Russians Urged To Work Remotely Amid Fuel Crisis

Email: online@newsofbahrain.com

MOSCOW: Authorities in Russia’s Novosibirsk region issued a decree this week urging residents to transition to remote work and minimize private vehicle travel. This emergency action aims to address a deepening fuel crisis across the major Siberian economic hub, which serves nearly three million people.

The fuel scarcity is a direct consequence of a recent Ukrainian strike on an oil refinery in the neighboring Omsk region. This facility was one of Russia's largest, and its destruction has significantly hampered national oil processing capacity. 

Since June, over 90 percent of Russian regions have reported similar shortages, forcing some areas to implement petrol rationing and prohibit filling jerry cans.

Neighboring regions like Tomsk and the city of Irkutsk have adopted similar, urgent containment strategies. Government officials are being directed to reconsider non-essential business travel and shift professional meetings to online platforms to reduce fuel consumption.

While President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the supply chain failures, he insisted the situation is not critical. He instead accused Kyiv of leveraging these infrastructure strikes to sow division within Russian society amid the ongoing war.