Novorossiysk suspends gasoline sales to private drivers as Russian fuel crisis bites
By Jekaterina Golubkova
July 3 (Reuters) – Russia’s Novorossiysk city said on Friday it was suspending gasoline sales to private drivers, and the Black Sea resort town of Anapa said Kazakhs had helped prevent clashes at gas stations as its fuel crisis worsened after the Ukrainian attacks.
Long lines of cars are now forming at gas stations across Russia as motorists feel the impact of Ukraine’s attacks on its energy infrastructure in a bid to force Russia to make peace after more than four years of war.
The attacks, which followed Russia’s strike on Ukrainian energy facilities, forced the world’s third-largest oil producer to import gasoline from as far away as India and led to caps on how much drivers could buy in some regions and other steps to manage shortages.
Officials announced that gasoline sales to private drivers were stopped in Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest oil export point in the Black Sea, and said that so-called fuel cards were issued to municipal services, companies and businessmen for fuel purchases.
Diesel remains available at eight filling stations, officials said.
In a sign of concern that anger would spill over in Anapa, a popular holiday destination in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, the city government said on Telegram that Cossacks were helping to maintain order as cars queued for fuel.
“They regulate traffic flow, prevent conflicts and attempts to fill gas cans with fuel, and ensure that the queue is maintained in an orderly manner,” the post published late Thursday said.
Cossacks are a historical military and social group known for their distinctive uniforms and fur hats. By tradition, Cossacks guarded Russia’s border regions, but in recent years they have also been used to support the police from time to time.
LIMITATION ON OIL PURCHASES
Like other places in Russia and parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine, Anapa limits drivers to purchasing 20 liters of gasoline per car; Aleksandra Nesterenko, a resident, told a local television station that was enough for about a week.
In the video, administration official Arsen Melkumyan said the changes helped reduce the wait time from four hours to 30 to 40 minutes.
Anatoly Kasyanov, wearing a khaki uniform and traditional fur hat, said in the video that the Cossacks “helped people navigate the gas station and prevented conflicts.”
Anapa is one of the most populated resorts in the Krasnodar region, where energy infrastructure is a frequent target of Kiev’s air strikes.
Krasnodar police said they detained two people after 1,000 liters of AI-95 gasoline were found in their car and they were suspected of reselling the fuel at a higher price.
Russia on Thursday allowed refineries to produce higher-sulfur gasoline and diesel for six months until the end of the year, in addition to other measures to ease the fuel crisis spreading across Russia’s eastern borders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy proposed peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times, but Putin rejected these proposals and Russia continued the large-scale occupation it started in 2022.
Both sides attack almost daily, and on Thursday Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles into Ukraine’s capital Kiev, killing at least 30 people.
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Tom Hogue and Timothy Heritage)
