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Sources

Pot Plot Discovered In French Prison Yard

SUD-OUEST( France)

Worldcrunch

LA ROCHELLE - About 15 30-inch-tall (80 cm) cannabis plants have been discovered in the courtyard of a prison in Saint-Martin-de-Ré, one of the 10 communes located on the Île de Ré island off La Rochelle in western France.

The district attorney of La Rochelle has confirmed that an investigation was underway and that he had asked the police to determine the circumstances in which the cannabis plants came to grow, the regional daily newspaper Sud-Ouest reveals.

"Inscrivez-vous à l'atelier jardinage, vous aurez des réductions de peine", qu'ils disaient…… sudouest.fr/2012/08/22/sai…

— Ed (@Bip_Ed) August 22, 2012

"Join the gardening workshop to get mitigated sentences," they said………

Although it is still unclear who is behind the surprising pot plot, authorities believe that the inmates tended to the garden for their own use -- with great care, judging on how tall and how healthy the plants appear to be.

The Force Ouvrière trade union, which has been denouncing the existence of such illegal gardens for years, said the plants should be destroyed "as soon as possible."

Amazing -- fifteen cannabis plants almost a meter tall found...in a prison garden. Bravo, lags, bravo screws. sudouest.fr/2012/08/22/sai…

— A common lawyer (@acommonlawyer) August 22, 2012


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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

How Russia's Wartime Manipulation Of Energy Prices Could Doom Its Economy

A complex compensation mechanism for fuel companies, currency devaluation, increased demand due to the war, logistics disruptions, and stuttering production growth have combined to trigger price rises and deepening shortages in the Russian energy market.

Photograph of Novatek's gravity-based structure platform for production of liquefied natural gas, floating on a body of water.

Russia, Murmansk Region - July 21, 2023: A view of Novatek's gravity-based structure platform for production of liquefied natural gas.

TASS/ZUMA
Ekaterina Mereminskaya

In Russia, reports of gasoline and diesel shortages have been making headlines in the country for several months, raising concerns about energy supply. The situation escalated in September when a major diesel shortage hit annexed Crimea. Even before that, farmers in the southern regions of Russia had raised concerns regarding fuel shortages for their combines.

“We’ll have to stop the harvest! It will be a total catastrophe!” agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev had warned at the time. “We should temporarily halt the export of petroleum products now until we have stabilized the situation on the domestic market.”

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

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As the crisis deepens, experts are highlighting the unintended consequences of government intervention in fuel pricing and distribution.

The Russian government has long sought to control the prices of essential commodities, including gasoline and diesel. These commodities are considered "signalling products", according to Sergei Vakulenko, an oil and gas expert and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. Entrepreneurs often interpret rising gasoline prices as a signal to adjust their pricing strategies, reasoning that if even gasoline, a staple, is becoming more expensive, they too should raise their prices.

The specter of the 2018 fuel crisis, where gasoline prices in Russia surged at twice the rate of other commodities, haunts the authorities. As a result, they implemented a mechanism to control these prices and ensure a steady supply. Known as the "fuel damper," this mechanism seeks to balance the profitability of selling fuel in both domestic and foreign markets.

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