"Are we in the Soviet Union now?" (Gasoline shortage in Russia)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/03/world/europe/russia-gas-shortages.html

Long Lines for Gas Shatter the Illusion of Normalcy in Wartime Russia
“Are we in the Soviet Union now?” asked one Russian, stunned and frustrated by the waits at the pumps.
By Nataliya Vasilyeva
July 3, 2026 Updated 6:47 a.m. ET

Alyona Sadovnikova first experienced gasoline shortages in mid-June, when she pulled into a station and was told it was only serving customers who had ration coupons.

“I was horrified: Are we in the Soviet Union now where you had to get coupons to buy sausage?” she said in a telephone interview.

Just a few days later, Ms. Sadovnikova found herself waiting 18 hours to fill up in the city of Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, almost 3,000 miles from the Ukrainian border.

As Ukraine escalates its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, including some deep into Russian territory, refineries across the country have been forced to shut down for lengthy repairs.

That has caused the kinds of gas shortages that many Russian citizens have not seen in their lifetimes. They originally started in Russia-occupied Crimea in May and have since spread to mainland Russia and even Siberia.

The situation is so serious that Russian officials said this week that they were in talks to explore importing oil from other countries, a startling admission for the world’s third-largest oil producer. On Friday, authorities in the Black Sea city of Novorossiysk, home to Russia’s largest oil export terminal, said they were suspending gasoline sales to individuals.

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Good times:

[Bluestocking]

1. This is what we have to look forward to

In the not so distant future thanks to to assholes that voted for Trump.