We caught a special signal

United Russia leaders demonstratively handed over only flashing lights to the traffic police

The bill, which has been gathering dust in the office of the State Duma for three years now, with a proposal to deprive deputies of special privileges when moving along the capital’s streets, seems to have met its finest hour. United Russia deputies, who had never agreed to remove the “flag” special license plates and flashing lights from their cars, after the presidential command, declared themselves fighters for equality on the roads and began to remove the flashing lights from their cars with their own hands. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which the head of the department, Rashid Nurgaliev, announced to Vladimir Putin at the end of last week in Sochi, since the beginning of the year, every eighth car with special signals has been involved in traffic accidents. The President supported the initiative of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, proposing to reduce the number of privileged cars on the country's roads by seven times by November 1, and thus, it seems, awakened in the deputies a strong desire to become ordinary motorists.

On Monday, vice-speakers Oleg Morozov, Vladimir Katrenko, Vyacheslav Volodin, Vladimir Petrukhin, Artur Chelingarov, led by the Chairman of the State Duma and United Russia Boris Gryzlov, staged a demonstrative self-flagellation at the party headquarters. The leaders of the State Duma publicly removed the blue flashing lights from the service Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series, fortunately this procedure - unlike the complete dismantling of all special signals such as devices that change the headlight mode and special sound signals - "quacks" - takes several minutes. “We understand that the use of special signs and flashing lights creates nervousness on the roads, which leads to general disorder,” Boris Gryzlov commented on the initiative of his party comrades. “The number of beacons on the road should be reduced and not to a thousand, there should be much fewer of these signals.”

According to him, all of its members will have to follow the example of the leaders of United Russia, who have been asked to give up their special “deputy” numbers. And so that Duma United Russia members do not have the temptation, after demonstration actions, to again attach flashing lights to the roof and, turning on strobe lights in the headlights, rush, for example, along the dividing strip on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, party leaders are preparing amendments to the current legislation. Deputy Speaker Volodin promised to prepare the bill as soon as possible so that it would pass two readings at once in October. “This will be a direct law,” the official website of United Russia quotes him as saying. -- After it is adopted by both houses of the Federal Assembly and signed by the president, it will immediately come into force. In the future, special signals and federal license plates should be abolished for government officials; only police vehicles, ambulances and the Ministry of Emergency Situations should be equipped with beacons.”

Neither Mr. Volodin nor Mr. Gryzlov, naturally, began to mention that such a bill, but prepared by independent deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin, has been gathering dust in the State Duma since 2003. Mr. Pokhmelkin, who heads the Russian Motorists Movement, proposed amendments to the law “On Road Safety”, abolishing special license plates and prohibiting deputies and officials from using flashing lights, even before the previous convocation of the lower chamber. But I didn’t find any understanding. In the current Duma, the bill also stalled in the second reading. The amendments prepared by other deputies and appeared a year ago, after the death of Mikhail Evdokimov and the conviction of the driver Oleg Shcherbinsky, whose car ended up in the path of the Altai governor’s Mercedes, were also not approved. Moreover, according to Viktor Pokhmelkin, in January last year his bill was defeated by United Russia, who are now trying to seize the initiative from him. “But better late than never,” Mr. Pokhmelkin commented to Vremya Novostey on the actions of his colleagues. - Although, to be honest, it is difficult to call this an initiative of the legislative branch. What they arranged is rather called the execution of an order.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO