Simonyan urged Russians to accept the gasoline shortage and recalled the crisis of the 1990s
Margarita Simonyan, the Kremlin’s chief propagandist, commented on the widespread complaints from Russians about the shortage of automotive fuel, urging Russian citizens not to panic and to be prepared for everyday hardships. She cited the economic crisis of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union as an example.
During her speech, Simonyan compared the current gasoline shortage to the food and water shortages she said she experienced in her hometown of Krasnodar. At the same time, the propagandist emphasized the need to preserve the current government in Russia.
“There’s no gasoline. Well, I still remember—my generation remembers—how food used to be rationed by coupons. Don’t you remember that? In my city, Krasnodar, back in ’92, there were coupons; we’d cut them out and go around. And I personally used to walk with buckets when I was eleven or twelve—and even before that—to fetch water... Well, never mind, we got through it, we got through it. And we’ll get through this now, too. I have no doubts whatsoever. They’ll do all this so that we, just like in 1917, will rise up and overthrow Father Tsar…,” Simonyan declared.
Recently, there have been increasingly frequent reports in Russia of fuel shortages, which are linked to problems in the oil refining industry and logistics. Against this backdrop, some regions are seeing restrictions on gasoline sales as well as rising fuel prices.
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In addition, Russian media have reported a rise in demand for horses in some regions of the country due to difficulties in securing automotive fuel.
Amid a severe heat wave, residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea have been without a stable water supply for two weeks. At the same time, the occupying authorities cannot agree on a single version of the fuel shortage situation: officials are giving different dates for when gasoline will become available again. Only the so-called “energy minister” of the occupying administration has acknowledged that no significant improvement should be expected in the near future.
The fuel crisis in Crimea has worsened: a chronicle of the return to home port.
As a reminder, the fuel shortage in Crimea has triggered a wave of mass layoffs and business closures.
Earlier, the Russian presidential administration sent special “recommendations” to state-run and pro-government media outlets regarding how exactly to report on the fuel shortage in the country.
The fuel crisis is also intensifying in Russia: gasoline is running out at gas stations and lines are growing.
Russia has allowed the use of lower-quality gasoline due to the fuel crisis.
