Tatneft Implements Fuel Sale Restrictions Amid Russian Shortages Russia’s fuel crunch has moved from rumor to roadside reality, as Tatneft — one of the country’s major oil players — slaps caps and cash-only rules on drivers nationwide. The move exposes a deeper tension between the Kremlin’s image of energy superpower and a supply chain rattled by war.

Tatneft’s line: “Temporary,” technical, nationwide

Tatneft has now admitted what motorists have been seeing at the pump: fuel sales are being restricted “at all of its gas stations in Russia,” with payment “temporarily” accepted in cash only. Interfax reports drivers in Chelyabinsk are told passenger cars can buy no more than 30 liters of gasoline or 60 liters of diesel, while trucks are capped at 300 liters.

Earlier reporting traced the creeping squeeze as Tatneft “limits gasoline sales across several Russian regions,” from Samara and Nizhny Novgorod to Udmurtia, Kazan, Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk and parts of Kuzbass, where caps of 20 liters per customer appeared.

A separate account underscores this as a nationwide regime: “Tatneft imposes temporary fuel sales cap at all of its gas stations in Russia,” with specific quotas varying by city but the logic the same — rationing by the liter and by vehicle type.

Opposition media: war is biting the home front

Independent outlets frame the crisis not as a glitch but as blowback from the war in Ukraine. Meduza links the May onset of Russia’s “fuel crisis” to Ukrainian drone strikes on oil facilities and infrastructure, estimating that “at least 25 Russian regions are experiencing fuel-related problems.” Earlier, it noted that Ukrainian forces “regularly strike Russian oil industry facilities, including refineries,” forcing production halts and prompting regional rationing beyond Tatneft alone.

Novaya Gazeta Europe connects Tatneft’s blanket restrictions — confirmed at “all gas stations in the country” — to Ukrainian strikes on the TANECO refinery in Tatarstan.

In the official script, Tatneft’s curbs are “temporary” and “technical.” In the opposition telling, they are the clearest domestic sign yet that the war is no longer just something Russians watch on TV — it is something they queue for at the pump.