Will the queue bring down Putin?

Few things symbolize late Soviet decay like the queue. I remember, in 1991, walking to the grocery store from school so I could hold a place in line for my mother when she returned from work. Our Russian queues were never for anything exciting, unlike the lines that now form around fashionable Brooklyn brunch spots. More of a meat-and-potatoes line, not always with meat. Now, the queue is back, and this time the commodity is gas. In some regions, fuel for ambulances is running out; elsewhere the garbage trucks have stopped running; and, across the grain belt, farmers are heading into harvest without enough diesel for their combine harvesters. Russia now being a land of capitalism, a small-service economy has sprung up around the queues, with professional paid place-holders and crowdsourced