MOSCOW, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russians have noticed some price rises of late, but only one in five tends to blame them on the Western sanctions against Russia and the retaliatory measures, as follows from the results of a September 13-14 poll conducted by Russian state-run polling institution VTSIOM. The polling results were published on Tuesday.

21% of Russians said price hikes were an effect of sanctions, one in ten (10%) replied the events in Ukraine were the reason, while almost as many (9%) pointed to inflation as the root cause. 7% suspect that resellers are responsible for artificial price hikes and very few (3%) point to the global political situation.

According to respondents, the past two months saw mostly rises in meat prices. This is the opinion of 85% of Russians who do the shopping themselves. One in ten (11%) believes that the prices of meat products are the same, and 2% replied prices have somewhat reduced.

Three quarters of the polled (77%) have taken note of an increase in housing and utility bills. As many said dairy products were more expensive, 68% noticed higher prices of vegetables and fruit, while 20% saw no change. Sixty percent of Russians said motor fuel prices had definitely gone up. Also, 60% noticed bread price rises, although insignificant ones (42%) rather than significant (18%), and one-third (36%) believe that baked products’ price tags are unchanged.

The pollster questioned 1,600 men and women of age in 42 territories of Russia. The statistical error margin was no higher than 3.4%