Two weeks ago, a member of parliament from Putin's party United Russia got drunk (as in smashed) and took his Porche Cayanne for a ride, killing a 23-year-old student, an only provider for his disabled parents...
On June 14, 2011, Foreign Policy magazine, in its article "Road Rage in Russia," asked: "Moscow's elite has decided it doesn't need to follow the traffic laws. Will there be a pedestrian revolution?" RussiaBlog has written about the issue for years (here are samples from 2005, 2006, 2007, and more), exposing crimes and murders committed by Russia's ruling elite on the roads; to save the suspense - the answer to the Foreign Policy's question is: "No, there will be no revolution." The reasons behind the answer are complex and rooted into a thousand-year history of the nation, its mentality, geography, and ruling style of the past 500 years (that surprisingly hasn't changed from Ivan the Terrible to Bolsheviks to Yeltsin to Putin).
As mentioned in the RussiaBlog's article "Enough Is Enough. President Medvedev - Stop the Killing of Russia's Innocent Drivers!" - Ivan the Terrible was the first person to make sure that his carriage wheels splashed bystanders with mud. It made him laugh back in mid-1500-s. Tsars, Soviet secretaries, and first presidents of modern Russia (Yeltsin, Putin, Medvedev) have done the same. Here's what many Westerners don't know and probably will have hard times understanding: the majority of common people--on the outside oppressed by the elite's driving techniques--in fact are proud of this old Russian tradition.
The pride shows the most during a president's inauguration, when Russians gather around TVs to admire black shiny (German) Mercedeses driving over to Kremlin. History is a funny thing - if Hitler didn't make it to Kremlin, his people's cars sure did in the 21st century.
There is unexplainable pride for the Motherland that arises from the drivers of unsafe tin cans called "Lada" when they see a $1.5 million bullet proof Mercedes with the blue lights passing by. Russians love the display of might. Today, displaying might is harder than ever - American troops and aircraft carriers are everywhere, London is the superior financial center, Paris has the art, and Chinese shoot corrupt bureaucrats in the head. Thus, Russians, as a nation who has 101 billionaire, find new ways of showing and observing the Might. They do it by buying $20 hot dogs in Moscow, $500 bottles of Chivas Regal at European resorts, $3,000 suits in duty-frees, and paying the 110% import tax on foreign vehicles. While certain outrageous behaviors that get caught on camera do get punished, others don't.
And before we launch into case studies of good (criminals got punished) and bad (innocent people got killed) stories, the main question that Russian bureaucrats should answer is: Why celebrate the WWII Victory Day, if Russian taxpayers' money is spent on 100% German-made vehicles? And why, while many villages across the country don't have electricity and gas, a bureaucrat in charge of Nature Preservation Ministry needs a brand-new tuned-up Mercedes? (in this video his driver is hiding the blue light after an accident). Many videos on YouTube have brave comments, calling for the murder of the bureaucrats, assassination of Putin personally, and mutilation of blue-light cars. However, we are yet to see the day when people actually stand up for their rights with physical aggression. For now, the feeling of fear and pride are just way too strong.
Stories: good and bad
Just two weeks ago, a drunk-out-of-his-mind member of parliament Dmitry Ostrovenko ( from Putin's United Russia Party) in Rostov-on-Don collided with several cars in his Porsche Cayenne, eventually squeezing to death a 23-year-old student Igor Verbenko, an only child and provider to two disabled parents and a fiancé to a loving girl. The MP will most likely get stripped of his immunity and get a year or two of home arrest, but the other questions (answers to which would get him shot in China) are looming - what is a young member of parliament, in charge of taxes and financial issues of his district, doing in a tuned-up Porsche, while managing a couple companies on the side? People who witnessed the accident tried to kill the MP, but police intervened, and the MP is sobered up, healthy, and doing well.
On a brighter side, when a driver didn't let a Mercedes with a blue siren pass him on the road, a driver said over the car's speaker system "Hey idiot, do you want me to shoot you in the head?" The normal car's driver did not get scared, did not let the real idiot get ahead, and filmed the incident. The video leaked to YouTube, investigation was launched, the driver of the minister of Emergency Situations was in the car alone; he was written up, fined, and fired. Another incident involved a Defense Ministry's BMW that actually swiped another car. The victim-driver took the photos, went to court, got his car repaired, and the ministry's driver fired.
On a much brighter side, there are a few good people, who resist and stand for their rights with actions. Here is a video where a driver is not letting the blue light car go (the blue-light criminal is occupying the opposite lane), and a passing car gives our hero "thumbs up" for his brave stance. Another video shows left-lane drivers, as a group, blocking way for another blue-blight Mercedes.
Let's hope that the Internet and globalization will break the five-century-old Russian tradition of blue-lighted driving, and one day there will be a revolution. However, as history shows, Russian revolutions don't necessarily lead to improvement, so maybe everything is great just as is?
Select videos:
This is an opposite lane, and I'm busy too, heading to the airport... Thumbs up to that!
"Hey, idiot, do you want to get shot in the head?":
Hide that blue light before the police comes, I wasn't supposed to have it on...:
Don't let them go!
Let's have fun! The driver who drives and films the video is dead now after a recent collision he caused. He was found guilty in court just yesterday, however criminal charges were dropped due to his death. The victim-driver is suing the Kremlin for her injuries and property damage:
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