Russians fined for complaining about gasoline shortages at gas stations
Photo: A Russian gas station (Getty Images)
A court in Russia's Volgograd fined a local woman for taking part in a collective appeal over a fuel shortage. Security forces deemed a video recorded near a gas station an "unauthorized mass gathering," Mediazona reports.
The Central District Court of Volgograd fined Tatyana Smetanko 10,000 rubles ($118) under a case involving participation in a mass gathering.
The case stemmed from events on July 16, when five Volgograd residents gathered near a gas station and recorded a video address to Alexandr Bastrykin, head of Russia's Investigative Committee. In the video, the residents complained about a gasoline shortage and special privileges for officials.
"Specifically, it is about unfair distribution: our administration fills up full tanks of gasoline using fuel cards, while ordinary residents are often simply turned away. Police officers decided that this was an unauthorized public event," one of the participants said.
Immediately after the video was recorded, police detained all participants in the collective appeal.
One of those detained was local lawyer and attorney Alexey Sevastyanov. He was sentenced to five days in detention for "disobeying police." Police also filed a similar administrative case against him for participating in a mass gathering.
Fuel shortage in Russia
The aggressor country is once again facing a severe fuel shortage. At least 10 regions have tightened controls on gasoline sales at gas stations.
Ukrainian drone strikes have reportedly knocked out up to 40% of Russia's oil refining capacity in recent months. Against this backdrop, about one-third of the country's residents have faced fuel shortages.
RBC-Ukraine previously reported that Russia began redirecting gasoline from Belarus to its domestic market, despite the fuel originally being intended for Central Asian countries. However, even record volumes of such supplies have failed to fully make up for the shortage.
In addition, amid Ukraine's effective strikes on Russian oil refineries and the worsening fuel crisis, Russia has resorted to "gray" schemes for processing petroleum products.
