Pray, observe the spectacle of the modern age! In the outskirts of Moscow, a pack of most unscrupulous gentlemen—commercialists of the lowest order—have seen fit to treat the honest motorist as a mere lemon to be squeezed for every last farthing. The Federal Antimonopoly Service, acting as the stern magistrate of the marketplace, has launched a formal inquiry into six independent petrol-stations. These scoundrels, operating under names such as 'AIST' and the 'Fuel Syndicate,' are suspected of a conspiracy most foul: raising the price of petrol and diesel in a synchronized dance of avarice, purely to increase their own wretched profit!

But the contagion of greed does not stop at the city gates! In the distant reaches of Saratov, a certain Mr. Alkorr, managing the 'Toreko' stations, found himself in a 'collective dominant position'—which is to say, he and two other fellows of similar moral flexibility decided that the public should pay more for the privilege of moving their carriages. The authorities have issued a warning, giving the gentleman until the 31st of July to repent of his sins or face the gavel.

Not to be outdone in this race for ill-gotten gains, the merchants of Orenburg have also fallen under the scrutinizing eye of the law. Three small-scale wholesalers of diesel are now embroiled in a legal skirmish, having forgotten that the law of the land outweighs the law of the purse.

And what a delicious irony we find in the case of the 'Eurotrans' company! While the masters of the 'Trassa' network were busy inflating prices to a dizzying height, their own financial house of cards came crashing down. The company has suffered a technical default on its bonds—a most poetic collapse! It seems the gods of commerce have a wicked sense of humor: barely had the Antimonopoly Service demanded an explanation for their exorbitant prices than the company's credit vanished like a ghost in the London fog. Truly, the greed of an adventurer is often the shortest path to the debtor's prison!