Cossacks Patrol Anapa Gas Stations Amid Fuel Crisis
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- Cossacks and volunteers are helping police maintain order at petrol stations in Anapa, regulating traffic and preventing conflicts as drivers queue for fuel, the city's administration said on Telegram.
- Ukraine's strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have triggered a countrywide fuel crisis, forcing Russia — the world's third-largest oil producer — to import gasoline from as far away as India.
- Anapa's rationing limits drivers to 20 litres of gasoline per car, enough for about a week according to resident Aleksandra Nesterenko, with wait times falling from up to four hours to 30-40 minutes.
- Russia's government decreed Thursday that refiners may produce higher-sulphur gasoline and diesel for six months through year's end as one of several measures to ease the crisis.
- Krasnodar officials reported Friday that falling drone debris damaged private houses and a gas pipeline in the region, with no casualties.
Why it matters: Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer, is now rationing gasoline and importing it from India — an extraordinary reversal that Ukraine's drone campaign has forced on a sector Putin rarely admits is strained. The 20-litre-per-car cap, four-hour queues, and a government green-light for dirtier higher-sulphur fuel through year-end show the disruption has reached ordinary Russians at the pump, not just refinery output.
