Something simply indescribable is happening with gasoline prices in our country. This is nothing less than a massive cartel conspiracy and the theft of tens of billions of rubles from the public.
A lot of people are talking about this, but here, once again, are a few simple charts so everyone can understand.
Let’s look at the quarterly trend in oil prices. This chart clearly shows a significant drop in prices. Yes, that’s bad for the Russian budget, but there is one upside: gasoline prices should go down. After all, as we know, gasoline is made from oil. And if there’s one thing our country has in abundance, as we know, it’s oil.
Now let’s look at the gasoline price chart for the same period in such a car-dependent country as the United States:
As we can see, it all makes sense. The market economy is working. The price of the raw material falls, and the price of the product falls too. Americans are happy—their households are saving money.
However, the United States does produce oil, and in increasing amounts. Its market is somewhat specific. So let’s look at a country where no oil is produced at all—where it is only imported.
Here is the price of gasoline in Japan in U.S. dollars:
Here is the price of gasoline in Japan in yen:
And in Japan, everything is logical and working as it should. Japanese households are happy—they are saving money.
Just to be thorough, let’s also look at the price of gasoline in China (in yuan):
And now let’s look at Russia—a major oil producer. If we’re constantly described as a gas-and-oil state, maybe the population gets some benefit from that?
Not only do the most basic rules fail to work, but everything is actually the exact opposite: the cheaper oil gets, the more expensive gasoline becomes. Both in Moscow and across Russia.
Russians are not happy at all—their households are paying more and more.
The annual chart of gasoline prices across the country looks even more hellish.
Is the falling ruble against the dollar to blame? But the oil companies’ costs are mostly in rubles.
There is only one explanation: this is a full-blown mafia-style monopoly conspiracy. And one sanctioned by the state at that: oh, poor suffering oil executives, has the price of oil fallen? Fine then—so that you can keep paying Sechin a salary of 5 million rubles a day, we’ll just turn a blind eye while you make a deal, raise prices, and force the public to pay you more.
What’s more, the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) has just approved a “tax maneuver” that, by everyone’s account, will mean that gasoline prices in Russia will rise by at least another 10%.
The Communists used to love the phrase “anti-people regime,” and it fits perfectly now. The people are literally being robbed.
Our Duma loves issuing appeals, banning things, or making demands. Now would be a perfect moment. This cartel conspiracy is a criminal offense on a truly unimaginable scale—one of the biggest we have seen in recent years.
And that is not an exaggeration or a figure of speech.
I know one guy in Russia who had five criminal cases opened against him on charges along the lines of “selling at a knowingly inflated price.” You could practically copy the wording straight from his indictments.
Of course, we at ACF (the Anti-Corruption Foundation) will file a complaint with the antimonopoly service, but this clearly calls for some kind of nationwide action.
And let me remind you that our bill provides for criminal liability for illicit enrichment to apply to the management of companies such as Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, and others as well. So vote.
Update. A lot of comments are coming in about the specifics of pricing in the oil industry. I strongly recommend reading these before arguing: http://www.forbes.ru/ekonomika-column/rynki/68757-mify-opravdyvayushchie-nehvatku-benzina-i-vysokie-tseny-na-nego-moshenn http://www.forbes.ru/mneniya-column/konkurentsiya/246553-oligopolnaya-marzha-pochemu-v-rossii-takoi-dorogoi-benzin
And also: