselves, not leaving sugar for the others.
“I wanted to share the horror of it. We must stay human.”
The United Nations and the European Union have both accused Russia of bombing Ukrainian food stocks and blocking deliveries of humanitarian supplies into the country, effectively using mass hunger as a weapon of war.
Russian occupiers have also reportedly seized agricultural centres and threatened workers in the Kherson Oblast.
Albert Cherepakha, who owns two major farming businesses in the region, said his businesses were seized by “groups of armed Chechens” in early April.
“The gunmen said that from now on the company property belongs to them,” he told local media, adding that managers in his facilities were warned they would be “beheaded” if any property went missing.