Russian supermarket workers say they were fired over viral video on post-election price hikes
Two employees of a Pyaterochka store in Sochi, Russia, say they were fired after a video they posted about rising grocery prices following national elections went viral. The retail chain has not commented.
Two women who worked at a Pyaterochka grocery store in the Russian city of Sochi say they lost their jobs after posting a social media video about grocery price increases that followed Russia's recent parliamentary elections.
Bloggers Svetlana Izhilenko and Alisa Kunyashova posted a reel on September 21 describing their morning shift spent changing price tags. In the video, Izhilenko said staff had spent the whole morning swapping tags and were stunned that almost all grocery items had gone up by 20 to 30 rubles once the elections ended. The store was not named in the clip. The video reached a wide audience, gathering 5.7 million views and 180,000 likes.
Firing and a second video
In a video posted October 1, Izhilenko said she and her co-worker had been dismissed. She said the company appeared worried that a blogger could damage its reputation, even though she had not been responsible for setting the prices. She described the situation as absurd, saying the two of them were fired simply for stating that prices rose after the elections.
That second video performed even better than the first, drawing 7.6 million views and 470,000 likes. Social media users subsequently left comments about the two women's dismissal on posts published by the company's official account.
Pyaterochka has not issued any public comment regarding the firings.
Russia held elections for the ninth State Duma from September 18 to 20. Shortly after voting concluded, officials began discussing possible tax increases.
