The cost of Russia’s traditional Olivier salad has risen 4% ahead of the 2026 New Year holidays, according to new data published by TASS on December 5, citing research from financial services marketplace Sravni. The average price for an eight-serving portion of the salad now stands at RUB416 ($4.64), up from RUB401 ($4.47) in 2024.

A must-have dish that appears on every Russian table during Russia’s answer to the Christmas celebration, the salad originated with Belgian chef Lucien Olivier, who developed it in the nineteenth century and named it after himself. The recipe first appeared in the English cookbook, The Modern Cook in 1845.

In 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution, exiles from the Soviet Union spread a version of the recipe throughout Europe and the US, popularizing it and leading to its being attributed to Russia.

Russia has been plagued by sky high inflation since the invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago as heavy military spending and wage rises, fuelled by a chronic labour shortage, has relentlessly pushed up prices.

However, an unorthodox experiment by CBR governor Elvia Nabiullina to slow growth and bring inflation down seems to be working. Inflation has fallen from over 10% at the start of this year to under 7% now, allowing the regulator to put in 450bp of rate cuts. However, that has come at the cost of pushing the economy into a near-recession as growth has fallen to just above zero in the third quarter after two years of strong growth.

Food price inflation has been particularly sticky and affecting the cost of making the iconic salad. Despite falling prices for several key ingredients —potatoes, carrots, and eggs— overall costs have increased due to rising prices for processed foods and condiments - especially mayonnaise, which is the hallmark ingredient in the salad.

“The price of 400g of potatoes has dropped from RUB21 to RUB16, and 250g of carrots from RUB12 to RUB11,” Sravni said. The cost of 200g of eggs also fell slightly to RUB19, down from RUB22 last year.

But the cost of a 170g jar of mayonnaise now costs RUB53, up from RUB49 a year earlier, a sharp 8% year-on-year increase, reflecting the broader food inflation in staple and processed products, including sausage, pickled cucumbers and caviar.

However, other core ingredients saw notable increases. The price of 300g of doctor’s sausage rose to RUB173 from RUB163, while 400g of pickled cucumbers increased to RUB114 from RUB106. The price of 240g of green peas rose to RUB27, and a teaspoon of salt now costs RUB2. Despite the increase, they won’t break the bank: the total cost for a serving of Olivier salad is now RUB46 (50 cents).

The sharpest food price increase was seen in so-called buterbrod – bread and “red caviar,” (salmon roe, another popular dish on every table) – rose by a quarter (24%) from RUB108 to RUB134.

Due to calendar effects, the 2026 New Year holiday period will be the longest in 12 years, adding further pressure to seasonal spending as Russians prepare for extended celebrations.

Borscht index

Another popular Russian cost-of-living index, the Borscht index has also seen prices rise. The Economist invented the iconic Big Mac Index to track the true value of currencies by benchmarking them to the cost of the universal American hamburger. The Russian central bank has done the same thing with the cost of making a bowl of borscht.

The idea for the Borscht index was invented by retired teacher Natalya Atuchina from Omsk, who invented the index in 2014 to track rising prices after the sanctions regime was first imposed on Russia. It was later adopted by the CBR which now tracks the prices of the benchmark ingredients in the soup – the so-called “borscht set.”

The typical borscht set includes the following ingredients:

1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Potatoes
4. Carrots
5. Onions
6. Tomatoes or tomato paste
7. Meat (typically beef or pork)
8. Garlic
9. Sunflower oil
10. Salt and spices
11. Sour cream (for serving)

The average cost of products needed to prepare borscht in 2021 before the war started was RUB314 ($4.23), with a nominal average monthly income of RUB56,171 ($756.27), which means each family of four could afford to prepare 179 servings of borscht a month, according to calculations by Vedomosti.

In 2025, the average cost of products needed to prepare borscht is approximately RUB440 ($4.91), up from RUB314 in 2021, according to IntelliNews Lambda calculations. With a nominal average monthly income up to RUB76,500 ($854), a family of four in Russia can afford to prepare slightly fewer servings than at the start of the war – 174 servings of borscht per month – according to updated estimates based on Vedomosti's original methodology. This is despite nominal wages rising that have created a new War Middle Class and highlights how the cost-of-living increases during the war have run ahead of nominal disposable income gains.

 

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