Videos on social media have shown angry drivers in Russia in bitter fights over gasoline as shortages caused by Ukraine’s strikes against oil facilities present an increasing headache for the Kremlin. Kremlin-backed media are reporting the extent of growing queues at the pump, including the newspaper Izvestia, which said gasoline was available at only 28 percent of gas stations, compared with 41 percent a week earlier. It comes as Ukraine continues its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure with the aim of degrading Moscow’s war machine and hurting production of its main export.
In the latest attacks, Ukrainian strikes hit the Taneco oil refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, as well as an oil facility in Kuban, in the southern Krasnodar region, on Thursday. The ensuring shortages have prompted videos of angry drivers show the Kremlin’s inability to shield ordinary Russians from the impact of the war started by Vladimir Putin. reported August 17 that fuel sales were restricted in at least 10 regions of Russia, that "Rosneft" set a limit of 30 liters per vehicle, "Tatneft" set a limit of 50 liters, and "Gazprom Neft" set a limit of 40-60 liters. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.
Clips on social media have gone viral of drivers fighting for ever-dwindling supplies of gasoline, massive highway queues and completely blanked-out price boards. The lack of fuel has been felt most in Russian regions that are frequent targets of Ukrainian long-range strikes. Russian state-owned oil company Gazprom Neft told business outlet RBK that it had set quotas at some gas stations in the capital, which appear to have added to the fraught situation for motorists.
Nighttime dashcam footage shows grown men brawling in the middle of the road, fighting like animals for the last drops of gasoline,” posted pro-Ukrainian X user medoyid_ua next to video of a fight between motorists. Other X users posted, showing long queues along the highways. Drivers are posting videos on social media, sometimes shouting, or even in tears at having to queue for gasoline and fighting among themselves when they get to the pump.
The shortages are impacting other parts of the economy. Russian business newspaper Kommersant said refineries are using more aromatic hydrocarbons to produce lower-octane gasoline to help with the shortages. However, social media users have raised questions about the effect of lower-quality fuel on cars, with one clip showing smoke pouring out of a vehicle.
Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Putin critic, wrote on his Substack that the lower-quality fuel “ruins car engines” and said that proper repairs on damaged oil facilities are not being done. Meanwhile, forces in some areas are being sent to gas stations amid concern about social disorder due to fuel shortages, according to the Telegram Channel VCHK-OGPU, which is said to be linked to Russia’s intelligence services. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the deployment of internal security forces (Rosgvardia) “indicates that the Kremlin does not have confidence in the ability of Russian regular police forces to manage the scale of fuel-related violence.” Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Gray R.
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