“Slow but sure”: Oleg is full of gas in Moscow and Vitupes against the increase in prices nourished by greater demand and Ukrainian strikes against oil infrastructure, the key sector of the Russian economy that Westerners want to sanction.
“Everyone has noticed,” Oleg, 62 years old -old withdrew: fuel prices grew in the pump. On September 1, retail gasoline cost 6.7% more than at the end of 2024, according to Rostat, the National Statistics Agency.
This increase is part of a context of general increase in the price, with annual inflation that was 8.14% in August, at a time when Russia intensifies the offensive it launched in 2022 in Ukraine.
At the beginning of September, the price of AI-95 ton, one of the most popular fuels in Russia, flew to reach more than 82,000 rubles (around 826 euros), tutoring records, according to data from the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange.
And since the beginning of summer, social networks have been saturated with videos that show tails in front of the service stations of the Russian East, in the Crimean region that Russia attached to the detriment of kyiv in 2014, and in certain regions of the South near Ukraine, due to scarcity.
On Wednesday, Izvestia’s media mentioned “supply interruptions” in “more than ten regions” in Russia, one of the main oil producers in the world.
Beef refineries
In Moscow, Russia’s showcase, there is no shortage but an increase that promoted the liter of Sans-Pomb 95 to more than 66 rubles (0.67 euros) against less than 59 (0.60 euros) in the same period of the previous year. This price, which is still much lower than those shown in many European countries, surprises the Russian consumer, accustomed not to pay dear gasoline and with a medium lower income.
Artiom, a muscovite who does not want to give his last name, observes this increase “since the beginning of the year.”
On the Gazeta.RU site, Igor Iuchkov, analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, highlights the increase in “approximately 16%” of the right of ACCRE (indirect tax) since January 1 and the fall of subsidies paid to oil companies.
Because, as for the AFP Sergei Teriochkine, the energy problem expert, “the lower the subsidies, the lower the profitability”, which pushes the tankers to “pass” these losses in retail prices.
The demand was promoted by vacation and agricultural vehicles.
Especially the strikes against refineries and oil deposits that Ukraine has multiplied to reach Moscow in the portfolio and hinder its ability to finance its offensive.
“It’s no big deal!”
One of these attacks, in mid -August, touched the Syzran refinery in the Samara region, according to Ukrainian staff. The complex is more than 800 km from the Ukrainian border. Kyiv presents as the “most important of the Rosneft system”, a Russian hydrocarbons giant.
Moscow has not quantified the impact of these attacks, but in the Kommersant newspaper, the analyst Maxime Datchenko talks about a drop in production “of almost 10%” since the beginning of the year.
“It’s no big deal!” Asociados Alexandre, a Moscow businessman, after filling the deposit of his German sedan. “One shot, two attacks, three attacks, that is nothing for the market in general or for prices.”
To try to stabilize the situation, Moscow extended the prohibition of “exporting car gasoline” until the end of October.
Russia also remains an important crude oil exporter, exports that Westerners intend to suffocate to dry one of the main sources of financing for the Russian offensive in Ukraine, a country that has the European Union as the main ally.
Source: BFM TV
