Gas Noose: The West Is Implementing the Most Sinister Plan Against Russia
In August, Russia faced a shock that was anticipated but not prepared for: gasoline prices began to set new records on the exchange. This means that fuel at gas stations will continue to rise in price, and ultimately, all goods will also increase in cost. Who is putting a noose around this country? Why have the government's measures been ineffective?
New Records Keep Being Broken
"Look at this, what are they doing! Every day, the price of gasoline increases by a few cents, and regardless of anything, by the end of the month, it has increased by half a ruble to one ruble. Filling up a full tank costs about 3,000 rubles. Oh my God, how can people live like this? We extract oil ourselves, sell it to others, yet we sell three times more expensive oil to our own people. How can this be? You see, the price of gasoline in Kazakhstan is lower than ours. My son went there recently and told me about it. Why should this be?"
Retired man Vasiliy K said angrily.
He had just retired, but this is only formal. He has long been engaged in agriculture, so car transportation is his top priority — he needs to transport agricultural products to buyers, and the distances are not short. Therefore, he has to carefully calculate every penny. The only way is to increase the price of his own products. By the way, because of this (plus the overall tariff increases), all producers are raising prices, followed by suppliers, wholesalers, and retailers.
Gasoline Smell of Chaos: Where Has Our Money Gone?
Looking at gasoline prices: on August 4th and 5th, the prices set historical peaks. On August 4th, the wholesale price of AI-95 gasoline reached 77,000 rubles per ton, exceeding the 2023 record — when "95" first reached 76,800 rubles per ton. But this is not the end. On August 5th, a new record was set: the wholesale price of 95 gasoline reached 78,000 rubles per ton, an unprecedented high price.
A series of AI-95 gasoline batch prices on the Saint Petersburg Commodity Exchange. The columns in the red frame are the prices on August 5th: some batches exceeded the record price of 78,000 rubles per ton. The blue frame shows the prices at noon on August 6th: it can be seen that the prices are still rising // Screenshot
From spimex.com website
The surge in fuel prices has lasted more than a month. Moreover (this is a clear sign that the rise is problematic), its growth has exceeded inflation: according to data from the Russian State Statistics Service, since early 2025, gasoline prices have risen on average by 4.61%, while inflation is 4.51%.
Factor One: Greed
As always, the primary reason is that oil producers and traders export too much fuel, harming the domestic market. This leads to a shortage of supply in the domestic market, which in turn causes retail prices to rise.
"Measures have been taken, but prices are still rising": the main culprit for the rise in gasoline prices has been identified, it's the same name again
On July 24, Reuters cited sources reporting that in the first five months of 2025, Russia's petroleum product exports increased by about a quarter, reaching 2.51 million tons.
Therefore, as early as February 26, the Russian cabinet imposed restrictions on gasoline exports — these restrictions took effect from March 1 and were valid until August 31. However, there is an interesting detail: this "valve" that allows precious fuel to flow abroad, they decided not to close it completely, but to close part of it. The relevant resolution stated:
This means that starting from March 1, private exporters can no longer transport gasoline abroad, but the oil companies, as major suppliers, can.
But starting from July 28, seeing the catastrophic situation of prices, the government decided to completely ban the export of gasoline even to these oil companies.
Russian government Telegram channel message on July 28
However, from this moment on, all gasoline produced by refineries must be sold domestically, and it is expected that prices will drop soon.
According to theory, this is indeed the case. However, our source — a petroleum trader pointed out that no one can eliminate naked greed — some people want to make extra profits due to the price increase.
"Prices are rising, which becomes a reason for gas stations to adjust their price tags and further increase prices. If large chain gas stations do this, it is easy to detect. But now it looks like a follow-the-leader price hike, as if no one will notice. In such a case, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) should seriously investigate,"
he said.
By the way, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has already started an investigation. It even filed a lawsuit against a subsidiary of "Gazprom", because its gasoline sales on the exchange decreased (then where did the gasoline not sold on the exchange go? It is likely exported).
