Drivers Use Buckets to Fight Russian Double Standards
Moscow drivers attach blue buckets to their cars to protest migalki blue lights.
MOSCOW, April 27, 2010 -- Ask Moscow residents what their biggest gripes are about the city, and traffic tops the list. Muscovites sit for hours in traffic every day, their frustration compounded as they watch luxury cars with flashing blue lights on their roofs whizzing by, flouting traffic rules as they rush bureaucrats and businessmen about town.
The blue lights, or migalki, as they're called, have for years epitomized Russia's double standard for the rich and powerful and the hoi polloi. The lights allow cars to drive in special lanes, go the wrong way and ignore speed limits and red lights.
In recent weeks, the movement against the blue flashing lights has gathered strength, with Moscow protesters attaching blue plastic buckets to the roofs of their cars. Alexei Dozorov, the head of the Moscow chapter of the Committee to Protect Drivers' Rights, came up with the idea four years ago as a way to protest what he calls the "moral problem" that turns regular drivers into second-class citizens.
"I think that laughing at the problem is necessary, because it attracts attention and helps to solve the problem," Dozorov told ABC News. "We want to make laughing stocks out of the people who use blue lights."
When radio host Sergei Parkhomenko heard about Dorozov's idea in early April, he took to his blog, calling on drivers to do the same. On April 18, 50 bucket-topped cars drove around Moscow. Two days later, a band of motorists got together to protest but were stopped by police before they could begin.
The authorities have attempted to fine drivers for violating "cargo transportation regulations," a transgression that Dozorov paid a fine for in 2006 but eventually had overturned. He now carries a copy of the ruling with him in his car to show to the police.Two protesters were arrested April 20 when they refused to take their buckets down. They were arrested not for breaking the cargo law but for disobeying a police order.
Related Stories
ABC News Live