Russian State Duma deputy accuses government of concealing scale of fuel crisis, warns it could cost certain officials their seats in September elections
The chair of the State Duma’s family protection committee, Nina Ostanina, has accused the Russian government of concealing the true scale of the country’s fuel crisis, saying nearly a third of Russia’s refineries have been knocked out of commission — a fact, she said, that deputy prime ministers and ministers have refused to acknowledge.
“Why are the agriculture minister and the deputy prime minister overseeing him staying silent on the eve of the harvest season? After all, the country could be left without bread, which under conditions of international sanctions is tantamount to death,” Ostanina wrote in her Telegram channel.
She warned that the crisis could have far graver consequences and said its effects could shape the outcome of September’s State Duma elections:
Gas stations in the Vladimir and Moscow regions are cordoned off with tape. No lines. No gas either. A line of semi-trucks and freight trucks means only one thing: prices for the goods they carry will inevitably spike, if not tomorrow then by fall. I’m certain people will think hard about whom to entrust their fate to in September. And no remote e-voting or three-day voting periods will save certain people.
The remarks appeared to be a response to a statement the previous day by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who acknowledged a fuel shortage “at certain gas stations” but maintained that, overall, “the domestic market is supplied with both gasoline and diesel fuel.”
Russia’s fuel crisis has intensified over the past month. The gasoline shortage arose from increasingly frequent Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries. As a result, nearly all regions of the country have introduced various restrictions on fuel sales.
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