By Sultan Musayev | 2026-04-21

Walk into a Russian grocery store today and 1,000 RUB (about $11) buys what 300 RUB once did. For millions of Russians, this is the texture of daily life.

The Bank of Russia's first-ever public survey on inflationary expectations, published in March, captures what official economic reports do not: Russians are not just worried about prices. They have lost faith in the system that sets them.

The report used in-depth, face-to-face interviews to examine how Russians perceive upcoming price hikes and how those expectations shape their economic decisions. What emerged was not uncertainty -- it was dread.

While the Bank of Russia targets 4% inflation, respondents expect the actual rate to run several times higher. They do not measure inflation through standard economic indicators. They track the "average receipt" -- what a fixed sum of money buys them month to month.

"If 1,000 rubles (about $11) used to buy meat and fish, now it only covers milk, sour cream, and bread," one respondent said. "When you consider that a person earns 30,000–40,000 rubles ($330–$440) and still has to pay rent, buy medicine, and find clothes, I think it's unacceptable."

Car prices have doubled since 2022. Housing costs have jumped 50%. Major purchases have moved out of reach for most Russians, and the research from the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) confirms that inflation now ranks among the top three social fears in the country.

Faith in official figures fades

The gap between official messaging and lived experience has eroded trust in state institutions.

"When officials stubbornly insist on the stability and resilience of the Russian economy, but you walk into a store and see your salary melting away month after month, you realize things aren't so rosy," Ulzhan Sarsenova, coordinator at the Damu research company, told Kontur. "People are starting to panic, and the propaganda no longer works like it used to."

Respondents criticized what they described as the collapse of Russian industry. Many industrial goods nominally manufactured in Russia, they noted, rely on Chinese components. The national economy, in their assessment, is "extremely uncompetitive" on global markets, a consequence of sanctions that the Central Bank's own study acknowledged has reshaped economic psychology.

The dominant mood among respondents can be summarized in a few recurring phrases: the ruble has weakened sharply under sanctions; high inflation has made long-planned major purchases impossible; prices will keep rising -- they always have and always will; and when something big needs to be bought, borrow now before it costs even more.

No low inflation

The Central Bank report pays particular attention to younger Russians who came of age during the pandemic and the sanctions era. These are people with no personal memory of price stability. They borrow instinctively, fearing that goods will cost significantly more tomorrow.

One respondent said she would never save money again.

"At one point during my poor student years, I put off a purchase only to eventually spend twice as much on the exact same thing," she said. "I won't do that again."

Sarsenova views this as a troubling pattern. Spending every available ruble and accumulating debt prevents young Russians from developing financial discipline -- and, in turn, from reaching financial independence.

Entrepreneur Olga Shestakova, who relocated from Moscow to Almaty in 2024, sees no path forward under continued sanctions pressure.

"It's only going to get worse," she told Kontur.

Ratings drop as discontent builds

Economic anxiety is beginning to register in political data. A VTsIOM survey conducted between March 23 and 29 found President Vladimir Putin's approval rating at approximately 70% -- its lowest point since late February 2022, down more than 5 percentage points since the start of the year. The share of respondents expressing distrust in Putin climbed from 13% to 17%.

Many Russians believe the actual figure has fallen further than official statistics reflect. Beyond economic hardship, they cite the blocking of popular digital services, mobile internet restrictions, and disabled mobile payment functions as additional sources of frustration -- restrictions that affect daily life in concrete, immediate ways.

"People in Russia are just surviving right now," Shestakova said. "What ratings are you talking about?"

The Central Bank's study describes Russian society as being in a state of "inflationary stress." The high key interest rate meant to contain rising prices is simultaneously making loans unaffordable for manufacturers. The public has reached a point where price controls -- a deeply Soviet-era solution -- are seen as the only viable fix. That preference, in itself, signals how far market confidence has collapsed.