Yikes, if anyone is paying anything like that kind of money, they are doing something terribly wrong. For speeding, probably 500-1000 rubles ($17-34), for white line violations probably 1500-2000 rubles ($50-65). All of these could go up or down a bit depending on the individual police officer. Russians lose their licenses for several months for white line violations, so it is serious stuff for the Russian police.

Once I was ticketed for a white line violation for passing a tractor that was going about 10kph along a perfectly straight, flat road...I wouldn't be surprised if the cops had a deal with the tractor driver to drive back and forth along that stretch of road...

The only way you'd be looking at $1500 is for something like driving "drunk" (which in Russia means with ANY alchohol in your breath), and even that might not get you off the hook. Just don't do it!

Colebach, i totally agree that if i break rules i pay BUT i pay when i am handed out official ticket. I am not paying money when sum is written to piece of cardboard and then added with handsign rubbing of index finger and thumb showing to pay bribe and when sum goes up first from 5000 rubls to 150 euros to 1500 usd (as it went in my case)

Police was asking bribes, if they would have written me ticket on the road i would have gone to city to pay it to bank (as there is one month paying time).

Actually i was pretty straight with driving rules, didnt do much speeding, my average driving speed was something between 90-95 km/h for whole trip from Baikal to Finland and i didnt pass traffic during white lines.

When i left petrol station and turned to left over white line i didnt knew that you cant turn to left there but you have to drive right and do U turn to go to left. There was two russian car before me doing same thing so did not even thought its illegal (they were also stopped to same place)

I think this rule is very much Russian driving rule and in Finland for cases like that we have this sign to show its not allowed to turn left.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ty_332.svg.png

But like i said if i would have shown official traffic violation ticket i would have paid it and sum police was asking was about double the price of violation i would have needed to pay officially.

I think people generally should be very causious not to pay any bribes on the road as it encourages that kind of action. If russian police is caught taking bribes on the road it means he/she is out of work. Currently it is practise what Russian police force is trying to stop.

Yes that was my case.

Funny thing though is that i should have drive roughly 20 meters to right and then do U turn over line and it would have been legal. I wonder what they have been thinking when they have made that rule.

Many Russian rules are like that, but the traffic police (and border agents, etc.) are there to enforce the rules, not to make them.

And as to your point that this is "very much a Russian driving rule...", well yes, but then again you are in Russia...

Ofcourse and i dont blame them for doing their work but when it turns into illegal activity then i stop to co-operate and i advice everyone else to do it as it just encourages it and causes more troubles for other incoming drivers as they see western drivers as moving payday.

To get back to original topic my advice to all people going to Russia is
1. Follow rules and you will be fine
2. If you break rule and you are stopped by police dont panic
3. Never ever pay anything to police on the road. Its illegal and against the law. Money goes straight to policeman pocket. If you break traffic rule or any other rule they always need to give you ticket from your violation what you pay to bank.
4. You have one month time to pay the fine to bank as its only place where to pay it.
5. If policeman is keeping your paper and insist you to pay your fines on the road i would start to look my embassy/consulate number to my mobile.

Bullshit. If it's a stupid rule serving absolutely no purpose, then most people would agree you should break it if you can away with it. Leading from this, if you get caught but can escape being penalised, then good for you.

If the police pulled you and tried to penalise you for some ludicrous traffic violation in your home country, then I'm sure you'd either try and argue it out with them or get out of it on a technicality or any other means possible. So why behave differently in a foreign country?

Because you are in a foreign country...:yes:

I Have been stopped numerous times by the Russian police and have been forced to pay them off two times.

The first time I'm pretty sure that I went back to my lane before the white line started but i still got stopped. I was new and green to paying the police off and they where pretty scary. The whole thing took maybe half an hour of negotiating even if I don't really speak Russian and spoke even less at that time. They showed me a report they had already filled in with someones Russian drivers license paper clipped to it and showed me both the report they where going to write for me and a temporary drivers license they where going to issue me. At that time I paid but today i would have asked to see the evidence I believe they have to shoot in such serious offenses.

Second time was also about the same kind of offense. There was maybe 30 cars driving behind a lorry at about 50km/h and when the white line stopped i went for a takeover and wondered why only one car was overtaking with me. There must have been a temporary sign prohibiting takeovers that I missed. Same thing, they where clearly professionals in scaring people. Both of these incidents happened east of the Ural mountains, around Tatarstan.

