Translated material
Snail against Plato
In Russia, a single protest of truckers was held: "Mediazone"
On Thursday, November 19, several dozen Russian cities held protests of truckers, dissatisfied with the commissioning of trucks on federal routes. The system for the collection of money from drivers, called Plato, earned on November 15 - and after the first protests, the authorities promised that until March 2016, fines for the failure to use the system would be charged only in the Moscow region. It turned out that fines are already being taken in other regions - this caused additional dissatisfaction of truckers. The protest was followed by the Mediazona.
On November 19, protests took place in about 70 large Russian cities (there are almost more of them - in the list compiled by the Communist movement “Work Way”, not only individual cities, but also regions as a whole are indicated). On average, several dozen cars participated in each of the shares, and the largest expense went to hundreds.
The main method of protest is the Street promotion. The bottom line is that trucks are lined up in a column, taking all the way, and move very slowly, at a speed of about 5-10 kilometers per hour.
The “Snail” practically paralyzes the movement and creates giant traffic jams, while the authorities can do nothing to fight it. The exception is Lipetsk, where traffic police officers blocked the entrance to the city and did not allow truckers, explaining that trucks are prohibited along city streets.
Another method of struggle is foot. Protesters begin to cross the pedestrian crossing back and forth, thus blocking the movement. In Chelyabinsk, the paralyzed road was free - the traffic police began to regulate traffic and pedestrians.
The third, classic method is rallies and single pickets. Such shares were held in Kaluga, Ufa, Penza, Tula and other cities.
Finally, in Buryatia, truckers staged a silent action - they simply refuse to go on flights on paid roads.
Mass shares were not without incident. On the M-10 highway near Tver, the truck drove into the crowd of protesters. One person died, three were injured. There could be more victims, but at the last moment three men were pushed by an employee of the traffic police.
In Engels of the Saratov region, the police detained seven striking truckers, but after a conversation in the police they were released. In Petrozavodsk, the traffic police machine shot down one of the protesters, the man was injured.
In Dagestan, truckers beat a driver from Belarus, who refused to participate in protest - he hit the head of one of the participants in the action during the quarrel and tried to hide, but he was caught up.
In some regions, protests will be held in the coming days: for example, the Kursk truckers intend to continue to go stand in the morning of November 20, drivers from Izhevsk plan to get the administration approval for the action in the coming days, and in Chuvashia the strike is scheduled for November 21.
In connection with the accident in the Tver region, Rosavtodor asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to check the organizers of all shares in the country. They “conduct unauthorized rallies near federal roads, exposing the life of not only the participants in the strikes, but also ordinary motorists. Such calls and actions are a direct threat of citizens' safety, it is impossible to allow the deaths of people in someone’s negligence, ”Rosavtodor said.
“The motto of our action is“ No Plato ”. But since the law has already entered into force, then we want, firstly, to achieve a reduction in tariffs. Secondly, not only heavy trucks should fall under the actions of the law-small transport is also defeated. Our third requirement - the system should be established, ”said the activist from the Volgograd region.