To Deal with Gas Crisis, Moscow Approves Production and Sale of Dirtier Gasoline, a Move that will Harm Machinery, the Environment and Public Health

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 3 – To try to get more gasoline to consumers and stem popular outrage, the Russian government has approved the production and sale of dirtier gasoline of a kind it had banned since the 1990s, something that will harm machinery and the environment and threaten public health both immediately and over the longer term.

            Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has issued a decree allowing Russian firms to sell gasoline with a far higher sulfur content until the end of this year in the hopes of increasing the amount of gas consumers can buy (meduza.io/en/news/2026/07/03/russia-permits-sale-of-downgraded-gasoline-as-fuel-crisis-drags-on and readovka.news/news/245108/).

            Such dirty gasoline is already banned by the EU and most countries, including the Russian Federation up to now, and means that Moscow won’t be able to sell any of it except to the few countries that don’t have such standards in place. But the real negative impact will be elsewhere.

            Such sulfur-rich fuel will harm the machinery in which it is used and the environment in which such cars and trucks operate and overtime will compromise public health, with experts saying that Russia will see “a sharp increase” in mortality in seven to nine years novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/07/03/cherez-7-9-let-my-uvidim-rezkii-rost-smertnosti).

            In sum, this decision shows that the Russian government is so desperate to end the current gas crisis with its long lines at gas stations and rising anger among the population that it is more than ready to compromise not only machinery and the environment but the health of the peoples of the Russian Federation.