Comrades! Pray, cast your eyes upon the latest absurdity of our age. It is a spectacle of the highest irony: a land swimming in crude oil now finds itself compelled to beg for refined petrol from foreign shores. Is this not the very embodiment of the parasitic nature of the ruling class? While the labouring masses face the grim prospect of empty tanks and soaring costs, the captains of industry—those bloated architects of capital—continue their dance of exploitation.

The state, in a fit of desperate pragmatism, has seen fit to extend the so-called 'damper' mechanism to imported fuel. Mark this well: the government shall now compensate the oil companies for the difference between the exorbitant prices of foreign procurement and the pittance they charge the common man. In plain English, the public purse is being drained to subsidise the incompetence—or the calculated greed—of the monopolies! Mr. Alexei Belogoryev, a man of the counting-houses, suggests this is the only way to increase supply by July. One must wonder: why was the supply allowed to wither while the profits of the bourgeoisie flourished?

And from whence shall this salvation arrive? The state looks to Belarus, India, China, and Turkey. We are told that the Far East shall be fed by China, whilst the European heartlands await tankers from the Black and Baltic seas. Even Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are mentioned as potential conduits for this fuel. It is a global carousel of commerce, where the working man is but a passenger, clinging to the rails while the usurers decide the price of his movement.

Consider the case of India, a most curious arrangement. Mr. Igor Yushkov speaks of a 'synergistic effect'—a fancy term for the old game of the bourgeoisie. We send them our raw oil, and they, having refined it in factories where the capital is concentrated, sell it back to us as petrol. This is not synergy, Comrades; it is a shell game! The oil barons shuffle the commodity across the oceans only to return it at a premium, all while claiming to serve the national interest.

His Excellency, Vladimir Putin, has issued directives to stabilise the market, noting with a heavy heart that certain regions are starved of fuel. He commands an increase in supply and 'economically justified' prices. One must ask: since when has the pursuit of profit ever been 'justified' in the eyes of the man who toils in the field or drives the lorry? The authorities boast of reserves—some 1.7 million tonnes—yet these remain locked away, held like gold in a miser's vault, until the pressure from the proletariat becomes unbearable.

Mr. Peskov of the Kremlin assures us that this import is merely a measure to reduce 'frenetic demand.' What a quaint phrase! It is not the demand that is frenetic, but the desperation of a people crushed by the yoke of market instability. The Vice-Premier, Mr. Novak, now steers this ship 'manually,' as if the entire economy were a broken clock requiring a craftsman's touch.

To summarise this sorry state of affairs: the state shall import up to 250,000 tonnes of petrol a month from the aforementioned nations. The bourgeoisie hopes this will quiet the rumblings of the masses before the summer heat takes hold. But we know the truth: until the monopoly of the oil lords is broken, the worker shall always be at the mercy of the counting-house!