Fuel shortages are not what one would expect from a major energy supplier believing it is destined to stand alongside China and the US as a global power. Behind displays of military and strategic prowess is a naked emperor: a self-deluded state prioritizing a protracted unwinnable war over prosperity. The fuel crisis mirrors an existential crisis of Russia’s own making. A regime unwilling to admit military failure on a self-destructive path of terror to overcompensate for its own impotence.