Putin’s motorcade stopped in Novosibirsk for a ‘spontaneous’ crowd of children. They had been waiting more than two hours — by a gas station with no gas.

Putin stopped his motorcade during a visit to Novosibirsk and got out to greet a crowd of local residents who had been waiting for him along the road. Eyewitness video shows the motorcade halted near an empty gas station where the price board had been switched off.

Pavel Zarubin, a propagandist for the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, published a video of the encounter. The footage shows people, mostly children, surrounding Putin after his motorcade stopped. He stood with them briefly before leaving. The clip was reportedly filmed on the way to the airport.

From a building near where the motorcade stopped, eyewitnesses filmed another video showing that people had been expecting Putin well in advance. The Telegram channel Intsident Novosibirsk (Incident Novosibirsk) wrote that children began gathering at the spot long before the motorcade passed, some waiting more than two hours. Drivers stopped on a nearby blocked street waited about as long, according to the Telegram channel Govorit NeMoskva (Not Moscow Speaking).

The same video shows that the encounter took place near an empty Teboil gas station where the fuel price board had been switched off. The station had no gasoline at the time, according to the Telegram channel Siberian Express.

The news outlet NDN.Info reported that gas stations charging the highest prices stopped selling fuel on the day of Putin’s visit. Tatneft and Grand, which had sold AI-95 gasoline for 125 and 148 rubles per liter the day before, stopped dispensing fuel; these chains also turned off their price boards at stations along the motorcade’s route. Other gas stations continued operating normally.

A woman who spoke to the independent Russian news outlet Vot Tak claimed that gasoline prices at city gas stations were temporarily lowered for Putin’s visit. Putin’s earlier trips to Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk were accompanied by temporary drops in gasoline prices.

Novosibirsk residents also complained about traffic jams caused by the road closures. Security forces barred students in Akademgorodok, as well as residents of buildings along the motorcade’s route, from looking out their windows. Eyewitness video shows armed men in camouflage accompanying Putin.

Putin arrived in Novosibirsk in the early hours of August 11 — the fifth city he has visited in the past two and a half weeks, not counting Moscow and St. Petersburg. He had previously traveled to Kazan, Irkutsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Ulan-Ude. Before that, he had rarely visited Russia’s regions in months.

Ahead of Putin’s visit, workers hastily repaved roads in Novosibirsk’s city center, laid new sod, and repaired sidewalks and building facades, local residents said.

The Kremlin’s press service often publishes footage of Putin spontaneously chatting with ordinary people during his trips around the country — videos that frequently turn out to be staged.