Scrumming for sugar in a Russian market

[BeyondGeography]

‘We’re going back to a USSR’: long queues return for Russian shoppers as sanctions bite

The lines for sugar in Saratov were hard not to compare to the Soviet era, part of a recent run on Russian staples that have revived fears that the Kremlin’s invasion in Ukraine will lead to a virtual slide back to the shortages or endless queues of the Soviet Union.

Bags of sugar and buckwheat began disappearing from local markets in early March, just a week after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. And when the local mayor’s office announced that it would hold special markets for people to buy the staples last week, hundreds showed up.

“People are sharing tips about where to get sugar. This is crazy,” said Viktor Nazarov, who said that his grandmother had tasked him with visiting the special market last weekend to stock up. “It’s sad and it’s funny. It feels like a month ago was fine and now we’re talking about the 1990s again, buying products because … we’re afraid they’ll disappear.” After an hour and a half waiting at the city’s main square, he was limited to buying one bag of five kilograms, he said.

…“I think we are steadily going back to a USSR,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist for the Institute of International Finance, indicating that the Russian government would likely continue to close off from the world economy. “I’m not seeing it as a temporary shock and then we’re going to go back to the liberal democracy and reintegration into the world, unless there is a change in government.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/23/were-going-back-to-a-ussr-long-queues-return-for-russian-shoppers-as-sanctions-bite?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Link to tweet

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. "Tovarch! Your actions are noted!" And you must still call it is a little special operation. . . nt

[Walleye]

2. "You don't know how lucky you are, boy"🎼

[betsuni]

3. "You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different

pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country."

[HAB911]

4. Sugar?

I haven't purchased refined sugar is 30 years

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Time to start reading up on the art of extracting sugar from vegetables and fruit.

[abqtommy]

6. The extraction of granular sugar from plants has been a reality for 2,000 years...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar

1. The extraction of sugar cane juice from the sugarcane plant, and the subsequent domestication of the plant in tropical India and Southeast Asia sometime around 4,000 BC.

2. The invention of manufacture of cane sugar granules from sugarcane juice in India a little over two thousand years ago, followed by improvements in refining the crystal granules in India in the early centuries AD.

3. The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the medieval Islamic world together with some improvements in production methods.

4. The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the West Indies and tropical parts of the Americas beginning in the 16th century, followed by more intensive improvements in production in the 17th through 19th centuries in that part of the world.

5. The development of beet sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners in the 19th and 20th centuries.