In Dagestan, car drivers rally against rising gasoline prices

On May 20, drivers gathered near a car market on the road from Makhachkala to Derbent. They protested against the rise in price of gasoline at the filling stations of Dagestan.

According to Shamil Khadulaev, the chairman of the coordinating council of the Dagestani NGO, who attended the place of the protest, car drivers came to the rally after a message on the gathering had been disseminated in mobile messengers. Shamil Khadulaev is not aware who wrote a message to organize a protest action.

He said that the drivers who came to the protest action started to discuss the reasons for the rise in price of gasoline. "Some protestors associated the price growth with the fact that owners of gasoline stations began to pay more money to the budget every month: 210,000 roubles instead of 150,000 as earlier. Other drivers explained that by the general increase in the price of gasoline throughout the country. Meanwhile, in response, other drivers said that for some reason, the price of gasoline had not grown in Chechnya and Ingushetia," Shamil Khadulaev said.

The car drivers offered to hold a rally in a square in the city. However, according to Shamil Khadulaev, he explained to the protesters that a rally was to be sanctioned by the authorities and the actions themselves were to be held in certain places only.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.