Over the past couple of months, protest groups have been springing up here and there across the country, outraged by rising gasoline prices (and/or shortages in some regions).
And you can even see that outrage online: posts on this topic keep making it into the top of LiveJournal (a popular Russian blogging platform).
Personally, I’m getting more and more irritated by the total on the receipt they hand you at the gas station.
I don’t even want to get into a debate about what exactly is pushing gasoline prices up: excise taxes, taxation in general, mistakes with the commodities exchange and the transition to European standards, monopolism, or something else.
Taken together, all of it points to one cause: an incompetent and corrupt government.
You can simply look at the data on how much oil refining capacity has been brought online since 1999—that is, since the start of the sharp rise in oil prices.
And at how much light petroleum product we get from a ton of oil.
The picture is clear: Putin’s “energy superpower” is really just Russia cementing its role as a raw-materials appendage, using the most primitive methods of extraction and processing.
Well, Gennady “Genka” Timchenko doesn’t care. He robs makes money on volume.
So, in short, my own small but personal act of revenge against Putin’s government over gasoline prices is this campaign video, which I asked some friends of mine to make.
Direct link: www.youtube.com/watch The idea is very simple: each of us can get back at Putin, Sechin, Timchenko, and the rest of the gang over gasoline prices. You need to go to the polls and vote for any party other than United Russia. United Russia is a political smokescreen behind which crooks operate. We need to push the idea that the Party of Crooks and Thieves should answer for rising gasoline prices. Voting against United Russia is exactly the kind of direct action available to every citizen of the country. I’m asking for help spreading the video: by email, on ICQ, across all social networks, on any forums, and on any websites no matter how much traffic they get. Let’s make life unpleasant for the Crooks and Thieves. P.S. If anyone doesn’t like the video, I encourage you to make your own and send it in. I’ll gladly post it. The more good and varied videos, the better.