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MOSCOW, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- An unfounded rumor about acrimony between Russia and Ukraine has sparked a surge of panic-buying of table salt by Russians who remember the Soviet era.
Earlier this month, an unidentified Russian official suggested Ukraine would cut its salt supplies to Russia in retaliation for Moscow raising its natural gas prices. Ukraine exports 1.97 million tons of salt to Russia, which consumes about 4.5 million tons annually.
However, no one in Ukraine ever made such a threat, The Times of London reported Tuesday.
In the central Tula region, people have mobbed stores and markets, pushing salt prices up from 10 cents per kilogram -- 2.2 pounds -- to $2.10.
Sergei Kuznetsov, head of Tula's department of business and markets, said that the panic buyers were mostly elderly.
"It's mostly because of the collective memory from the war years, when salt was one of the things that was most scarce and most in demand," he told The Times.
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