Russia: Gasoline Protests Hit 50 Cities

Motorists in about 50 cities across the country protested rising gasoline prices Saturday and called on the government to take measures to punish producers of substandard fuel.

Media reports said the protests had anywhere from a few dozen participants, including in Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, to as many as 200 in Moscow. The demonstrations, organized by the Freedom of Choice driver’s movement, involved lines of cars driving through city centers with their emergency lights on and empty fuel canisters taped to their roofs.


The protests came amid heightened concerns over spiraling inflation, which threatens to exceed a yearly 15 percent this month, and world oil prices. U.S. oil hit a record of just over $135 a barrel last week.

“The state should do more to hold people responsible for the production and sale of substandard gasoline, including prison terms for the heads of companies producing and selling it,” the driver’s movement wrote on its web site. The group also calls for cutting the tax on car fuel to 40 percent, from the current 70 percent, and bringing down the retail price for gasoline to 15 rubles (63 cents) per liter, from 22 rubles now.

Moscow Times