The occupiers can’t even agree among themselves on what lies to tell Crimeans about gasoline. Gauleiter Aksyonov promised that 95-octane gasoline would be available for general sale in two days. State Duma Deputy Babashov cited a timeframe of “two weeks.” And only the Crimean occupation Minister of Energy, Voronkin, admitted that large volumes of fuel should not be expected on the peninsula in the near future.

That’s why a Crimean driver’s morning traditionally begins with checking social media posts that list where and when fuel is available today. On July 2, gasoline was sold at two gas stations in Simferopol, one in Yalta, and as many as seven in Sevastopol. At each station, 20 liters were dispensed into the tanks of 100 cars. How do you become one of the lucky ones? There are two options: spend a few hours in line or buy your way into the line. Ingenious citizens charge between 3,000 and 5,000 rubles for this. The cost of fuel (the official price today was 205 rubles per liter) thus doubles on average…

… and is equal to the price charged by resellers — 380–400 rubles per liter of gasoline or diesel fuel.

The situation with electricity is even worse — you can’t buy it for any amount of money. In Sevastopol, officials solemnly announced this morning that there would be no power outages today. Two hours later, the lights went out. In Saki, Dzhankoy, Feodosia, and Yevpatoria, residents aren’t expecting power to return until at least tomorrow morning. And Krasnoperekopsk and Armyansk have been living without electricity for the fifth day in a row. The day before, outraged residents of Armyansk demanded to be allowed to at least charge their phones at the occupation administration building, which the blackout had strangely bypassed. Officials initially relented and allowed people into the auditorium, but this display of unprecedented generosity lasted only a few minutes. The residents had barely managed to plug in their devices when they were shown the door. 

However, according to our sources in Armyansk, electricity isn’t the biggest problem here right now. Several districts of the city have been without water for two weeks. Given that Crimea recorded its highest temperature on record yesterday — +35.9 degrees — people are concerned about an outbreak of infectious diseases.