Moscow, June 26 - Russia's biggest grocer, X5, said on Friday it was slashing food prices after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin scolded its bosses during a surprise visit to one of its stores.
Putin, who stepped down as Kremlin chief last year, has made a habit of publicly reprimanding some of Russia's top businessmen for failing ordinary people in the worst economic crisis for a decade.
The former KGB spy halted his motorcade outside a Perekrestok supermarket owned by X5 near the government headquarters on Wednesday and scolded bosses for charging too much for sausages and meat in front of astounded shoppers.
X5 Retail said in a statement it was glad Putin had chosen their supermarket and announced a "grand sale" with discounts of 30-80 percent on more than 3,000 goods.
"We fully share the position of the head of the government about the necessity of forming a civilised consumer market," X5 Chief Executive Officer Lev Khasis said in a statement.
Khasis said the grocer agreed that a balance between suppliers and retailers had to be reached and that the needs of consumers should be fully taken into account.
X5, which had net sales of $8.4 billion last year, is 47.9 percent owned by Alfa Group, a powerful Russian industrial group controlled by billionaire Mikhail Fridman. X5 has a market capitalisation of $3.9 billion and its shares trade in London.
Putin was shown on state television on Wednesday quizzing X5's director for corporate relations, Yury Kobaladze, on why sausages and pork were so expensive. Khasis was not present.
"When examining a display of refrigerated pork, the premier found out that it was supplied for 160-170 roubles (per kg), but that it was on sale for 355 roubles," said a statement distributed by Putin's press service.
"So basically two times as expensive. Do you think that is normal?" Putin was quoted by his press service as asking X5 bosses.
Putin this month publicly humiliated a Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia's top oligarchs, accusing him and other factory owners in a crisis-hit town of greed and likening them to "cockroaches".
More than a year after stepping down as president, Putin is still Russia's most popular politician and his continued high profile has fuelled speculation that he could one day return to the Kremlin.
Putin had approval ratings of 53 percent in May compared with President Dmitry Medvedev's rating of 44 percent, according to the VTSIOM polling agency.