Wholesale is cheaper

On Friday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the “highest in the world” prices for jet fuel and promised “personnel solutions” if the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) does not finally pay attention to the problem. The result was not long in coming. As Vedomosti writes, the service responded to the criticism and opened cases against LUKOIL, Gazprom Neft, the TNK-BP holding, Rosneft and Surgutneftegaz. Prices for jet fuel and diesel fuel are rising faster than prices for other petroleum products. Due to too high wholesale prices, jet fuel at Russian airports is more expensive than abroad. The FAS will have to prove that these companies control more than 70% of the jet fuel and diesel fuel market and are consistently raising prices. If the FAS decides that companies abused their dominance, they face a recourse fine. Its size is 1-15% (in practice - 7-8%) of revenue in product markets (no more than 2% of the total).

Another interesting thing is that it is known that all these companies are, one way or another, controlled by the state, and if Vladimir Putin really wanted to solve the problem with jet fuel, then he could “just ask.” It is ridiculous to demand something from the Antimonopoly Service in a state where the government creates monopolies with its own hands.