Russian Far East without petrol. Poverty on the rise in rural heartlands

Long queues of cars wait for hours to fill their tanks. Many are left without; with the danger the vehicles will be blocked by cold until the spring thaw. Director of the National Institute for Statistics forecasts the need for ration cards for many consumer goods.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - An energy crisis is underway in the Far Eastern territories of Russia, between the banks of the Amur River (on the border with China) and the Pacific coast.

After having suspended production at the NNK-Khabarovskij NPZ refinery - officially due to restructuring and modernization of the plants - there are problems for the supplies of AI-92 and AI-98 (Super and Super lead-free) petrol in various regions of the area.

The inhabitants of Khabarovsk and the coastal area of ​​Primorsky speak of total fuel shortages, and the same is also true in the Amur region and in the autonomous Jewish region of Birobizhan.

The NNK factory was operational until January 30th; after that, kilometric queues began forming at all the service stations, without the guarantee of access to fuel.

Making matters worse during the coldest days of this winter - even down to -40 / -50 degrees below zero – owners have to keep their car engines running for a long time, often even at night, with the risk of not being able to restart the engine until the spring thaw.

One inhabitant of Khabarovsk, Aleksandr Larionov, says: “I decided to get up at 4 and I managed to get petrol by miracle, after a few kilometres of queuing; a friend of mine stayed in the queue from one in the morning until 5, and by the time he got to the station, the petrol was out".

The vice-president of the regional government, Anatolij Litvinchuk, said that the supplies were guaranteed, but not all the convoys of tankers reached their destination. In his opinion, the situation will normalize in a few days, but the population has very little faith in the promises of the administration, which has been fiercely contested for almost a year after the arrest of governor Sergej Furgal, who was fighting corruption.

Negotiations are currently underway with other oil companies in the country. They should ensure the operation of at least 30% of the service stations, but it is not known which of them will be in operation: finding gas for one’s care will become a sort of treasure hunt.

The psychological mechanisms of Soviet times are back, when a lack in basic consumer goods was the norm: where there is a long queue, it is worth getting in line. Another Soviet custom is the full tank of speculators, who then resell the fuel on the black market.

In addition to the problem of refuelling, the queues for gasoline undermine the circulation of traffic, except in areas completely without gas stations. The cars in the queue, in fact, completely occupy one of the two carriageways of the routes, creating inextricable traffic jams. The contradictory messages that citizens share on social media only add to the confusion on the streets of cities and provinces. Many petrol stations also work only with credit cards, which are not accessible to all citizens.

These facts confirm that Russia is taking many steps backwards at the economic level, as stated in a February 5 report by the same Court of Auditors. Pavel Malkov, director of the National Institute for Statistics (Rosstat), believes it will soon become inevitable to ration various consumer products with the card system, another reminder of Soviet times.

The slide towards absolute poverty levels of many citizens had already begun in 2015, after the introduction of sanctions and the economic crisis. The year of the pandemic accelerated the freefall, which it is hoped will slow down after the mass vaccination of the population, which began early in the year.