SOCHI, September 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The authorities should control ‘skews’ in food prices, but there will be no total regulation, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

“Certainly, state authorities at federal level and certainly law enforcement agencies and at regional level should just control any skews, because different strange things occur,” he noted.

“But this is not linked with regulation in any way, total regulation on food prices or some concrete goods. This is impossible in the modern world,” Medvedev said at a meeting with business people in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Friday.

The prime minister noted that the situation which existed with price regulation in the Soviet times resulted in deficit. “Price regulation which some political forces support is certainly a way to nowhere. We lived through all this,” the prime minister said.

Medvedev added that agriculture and food industry turned in a driving force of economic growth recently. He recalled that agrarian sector had gone up five percent for the last eight months. “Feel the difference in the scope of other industries. Certainly, we should not lose these achievements,” he said with confidence.

The premier agreed that this was needed also to focus on new trends in agriculture. In particular, it was decided to change agrarian development programme for the purpose.