We got it done

All-Russian protest of motorists was noticed by the government

Thousands of motorists who took to the streets of Russian cities yesterday only to protest at the authorities' alleged sanctions against right-hand drive cars can celebrate victory - the heads of the Cabinet of Ministers categorically stated that there will be no ban in the foreseeable future. However, it seems that the rumors about a ban on cars from Japan were just a screen, behind which preparations are actively continuing for the next increase in customs duties on the import of all used foreign cars.

An all-Russian protest action, timed to coincide with the government's discussion of the concept for the development of the domestic automobile industry, started yesterday from the Far East, where more than 90% of right-hand drive cars are owned. In Vladivostok, the action was supported by tens of thousands of motorists - every second car, including trucks and buses, was driving with its headlights on. About a thousand cars with orange ribbons, the most unpleasant color for the authorities, and slogans demanding a reduction in protective duties and OSAGO tariffs, lined up in a column and drove at walking speed along the central streets, completely paralyzing traffic in the center of Vladivostok. On Sakhalin, the action was supported by about three thousand car owners. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, motorists drove to Victory Square and drove in circles, turning on their headlights and sounding their horns.

If in Primorye law enforcement agencies, who also drive right-hand drive cars, treated the protesters loyally, then in the Khabarovsk Territory conflicts could not be avoided. In Khabarovsk, activists of the Russian Motorists Movement planned two rallies: at the regional trade union council and on the central square in front of the house of the regional government. However, already in the morning, all entrances to the city center were blocked by reinforced police squads. Protesting drivers began honking loudly. Several protesters managed to break through to the central square. Traffic police officers immediately took away their driver's licenses and car documents. “The action of drivers turning on their lights during the day and using a sound attack is an illegal form of protest,” said the head of the regional traffic police department, Viktor Savateev, who came out to the protesters, holding a stack of confiscated licenses. At the residence of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Far East, the police detained not only driver's licenses, but also their owners. Journalists also fell under the hot hand of the law enforcement officers; they were forced into a minibus, their cameras were taken away and the films in the cameras were exposed.

In Moscow, the owners of right-hand drive cars gathered in the west of the city and, tying orange ribbons on their cars, tried to drive in a convoy to the White House, where at that time the scandalous document was being discussed. However, already at the distant approaches to the bastion of executive power, traffic police officers tried to dismember the column and not let the protesters onto Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. Only about 200 cars, decorated with orange ribbons and slogans “Power, don’t smoke on the keg of gunpowder!”, “No increase in customs duties,” “I will not feed the auto industry,” etc., managed to break through to the White House. Law enforcement officers treated the protesters with poorly concealed sympathy. “The police cannot stop an unauthorized rally, since the drivers do not get out of their cars,” explained the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate yesterday. However, several car owners were still detained near the White House, and at the same time the license plates on the cars of all participants in the action were recorded.

At the height of the action, it became known that the protests of motorists had been heard. After the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, called on his colleagues “not to raise such issues out of the blue,” and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov promised that “we will not cancel any steering wheels in the near future,” the intensity of passions on the streets subsided.

However, the head of the Russian Motorists Movement, State Duma deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin believes that it is too early to talk about victory. In his opinion, all the hype around right-hand drive cars was raised solely to cover up the next increase in customs duties on used foreign cars over five years old. “It was like this three years ago: first they started rumors about a ban on right-hand drive cars, and then they raised duties for seven years,” Mr. Pokhmelkin recalled in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. The deputy is convinced that the issue of banning right-hand drive in Russia simply cannot be discussed: “Banning right-hand drive means losing the entire Far East at once. There is simply no other transport there, even government cars are all right-hand drive.”

According to Mr. Pokhmelkin, the protective duties are not justified by anything other than the appetites of automakers: “The duties introduced three years ago on foreign cars older than seven years did not lead to an increase in the quality of domestic cars, but they allowed factories to raise prices for their products.” Trying to further support the domestic manufacturer, the government is now thinking about what other restrictions to introduce on the import and operation of used foreign cars. And this can only be done with the help of duties, since it is almost impossible to introduce technical restrictions. “Even a ten-year-old foreign car is safer and more environmentally friendly than the products of the domestic automobile industry,” the deputy is convinced.

Alexander GUDKOV, Ilya SERGEEV, Khabarovsk, Dmitry CHERNOV, Vladivostok