A Twitch user who claims to be in Russia has set up a 24/7 livestream of a stovetop running a single gas burner while music plays, seemingly to troll the rest of Europe and the United States, which are currently suffering from inflation in large part fueled by the war in Ukraine. The war and sanctions against Russia slowed the flow of gas and oil from Russia to the rest of the world, driving prices up. Basically, the streamer wasting gas as “fuck you” to the West.
“From Russia With Love!” Reads a message imposed on the livestream. According to the streamer, russiangas1, running the burner constantly will only cost them $1.44 a month.
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russiangas1 is an obvious troll, but it’s an effective one. It’s avatar is an orc—a common pejorative Ukrainians use for Russians—and a message in Russian at the top asks everyone to be nice to each other. In the bottom left hand corner is a photo of a laughing man next to a rubber duckie wearing aviators, a gold chain, and a helmet with a propeller on it. Motherboard reached out to Twitch about the account but did not immediately hear back.
A thermometer in front of the burners lets the audience know how hot it is inside the room with the burners. A clock constantly runs in the back to let the audience know it’s not on a loop. russiangas1 seems to have landed on this configuration after some experimentation. Earlier streams focused just on the burner. There’s been an RGB light show, wide shots that show the setup, and periods where all four burners run. The account has even inspired a copycat.
The account was created on September 11, 2022 and first streamed on the 17th. That first stream ran for 77 hours straight, gained more than 3,000 followers, and hit a peak viewership of 1,896. As of this writing, the channel is full of viewers sharing pro-Russian messages while coverage from various Telegram channels about the stream cycles over the camera. russiangas1 is also has a link for donations. They’re trying to raise money to buy an oven to go with their burners.
Europe is facing a historic gas crisis. The EU gets a massive amount of its natural gas from Russia and Moscow has cut them off. The fuel fight is retaliation for Europe’s heavy sanctions against Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February. With winter looming, Europe is struggling to keep heaters on and run factories. The problem is so bad that businesses are shutting down and countries like Germany are considering spinning up decommissioned nuclear power plants.
Meanwhile, russiangas1 keeps streaming his single burner running 24/7 on Twitch.
