Slovak Parliament Vice Speaker in a state of shock after visiting Moscow supermarket

Andrej Danko, Vice Speaker of the Slovak Parliament, the leader of the Slovak National Party, made a video of himself walking around a Moscow supermarket. The politician was amazed what he saw at the store.

"My darlings, there are probably 6 meters of shelves here! Look, there are, I don't know, 50 types of butter here (…) And here is probably the largest selection of yoghurts that I have ever seen in my life!" Andrej Danko said.

Danko toured an Auchan store at Aviapark shopping center. The Slovak politician pointed out that Auchan was a French supermarket chain that was still operating in Russia.

The vice speaker of the Slovak Parliament was most impressed by the wide selection of dairy products. Despite all the sanctions, the consumer basket of Russian citizens is no worse than that of citizens of Western countries, he noted. 

Andrej Danko's full video of his tour of the Moscow supermarket appears on his Facebook page (a social network banned in Russia; belongs to the Meta corporation, which is recognized as extremist, banned in the Russian Federation).

American journalist Tucker Carlson, who flew to Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2024, also visited an Auchan supermarket in Moscow. He was amazed that groceries in Russia were four times cheaper than in US stores, and their quality was not worse at all.

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Auchan is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% stake in the company, it is the 35th largest employer in the world. The company operates under the name Auchan in France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Senegal, Ivory Coast, as Alcampo in Spain, as Aшан (Ashan) in Russia, Ukraine and Tajikistan. The company has also set up operations as Auchan in Italy, China and Taiwan. The name comes from the first Auchan shop in Roubaix in the district of Hauts-Champs, the pronunciation of which is identical to that of "Auchan". As of 2022, Auchan is one of the world's largest retailers with a direct presence in France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and Senegal. In 2022, the company's revenue in Russia amounted to 237 billion rubles. Auchan is a rare example of a Western company continuing to operate in Russia after the country's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as actively funding and supporting Russian military effort. As a result, Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention placed the company on its International Sponsors of War list.