Officials are trying to convince the population that, for example, a resident of Saratov Oblast can live on 3,500 rubles a month (about 54 USD) and that additional social benefits from the state compensate for the income of the poor.
Bondarenko decided to prove in practice that it is impossible to have good nutrition on this money — at least, without harm to health. After his 'ministerial diet', Mr. Bondarenko told Realnoe Vremya how he was feeling himself during his experiment.
I bought potatoes, carrots, onions, sometimes cabbage, chicken, eggs, cereals, pasta, vegetable oil at 875 rubles (about 13 USD) a week. Of course, in the cheapest markets, where you can bargain. I could not buy some of the products that are recommended by the relevant ministry in the market basket, because in reality the prices are higher than Saratov Statistics Service provides. The amount established by the officials did not allow me buying other meat except chicken, cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, which from a medical point of view are necessary for a balanced diet. To my great disappointment, in the first days of the forced diet, I found out that I could not eat dairy products. I stretched a litre of milk for a week. These products are the cheapest, of low quality. Milk is reconstituted, and therefore, with vegetable fats. For a week, I had from one to two kilograms of chicken. From fruits, this diet allowed me to buy only apples