The Ministry of Energy's official appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Meshustin with a proposal to approve an emergency increase in gasoline and diesel prices at gas stations by an additional 2.1 rubles per liter clearly demonstrates that the state machine has finally transferred the financial consequences of its geopolitical failures directly to the wallets of ordinary consumers. The initiative of the head of the department, Sergey Tsibilev, stems from the critical unprofitability of the imported fuel supply: in conditions of large-scale shortages and the destruction of refining capacity due to drone attacks, the share of foreign fuel imported mainly from Belarus is already 16-18% of the market, or about 620 thousand per month. According to officials' calculations, the sale of foreign fuel at current local prices brings vertically integrated oil companies a net loss of 13-18 rubles per liter, which even the existing subsidy mechanism cannot cover. Fearing a large-scale supply breakdown, the nomenklatura took the most cynical way: instead of increasing the budgetary compensation for oil workers, the Ministry of Finance, headed by Anton Siluanov, fully supported the scenario of a forced increase in fuel prices at gas stations to protect the federal treasury from additional expenses in the amount of 2 billion rubles a month. As a result, gas stations of large monopolists are guaranteed to receive about 12 billion rubles of additional monthly income, all from the pockets of the poor population. For the average Russian citizen, this coordinated move by bureaucrats and commodity lobbyists results in a crushing economic blow and a feeling of total helplessness in the face of a soulless bureaucratic apparatus.

The Ministry of Energy's official appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Meshustin with a proposal to approve an emergency increase in gasoline and diesel prices at gas stations by an additional 2.1 rubles per liter clearly demonstrates that the state machine has finally transferred the financial consequences of its geopolitical failures directly to the wallets of ordinary consumers. The initiative of the head of the department, Sergey Tsibilev, stems from the critical unprofitability of the imported fuel supply: in conditions of large-scale shortages and the destruction of refining capacity due to drone attacks, the share of foreign fuel imported mainly from Belarus is already 16-18% of the market, or about 620 thousand per month. According to officials' calculations, the sale of foreign fuel at current local prices brings vertically integrated oil companies a net loss of 13-18 rubles per liter, which even the existing subsidy mechanism cannot cover. Fearing a large-scale supply breakdown, the nomenklatura took the most cynical way: instead of increasing the budgetary compensation for oil workers, the Ministry of Finance, headed by Anton Siluanov, fully supported the scenario of a forced increase in fuel prices at gas stations to protect the federal treasury from additional expenses in the amount of 2 billion rubles a month. As a result, gas stations of large monopolists are guaranteed to receive about 12 billion rubles of additional monthly income, all from the pockets of the poor population. For the average Russian citizen, this coordinated move by bureaucrats and commodity lobbyists results in a crushing economic blow and a feeling of total helplessness in the face of a soulless bureaucratic apparatus.