Also give thanks for . . .

In this season of American thanksgiving, everyone should give thanks we don’t live in Russia. If you think U.S. inflation was bad a year ago . . .

According to the Associated Press, Russia’s Central Bank has raised its key lending rates four times this year. The increases were attempts to get inflation under control, but also to stabilize the ruble’s exchange rate as the economy weathers the storm caused by Comrade Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence.

The last rate increase has that rate at 15 percent.

At least in some places, the result has been grocery shelves being left full while shoppers fret that the ruble won’t go as far as in the past.

“If we talk in percentages (prices) increased by 25 percent. This is meat, staple products—dairy, produce, fruits, vegetables, sausages. My husband can’t live without sausage! Sometimes I’m just amazed at price spikes,” said Roxana Gheltkova, a 70-year-old shopper in a Moscow supermarket. “I get help from my children or I don’t know how I’d pay rent and food.”

U.S. and Russian inflation woes are not similar. Most economists believe the worst is behind America and the numbers have borne that out.

In Russia, however, Maxim Blant, a Russian economy analyst based in Latvia says, “It is simply impossible to solve the issue of inflation in conditions . . . when military-industrial complex receives unlimited funding, when everything they ask for is given to them, when the share of this military-industrial complex in the economy grows at a very rapid pace.”

He sees it as an indication that prices will continue to rise sharply from the previous increases for items such as cabbage, up 74 percent, oranges (72 percent) and cucumbers (47 percent) over last year. The Central Bank now forecasts inflation for the full year, as well as next year, to be about 7.5 percent. U.S. inflation is currently 3.2 percent.

It turns out that military spending to conduct a prolonged, unprovoked act of aggression against a neighboring country has more consequences than lost lives and global alienation.

Is it possible that Russia’s economic woes may ultimately be the biggest enemy the country has in the prosecution of its war with Ukraine?

When the people are hungry, anything can happen.