Energy and Terrorism

I want to bring your attention to posts about energy in Russia. The first has to do with the genuine effects attacks on refineries are having on this gas station with nukes. Russia exports only a little, except weapons and oil; even the former is down. So this one caught my eye:

“Russia has increased gasoline imports from neighbouring Belarus in March to tackle the risk of shortages in its domestic market because of unscheduled repairs at Russian refineries after drone attacks”, — Reuters

So what is this about? It’s not about your trip to the Crimean coast this summer, though I would travel somewhere else for reasons. It’s not about the driving vacation. I expect civilian gas rationing at some point. So, no, a driving vacation will not be available.

This is about the planting season. The Russian planting season is short. While lower latitudes can sometimes get two plantings in, Russia has one. This can be problematic when the weather is not pleasant.

When the weather doesn’t cooperate, food shortages can become dangerous to the regime. Incidentally, insert regime here. It does not matter if this is the time of the Tsars, the Soviet period, or modern-day Russia.

These days, large tracts of Russia produce food using modern equipment. That modern equipment and the fertilizers it uses require a lot of hydrocarbons. In some ways, this is no different from planting season in Iowa. It’s tractors, and they need fuel.