The price of traffic jams

Activists of the St. Petersburg branch of the association of carriers of Russia conducted a protest against paid travel along the intracity highway of the Western high -speed diameter (ZSD). This is not the first action of St. Petersburg truckers. A year ago, they became the initiators of the All -Russian protest of cargo carriers against the introduction of the Plato State Road Tax. Promotions against the collection of this “tax” continued all year throughout the country. The new protest year of truckers will begin with the trial of Alexander Makarov, who took part in the protest on January 5 at the WHSD.

​

On January 5, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a group of cars and one truck drove up to the barriers at payment points on the southern section of the western high-speed diameter line and made symbolic clashes with barriers, which inevitably entailed the coming of the traffic police and the design of a traffic accident. Traffic and police officers were not long in coming. They examined the barriers that were in perfect order. But the passage along the highway was closed up to 18 hours. A huge cork was formed, which caused numerous dissatisfied statements of motorists stuck in this traffic jam on social networks, many of which returned from Pulkovo Airport. All this time, all three hours, activists of the St. Petersburg branch of the association of carriers of Russia, who acted as the authors of this protest against the western -speed diameter maintenance payment fee, tried to convince employees of the payment points for the opening for cars and invited them to write down their cars in order to write statements to the police later. The organizer of the action coordinator of the association of carriers of Russia Andrei Bazhutin says:

Apparently, this provocation was specially arranged

- Only fifteen people participated in our stock, it was no longer planned to attract because the action was at the checkpoint of payment, and there were no more driveways there. Faced with barriers. The result was small accidents, and then drawn up the protocols.

During the action, one of its participants was detained, Alexander Makarov. According to Andrei Bazhutin, his police detention was unlawful:

- This is a very strange situation. It seems to us that the police have not acted recently recently. Alexander Makarov, who was detained, was in the car, and at the moment when he was detained, the accused inspectors of the traffic police issued him. A policeman, not an employee of the traffic police, namely a policeman, approached, and asked to show the documents. Alexander Makarov took out his passport and in his hands began to show him to the policeman. He said that the passport should be transferred to him, but Alexander replied that it was enough that he shows him. He was pulled out of the car and taken. We were distracted at this moment. Apparently, this provocation was specially arranged. I know that if an accident happens and the traffic police officer draws up a protocol, does not come additionally and does not require her to be a passport, and even takes a person somewhere for disobedience. This is insanity, in fact! Excess of authority. And in the police station, some police officers told Alexander that there was a call “from above” with an order that at least one activist was detained. Alexander is also charged with the fact that he allegedly blocked the track. But how could he block the road if at that time the traffic police issued an accident with his participation?

Human rights activist, lawyer Dinar Idrisov , monitoring the situation with participants in various protests detained in St. Petersburg, said that Alexander Makarov was first accused of blocking transport communications under Article 20.18 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, later the accusation of disobedience to the legal requirements of the police under Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation was also added.

Thanks to the second article, the police of the 29th department of the Moscow District of St. Petersburg received a formal opportunity to leave Alexander Makarov for the night before the court in the police department, where he caught a cold. This police department has long been known to St. Petersburg truckers. According to lawyer Dinar Idrisov, on December 29, the coordinator of the association of Russian carriers Andrei Bazhutin was detained by the police after a conflict with the guards of the departure of the western speed diameter and spent the night in the cell of this police department. He was charged with “petty hooliganism” under Article 20.1, part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation after he touched the barrier to the system of monitoring the movement of vehicles and made appropriate video. On December 30, Andrei Bazhutin was released in the building of the Moscow District Court of St. Petersburg. Judge Valery Kovaleva considered that the protocol submitted by the 29th police department and the case of an administrative case contain an unheard of violations of the law, and returned the material to the police. The latter were spoiled to detain the activist again, but he was protected by a numerous support group, with which two police officers did not risk conflict.

Lawyer Dinar Idrisov on his Facebook page talks about what mores reign in this police department:

"On December 29, when analyzing the detention of the Chairman of the OPR Andrei Bazhutin in the 29th department of the police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Moscow District of St. Petersburg, they met the king there, by the way, only a police officer with a sergeant, without documents, in an untidy form, without a token, but with a pathos of a real monarch. It was only funny, if not sad." Look. "

Lawyer Dinar Idrisov said that the trial of Alexander Makarov will take place in the coming days. Conducting their action, truckers were counting on a large public outcry. “We really hoped for the information space, to the fact that they would pay attention to the problems that we have encountered,” says Andrei Bazhutin:

- In addition to the construction of a western high -speed diameter paid from our pocket, there are also no alternative travel to the port, only through the WHSD. Everywhere there are signs prohibiting the passage of trucks. There are a lot of problems, and it is to these problems that we want to attract public attention, especially considering that Vladimir Putin was recently present at the opening of the central section of the WHSD.

