At the beginning of the year, Russia reported that a high-impact accident caused more than 21,000 households to lose power in the heating main pipe of a special arsenal in Klimovsk, Podolsk, Moscow, Russia. The accident caused a backlash among the Russian population, who called for a restart of heating and responsibility for the power outages.
But this is not the first time that Russia has been plagued by social unrest over energy supplies, and as the Kremlin claims, Russians are experiencing a radically different way of life than the national news promotes.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant noted that the power outage was not only due to the deliberate destruction of Ukrainian spies, but also some internal factors, such as errors in the maintenance and operation of the equipment. Local people gathered to call on the authorities to take immediate action, but the police intervened, adding to the anger of the population. The accident is only a small part of Russia as a whole, most of which is not due to external factors, but more due to internal administrative and operational errors.
Closely related to people's lives, as one of Russia's main economies, its energy output has also been severely impacted. Russia's oil-exporting industry has been struggling because of the growing number of Western sanctions. According to Reuters, Russia will send about 68 billion cubic meters of natural gas next year, the fewest since 1985. This figure is down 1 3 from 2022 and half from before the outbreak of the war. Europe, Russia's largest gas export market, exported only 28.3 billion cubic meters in 2022, a significant decrease from the same period last year.
Many European countries have begun to boycott gas imports from Russia and are looking for other suppliers. Norway, for example, has managed to make up for Russia's monopoly on the German oil market, thus making Russia a major energy power in Europe. For Russia, this will be a heavy blow, especially given the growing economic situation.
At the same time, Russia is also in trouble in the oil market. Recently, it was reported that the issue of payments was an important reason for the significant reduction in Russia's oil imports to India. Russia wants to pay in dollars and euros, but India is afraid of being sanctioned by Western countries, so it prefers to pay in rupees. This has raised a cascade of problems, including Russia's inability to pay the huge Indian rupees and the hesitation and apprehension of Indian companies when doing business with Russia.
Although Russia has shown close ties with India in its foreign exchanges, there are still many obstacles in the economic and trade fields between the two sides. Indian companies are worried about payments, a common problem that Russia encounters in global business activities.
These problems not only pose many problems for Russia, but also make them related to the difficulties faced by the people's livelihood and energy exports. In stark contrast to the exuberant atmosphere that the Kremlin proclaims, people are increasingly dissatisfied with their own living conditions. With Western countries imposing prolonged sanctions on Russia's economy, the problem of energy supply in their own countries has also caused people more problems.
As far as Russia is concerned, it should actively respond to changes in the international, domestic and international environment, strengthen its own structural adjustment, enhance its diversity, and strengthen its ability to resist crises. At the same time, the increasingly serious problems of the Russian people's livelihood should also arouse the great attention of all countries in the world, so as to promote the survival and development of the Russian people and provide a good environment for them to achieve peace and development.