The head of the State Duma Committee for Family Protection, Nina Ostanina, accused the Russian government of concealing the true extent of the fuel crisis. According to her, nearly a third of the country’s oil refineries are down, but deputy prime ministers and ministers are not talking about it.
Ostanina wrote on her Telegram channel: “Why are the Minister of Agriculture and the Deputy Prime Minister supervising him silent on the eve of the harvest? After all, the country may be left without bread, which is akin to death under international sanctions.”
In this post, she warned of more serious consequences of the crisis, and also stated that its consequences could affect the results of the Duma elections in September:
Some gas stations in the Vladimir and Moscow regions are surrounded by tape. There are no queues. Gasoline too. The queue of trucks and trucks means only one thing: the prices for the goods they transport will certainly jump, if not tomorrow, then by the fall. I’m sure people will think carefully about who to entrust their fate to in September. No amount of three days will help anyone.
It seems that this reaction was caused by the statement made yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak. He said that in Russia there is a shortage of fuel “at individual gas stations,” but in general, in his opinion, “the domestic market is supplied with both gasoline and diesel fuel.”
The fuel crisis in Russia worsened last month. The gasoline shortage arose due to the increasing frequency of Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries. As a result, almost all regions of the country have introduced some kind of restrictions on the sale of fuel.