The reaction to the protest of truckers received on the same day, January 5, from the press service of the company "Magistral of the Northern Capital", the main investor in the construction of Western speed diameter. According to the official statement , in connection with the incident, the company reserves the right to appeal to law enforcement agencies and will consider the issue of submitting claims about compensation for material damage - under -reciprocated funds in connection with the blocking of the bands at the payment point.

How real is this threat and what is the estimated amount of material damage caused by the truckers of the company? The “Highway of the Northern Capital” does not answer this question. By phone numbers, the leaders did not pick up the phone.

Residents of St. Petersburg, including their taxes, have already paid for this construction

The western high -speed diameter , the central section of which was opened by President Vladimir Putin, who called the highway “very good road”, is an investment project of an international scale, the construction of which began in St. Petersburg in 2005. He is considered the world's largest example of public-private partnerships in the field of road construction. This is the first paid intracity highway line in Russia. Its total length is about 47 kilometers. The cost of building only the central part of the western high -speed diameter 11 kilometers long amounted to 120 billion rubles, which allowed some experts to call this highway the most expensive in the world. The main investor of the WHSD is the company “The Northern Capital Magistral”, 50% of which belongs to the Bank of VTB, 41.5% - Gazprombank, both banks are state -owned, and 8.5% belongs to the Cypriot lawyer Rois Tatomitis, which everyone considers only the nominal owner of the shares. As far as the Governor of St. Petersburg, Valentin Matvienko, entered into a concession agreement with the company “The Northern Capital Railway”, according to which the company will operate the route and collect the fare for it until 2042. The fare along the western speed diameter in different sections is from 45 to 300 rubles.

The deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, has long been trying to get the text of this concession agreement in order to understand why Petersburgers from their pockets must pay the profit of the company “The Master of the Northern Capital”. Boris Vishnevsky refers to the action of truckers with sympathy:

Firstly, they take me a fare for the WHSD, and secondly, they are going to provide profit from my pocket to concessionaires

- Truckers have every reason to dissatisfaction with the collection of a fare for the WHSD. The western high -speed diameter, which was built for many years, was built on 80% on budget funds, at the remaining 20% it was built at the funds of banks that are controlled by the state, VTB and Gazprombank. It is completely clear that this is the same budget money. And in this situation, taking a fare, in my opinion, is absolutely unfair and wrong, since the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, including their taxes, have already paid for this construction. Why should they pay for travel on the road built for their money? In the world, paid roads are not built at the expense of the budget anywhere. A private trader is building a paid road as a parallel to free, and after that he can take money for travel along it to compensate for his expenses. In this case, we have practically no such private traders, or are in the form of quasi -participants - VTB and Gazprombank. We all understand that these are not private structures. Therefore, from the very beginning, I thought it was completely wrong to charge a fare for the WSD. This is the first part of the problem. The second part of the problem, less known: there is a concession agreement, the text of which I requested from the administration. I haven’t received it yet, but I hope to get it, although I understand that they will try not to give it to me. In this agreement it is allegedly written “supposedly”, because no one saw the text, although officials all the time refer to it that the city pledged to compensate for the concessionaires of their USDs by their undivided profit. So, relatively speaking, they wrote a profit of five billion rubles a year, and we must, if they did not receive this profit, compensate them for the difference. In fact, it turns out that if not a single car does not pass along the Wed farsterosm, they will still receive this money at the expense of the budget, that is, from the pocket of the townspeople. Well, where is it good? In the budget of next year, 4.2 billion rubles were allocated for these compensation. The question is, with what fright the city should pay them? Why should the city provide them with a profitable business? When the budget for the next year was discussed, the Yabloko faction, which I have handled in the Legislative Assembly of this convocation, voted against the budget and made amendments so as not to allocate money for the WHSD, since it was just robbery. But, unfortunately, the parliamentary majority - the United Russia, together with the LDPR, was rejected this amendment. Now it turns out that the city laid money in its budget for 2017 for payments to concessionaires to the WHSD. I hope to get this concession agreement, and then I will discuss with lawyers the issue of appealing in court of this agreement as citizens who violate the rights, including mine, since they are going to ensure the profit of the WHSD from my pocket. And I'm not going to ride it. In general, I practically do not drive by car, although I have it, but very old. And if I even traveled, I would consider it completely unfair, that, firstly, they take a fee for traveling around the ZSD, and secondly, that they are going to provide profit from my pocket to concessionaires. Here is such an economic situation. Therefore, the requirements of truckers, in my opinion, are completely justified.

Deputy Boris Vishnevsky was not the only deputy who reacted to the protest of the St. Petersburg truckers. A lone voice came from the State Duma. Andrey Bazhutin is ironic:

- We were “supported” by Mr. Milonov. He wrote that we are “homeless people” and “losers”. This was such the only support of the State Duma deputy. We will now prepare a lawsuit on the fact of insulting us, and no one else supported us.

The coordinator of the association of Russian carriers Andrei Bazhutin warned that the shares of Russian truckers will continue until the government of the country hears their protest and arguments.