The car of one of the leaders of United Russia, Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu, is forcing its way through a traffic jam on the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road) with its flashing beacon on.
(This happened yesterday, and the traffic there really was terrible. I, for one, was stuck there for more than an hour.)
At 0:18 you can hear Kuzhugetych’s driver shouting for the whole MKAD to hear: "What the fuck, idiot, want me to shoot you in the head or what, moron"? The beacon is on, which means Shoigu must be in the car. A quick search of the internet (including the Emergency Situations Ministry website) turns up no event that the Son of Kuzhuget could have been rushing to so urgently that a special signal had to be used. He was hurrying to his dacha. A patrician, obviously. One day, sooner or later, they’ll drag some figure like that out of the car and hang him right from a lamppost on the MKAD. By the way, I never let cars like that through, and I urge everyone else to do the same. Put the proper markings and lettering on your car, and then drive. But these rushing blAck Mercedeses are beyond tiresome. Every time, in the end, they just go around on the right. And the explanation is simple: if it ever comes to an inquiry, in 99% of cases there was no emergency necessity for using the flashing beacon. He just overslept and is now late for work. Update. Okay, I agree with the many commenters calling for a complaint to be filed with the prosecutor’s office. We will send such complaints. The facts requiring investigation: a public death threat, one that sounds entirely credible given that it came from a car with FSO plates (Federal Protective Service) was Shoigu in the car? Judging by the flashing beacon, yes. Did Shoigu order the death threat to be made? if Shoigu himself did not give such an order, then what action did he take when this happened in his presence? what emergency required his car to be traveling this way? Why were the flashing lights turned on? We’ll send it on Monday. Update 2 I spoke with Andrei, the author of the video. He plans to contact law enforcement regarding the death threat. We will help him draft the complaint properly. The Emergency Situations Ministry has already said that Shoigu was not in the car and the driver was "punished." That is clearly not enough: if any one of us said to some such "servant of the people" in a Mercedes with a flashing beacon, "What the fuck, want me to shoot you in the head?", we would be in huuuuge trouble. It is unclear why, in the reverse situation, we are supposed to be reassured by "Shoigu was not in the car, the driver was punished."