The ACORT trade association, which includes major supermarket chains in Russia, has decided to freeze prices on more than 20 socially important items of basic necessity for two months, an initiative which has been already approved by Russia’s Anti-Monopoly Service. The goal of this initiative is to protect the poor consumers following sharp increases in food prices since last year. Food prices for items such as meat, fish, milk, sugar, salt, potatoes, cabbage and apples will be fixed at current prices. Food prices went up by 14 percent in 2014 and increases have accelerated since the start of the year, with prices of bread and flour rising by 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in the past three months. The soaring prices is the result of the devaluating Ruble and the embargo on European Union and US food products following international sanctions imposed to Russia in the framework of the Ukraine political crisis. The Ruble has lost more than half of its value against the dollar in the past year. and is causing a critical erosion of the purchasing power of the population.