Medvedev against govt regulation of food prices
MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev objects to the idea of government regulation of food prices and is convinced that this would be a way back to empty shelves in stores.
"You and I know: as soon as some tough administrative price regulation is imposed, you don't have to wait long for all goods to vanish. It would be simply unprofitable to buy and sell them. Therefore, we don't use this tool, although this tool is possible in legal terms," Medvedev said in an interview in an analytical program hosted by Sergei Brilyov, shown on Rossiya-1 television channel on Saturday.
The law allows for "imposing regulation if uncontrollable price hiking is recorded for three months," he said.
"But this is a very bad method. And I'd say again: as a rule, it leads to a deadlock," he said.
"At least I, as well as the people of my generation, remember the shelves of stores and pharmacies, including food stores, in the Soviet period, when there was administrative price regulation and there was nothing [for sale]. Absolutely nothing," Medvedev said.
"As it turned out, it is very easy for us on the whole to fill the shelves with our food products. But we don't have empty shelves. Everything is basically good in our stores, and looks quite decent, too," he said.