Putin praised Patrushev for getting in touch from the chicken coop and scolded him for the rise in price of chicken

Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev joined a meeting with government members chaired by Vladimir Putin on Wednesday evening from a poultry complex near Moscow. The President appreciated the official’s know-how. “The fact that you are communicating with us from the chicken coop is great! This enlivens our work,” Putin said to the loud cackling of chickens. At the same time, he considered it necessary to ask Patrushev why, given the success of the industry, the price of chicken has risen so much – by 27% since the beginning of the year.

The minister said that the department is dealing with this problem: there was a slight decrease in volumes in August, but by the end of the year, chicken meat production will still increase. “In principle, there are no prerequisites for increasing the price,” Patrushev assured without answering the question. He said that he personally communicated with poultry farmers. And “feeling their social responsibility,” they have already begun to reduce chicken prices.

Vladimir Putin responded to this by saying that poultry farmers are engaged in business and are interested in making a profit, but the government, seeing that prices were rising, had to take measures and, in particular, “include purchasing imports from our neighbors, from Belarus and Kazakhstan.” “We need to do this in a timely manner. Then there wouldn’t have been such a rise (in prices), ”Putin noted. Patrushev said that decisions on imports have already been made: chicken meat comes from Belarus and Kazakhstan, which, according to him, will “balance our market a little”

Let us remember that this is not the first time that Putin has demanded that the government respond to problems and make decisions in a timely manner. Before this, the president criticized the Cabinet’s slow response to rising gasoline prices.