The Russian State Statistics Service (Rosstat) will change the methodology for calculating inflation. This will allow the Russian authorities to hide real data on price increases in the country. The decision was made after Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin demanded to “slow down price growth”.

Thus, according to Russian media, from 2025 the aggressor country will change the consumer basket, on the basis of which the inflation rate is calculated. In particular, in assessing price growth, price increases in the following categories will no longer be taken into account:.

It is significant that these particular goods were among the most expensive in 2024. Thus, the price of a plane ticket (economy class) as of the beginning of December jumped by 16%, the drug Allolchol became more expensive by 11.5%, and prices for multivitamins soared by 22%..

Rosstat initiated this change in methodology just a few weeks after Putin, during his “Direct Line”, called slowing down price growth one of the authorities’ main tasks for 2025. Inflation rates turned out to be the most painful topic for the Kremlin last year.

“In the economic sphere (the main thing) is to stabilize inflation, so that we don’t have any spirals, jumps, so that we continue economic growth,” Putin said on December 26. And a week earlier, the dictator called rising prices in the Russian Federation an “alarming trend” and a “problem”.

Inflation in Russia has already accelerated to record levels since the aggressor’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2024, the figure rose to 9.5% against 7.4% a year earlier, while the increase in food prices reached 11.05% and became the highest in 9 years.