Non-Eating Russians

From MT:
""No Money? Eat Less!" United Russia Lawmaker Advises"

A lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party has offered his advice to Russians struggling to pay for food amid the country's soaring inflation: "Eat less." Food prices in the Urals' Sverdlovsk region have increased by around 25 percent compared to the same period last year, figures cited by regional lawmaker Ilya Gaffner indicate, but he said it was "not that bad," according to video footage posted online Thursday. Food price inflation in Russia has peaked over a sharp devaluation of the ruble currency and bans imposed on a range of European food imports in response to Western sanctions. Inflation is expected to accelerate even more this year. During a televised visit to a local grocery store in Yekaterinburg, Gaffner suggested that Russians should draw inspiration from the most devastating periods in their country's history and enjoy the supposed health benefits of going hungry. "We are all Russians, we have lived through hunger and cold," Gaffner told Novy Region television station. "If supposedly there isn't enough money, people should think about their health and somehow eat less," he said lightheartedly. The advice from the lawmaker, who heads the local legislature's agricultural policy committee, has sparked outrage from online users, some of whom accused Gaffner of having bankrupted an array of local farms and food-processing factories, Novy Region reported. During the interview at the grocery store, Gaffner conceded that going without food may be difficult, but argued that New Year's feasts would supposedly tide Russians over for a while. Some local inhabitants may be hard-pressed to appreciate the advice. "I have a disabled son, he is constantly asking for sugar," a woman in the store told Gaffner. "I am forced to deny him, because there is simply no money at all anymore." Party comrades from the regional United Russia branch responded to the criticism by praising the work of price monitoring panel Public Control — which Gaffner also heads — and by reproaching the lawmaker for not thinking through his statements. "To Ilya Gaffner, who allowed himself an inappropriate remark, I would recommend to think seven times before saying something," local United Russia chief Viktor Shepty said in a statement on his party's website, under a headline that read: "Doing good deeds, one should be proper in one's remarks." But Gaffner defended his statement, calling for Russians to "unite" in face of economic problems, local Ura.ru news portal reported.

^ While this may seem like a joke I think it follows traditional Russian mentality. Russians have had to suffer throughout their long history. From Czarist times through Soviet times and even in modern-day Russia. Anyone 30 or older remembers the different periods of  scarcity. Only a small portion of that time the lack of goods and food was due to war (World War 1, Civil War and World War 2) the rest was due to bad planning on the part of the Soviet Government who decided to build bombs and controlling other countries  (ie all of eastern Europe) rather than give their citizens a decent standard of living. Then can the USSR collapse in 1991 and more scarcity. Things calmed down until the 1998 Ruble Crisis and seemed to have gotten pretty good until Russia decided to annex the Crimea last year. While there are some times you can not prevent scarcity (especially of food) - during natural disasters or famine, but all the other times you can. The Russians have a saying: "We will live and we will see" which basically means things have always been hard in their lives and probably always will be but there's always a chance that it will get better in the future. That saying shows why Russian officials have no problem making stupid statements like "Eat less" rather than actually do something active to fix the problem and why ordinary Russians don't expect anything to change. ^




http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/no-money-eat-less-united-russia-lawmaker-advises-/514808.html