Price fever panic is gripping Russia, as consumers struggle to cope with an explosion in the cost for basic food items.

       Food price increases are far outstripping the official inflation rate of 9.5%, leaving shoppers painfully out of pocket.

       Over the last year in Russia, the cost of milk and apples have gone up by approximately 20%, cucumbers by 22%, beetroot by 32%, butter by 35%, cabbages by 42%, onions by 46% and potatoes by a whopping 90%.

       And price inflation looks set to get worse over the course of this year, as Russia's economy creaks under the strain of its wartime footing.

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       The Russian press has turned its attention to the growing economic crisis, openly discussing the explosion of food prices in a rare moment of factual reporting.

       A front page headline in the daily newspaper the Moskovsky Komsomolets screams "Price Fever".

       "In 2025 inflation promises to be a serious challenge for the country's economy and ordinary Russians," they write.

       "Everything around us keeps jumping in price: vegetables, housing and utility bills, medicine, transport...."

       The spiralling costs of food is ruffling a few fathers among Russian politicians, some of whom are calling for the Kremlin to take drastic action.

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       Mikhail Delyagin, a well-known MP from the A Just Russia party, demanded that Putin introduce price control measures.

       He called on the Kremlin to force grocery stores to limit their markup on goods to a maximum of 100% and not a percentile more.

       However, a leading economist from Russia's prestigious Finance and Economic Institute warned price control measures were a retrospective step that had echoes of Russia's Soviet past.

       Nikita Maslennikov said: "Putting limits on price mark-up is a populist measure from politicians that could lead to supply shortages. Far greater than those that exist now."

       He added: "It is the old tried and tested Soviet path to nowhere."

       It comes as a new economic analysis showed that Russia's real inflation rate has surged by more than 700% since Vladimir Putin came to power.

       The analysis, carried out by economic experts for the Rossiskaya Gazeta, shows that prices for a wide range of goods and services have increased by 700% (8-fold) since 2001.