Valerie Hopkins of The New York Times reported that she had to track receipts to monitor supermarket price changes in Russia because people were afraid to speak to her.
Posted by The Bulwark Daily, Checked
- Sources
- 1 contradict4 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 55%
The Bulwark DailySep 29, 2026
The NYT article by Valerie Hopkins (Sept. 23, 2026) confirms she has been tracking grocery receipts in Russia to document price changes. However, the excerpt does not say people were afraid to speak to her; it describes shoppers giving scripted 'everything is fine' answers to her questions, which is a different account from the claimed reason.
The host relays this claim without endorsing it. It counts as passed on, not against the post.
What was said
… The people that are there are, you know, putting more handbrakes on. They're sort of censoring what they can do. And I think, you know, their argument is that it's still worth being in the country and seeing what people think. You know, Valerie Hopkins from The New York Times just reported a story about how she had to track receipts to see how prices were changing in supermarkets because people were too scared to talk to her. So it's even becoming more difficult to get information that way because people are scared. So my advice would be, you know, clearly be on the watch for any sort of setup, especially if a Russian spy gets arrested abroad and they want to nab another person …
The Bulwark Daily · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The article describes shoppers answering her questions with reassurances such as 'Everything is fine with our prices!', so it does not support the claim that people were too afraid to speak to her.[4]
Supports. The NYT article by Valerie Hopkins, Josh Holder and Pablo Robles says 'I have been working in Russia since 2021, and I've been keeping receipts' to document rising supermarket prices.[4]
Context. The PolitiFact, Snopes, and Full Fact pages in the results are unrelated listings or app pages and do not address this claim.[1][2][3][5]
Sources
5 sources: 3 fact-checkers, 1 tier 2, 1 not rated
- 1Latest Fact-Checks In Russiapolitifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2The Snopes app is here!snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3US Politics – Full Factfullfact.org · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 4Prices Have Skyrocketed in Russian Supermarkets. We Have the Receipts.nytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 5Misinformation Toolkit – Full Factdev.fullfact.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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