The Federation of Russian Car Owners carried out an absolutely excellent action. They positioned themselves at the intersection of Bolshaya Yakimanka and Bolshaya Polyanka—a place where you can observe the entire “vertical of power” (Russia’s top-down power structure) on wheels in all its glory.
I myself, standing there in that massive traffic jam, must have thought a million times: when is someone finally going to stop being lazy, film this, and demand an investigation? That huge, permanent traffic jam heading “into the center” is constantly bypassed in the oncoming lane by crooks of every kind. Well, all right, at least the crooks with flashing lights and sirens have some formal right to do it. But it’s not just the flashing-light crowd having fun there—there are even more revolting characters: people carrying various official IDs and passes. They don’t have flashing lights, but that doesn’t stop them from driving in the oncoming lane. The stream of these “well-connected” drivers gets so dense that sometimes there’s even a traffic jam in the oncoming lane. There is constantly (!) a traffic cop on the corner. He is the most tolerant traffic cop in the world. He looks at the violator’s license plate, and if the plate seems important enough to him, he immediately looks away lazily. If the plate raises doubts, the cop walks up to the window, they show him something, and then he goes back to his booth. A typical episode can be seen from 3:50. The policeman’s bewilderment deserves an Oscar: what?! How did you let him go? You didn’t let him go!
It would be good if actions like this continue. In my view, they should be expanded a bit: for every holder of one of these “official IDs,” they should simply draw up an administrative violation report on the spot, attach photographs, and send it to the traffic police through the normal procedure. Without any ceremonial handover to the “chief traffic cop.” And the officer on duty should be warned right away: either you stop and process every violator regardless of their IDs, or we’ll be filing paperwork on you too, for every single incident.