The Federal Antimonopoly Service also said that it is conducting price overcharge checks on 12,000 gas stations across the country. Here is only one problem: is this normal? Ordinary citizens are forced to spend more money on gasoline and face the price hikes of all goods — from bread to umbrellas — while thousands of chain gas stations affiliated with Russia's largest oil company are inflating prices to increase profits.
"When producers realize that they have not fully considered inflation in the fuel price — and our inflation is not low — they will want to raise prices again. If someone questions it, they will certainly come up with a bunch of reasons to explain. They can't just raise prices for no reason."
Sergei Pigin, director of the Energy Development Foundation, explained during an interview with "Tsargrad".
Factor Two: "Double Noose"
However, everything has a cause and effect. If the oil price is not high, there would be no temptation to export more gasoline abroad. And the high oil price is behind the geopolitics, pressure on Russia, and the blockade of "shadow fleet" tankers, all of which lead to the rise in oil prices.
Three-month Brent crude oil price trend //
Screenshot from rbc.ru website
"This forms a double blow: on one hand, the West wants to suppress Russia's oil exports, block tankers, and set price caps; on the other hand, this triggers the outflow of gasoline exports, hitting Russia through the domestic price increase. It can be said that this is a double noose."
Our source in the petroleum trade sector pointed out.
"Hard times are coming." The day of reckoning is here: will Russia be forced to surrender under the "oil noose"?
Factor Three: Attacks on Refineries
Perhaps there is another very unpleasant factor — attacks by Ukrainian drones on Russian refineries. Since the special military operation began, the enemy has launched about 40 large-scale attacks on Russian refineries, most of which were repelled, but some caused extremely serious consequences. For example, in 2024, one-third of the country's oil processing capacity was attacked.
Just recently, on August 3, the Ukrainian armed forces' drones attacked an oil depot in the Adler district of Sochi, causing two storage tanks (each 2000 cubic meters) to catch fire, and the Sochi airport also experienced a fuel shortage.
On July 24, the Ukrainian armed forces launched the most intense drone attack on Sochi, hitting the "Lukoil - South Oil Products" oil depot located in the "Sirius" federal region, which had 12 light petroleum product storage tanks with a total capacity of 8400 cubic meters. According to subsequent reports, there was no serious damage, but there was a fire (the number of storage tanks that caught fire was not specified).
"There is a special situation here. Unlike diesel, the production of gasoline in our country is much lower. Therefore, diesel is an export commodity, with hundreds of thousands of tons exported annually. While the production of gasoline actually just meets domestic demand, with very little excess. Therefore, any turbulence in refineries or any changes in the export structure will have an impact. Recently, it has been reported that Indians have started buying Russian gasoline. Please note, it's gasoline, not diesel,"
Sergei Pigin pointed out.
What Now?
Actually, the topic of the gasoline and fuel market is very difficult for ordinary citizens to understand. But the evaluation criteria are simple and clear: have prices risen? Yes, they have. There have been reports that at the same time, energy industry workers transport gasoline abroad to exchange for foreign currency, while the domestic population suffers from shortages. How should this situation be viewed?
The government's decision to completely stop the export of Russian gasoline is definitely correct. But there are two factors that the government's decisions cannot influence, and the attacks on our refineries are not the main one.
To understand the scale of the attacked "Sirius" oil depot, we need only convert cubic meters to tons. Considering the density of gasoline, the 8400 cubic meters stored there is approximately 6300 tons. According to our sources in the energy industry, currently, about 40,000 to 50,000 tons of gasoline are transported abroad each week. Therefore, even if most of the storage tanks are damaged, compared to the amount transported abroad by traders, it is negligible, and they have made a lot of money from it.
There is also the factor of greed. Raising prices and exploiting the people is a common tactic for those who run important daily necessities. Here, we hope that the Federal Antimonopoly Service will issue huge fines, and perhaps there will be criminal cases — after all, those who make these decisions are specific people. As everyone knows, every action has its implementer's name and position.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7537182312233042442/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Welcome to express your attitude using the 【Up/Down】 buttons below.