One time I met some German travelers and we decided to camp in the forests somewhere between Omsk and Novosibirsk IIRC. Not generally a good idea nor recommended but we survived. In the morning I left a minute before the guys because i wanted to travel alone. Just a few kilometers from where we camped I was stopped at a police station. He asked for my documents and as he was looking at them the Germans arrived too and got stopped as well. The police asked something including the word "kamrad" (friend) and answered him niet, "No".

He gave me my documents back while he checked the German guys paperwork. I did not want to leave until i get a clear sign for that so I stayed there. He spotted what he thought was some kind of offense in their visa registration and started questioning them about that. They did either not understand anything of what he said or then they did just not want to understand, but I did a mistake by telling them in English what the problem was. A mistake. He wanted them to follow him to the police station and as they left I asked him what about me. He showed me to follow. We were put in a cell but the door was left open, so after maybe half a minute we decided to go outside to the beautiful morning showing no fear for them. After a few minutes the police finally arrived with their passports and let us go.

One interesting thing was that when we were leaving they shouted something after us through the window. One of the German guys went there and got a book that turned out to be the new testament in Russian. No idea why they gave that. But the lesson of the story is to keep calm and show respect but no fear for the police. They probably hoped for us to hand over some dollars immediately when we were put in the cell.

I have also been stopped two times for speeding, once for 120 in 90 and once for about 75 in 50 and both times they have let me go immediately when i they realized I'm a tourist. So speeding does not matter, passing a white line does. Don't do that.

Good luck with that approach in Russia, I would bring lots of cash...

And kudos to you for having the higher intellect to be able to determine what is a "stupid rule" that shouldn't be followed vs a "pain in the ass, but perhaps necessary rule" that should be followed, such fine distinctions escape me.

For instance, I consider Russia's "zero tolerance" rule for alcohol and driving to be "stupid" but gee, maybe they know better what driving rules should be adopted and enforced. Ya think?

This is exactly the kind of thing that gets blown way out of proportion. Pretty soon we'll be reading distorted reports based on your post about tourists being locked into cells with convicted murderers until they paid $1000, etc.

I don't mean to criticize you for posting this, actually it is an interesting story and a useful example. And while I wasn't there and so could be missing some important context, I don't know if it is fair to assume that they put you in the cell to get money from you. If that was the case, I think they'd have certainly locked the door? Who knows, maybe they didn't have anywhere else to put you, or SOP in that detachment was to put everyone in the cell until further notice, they were having a birthday party in the usual waiting room, etc. It is not as if these stations are large, well-planned facilities. The fact that they gave you a bible seems to indicate that they didn't have hostile intentions.

I don't mean to be always sticking up for the Russian police, I have met some right fine bastards among them, but many stories are way overblown and based on misunderstandings on both sides due to lack of a common language. I just hate to see people scared of coming to Russia because of fear of police, it is a serious overreaction.

Entertaining thread!!

I was caught breaking the law 6 times in Russia and Kaz (speeding or overtaking) and twice they just wanted to give me words of advice, but 4 times they wanted to bust me and couldn't because I couldn't speak Russian - HA!

Also - don't fall foul of visa registration rules ie register within 2 (or is it 3?) business days of entering Russia, then again if you're in any 1 place for more than 3 days. I entered Russia through Vladivostok and had to stay there for 2 weeks awaiting my car (shipping and customs delays). I had stayed in a hotel for the first night and had asked them to register my visa. They apparently did so, but I wasn't given any stamp on my immigration card (and didn't know one was needed). The first time I was aware of any problem was when I tried to stay in a hotel in Khabarovsk and got refused because my visa hadn't been registered. After this I called the British Embassy in Moscow and they explained about the registration system. It was they who advised me to start keeping receipts from roadhouses / hotels / filling stations as an 'audit trail' to show where I'd been and on which days to prove I hadn't been in any 1 place long enough to need to re-register my visa. They also told me to expect trouble when I left Russia as I hadn't registered my visa properly in Vladivostok. That being said, none of the frequent police stops I had to make for document inspections ever gave me any trouble about the missing registration stamp on my immigation card.

When I drove to the Omsk border with Kazakhstan, the guards seemed to take a liking to me and one of them stuck his head around the door of the passport control and said something to the woman. I don't know if that helped, but I wasn't given any hassle about my visa.

A month later, I re-entered Russia through the Orsk crossing. This time I kept receipts right from the start AND registered my visa properly with a stamp on my immigation card. About 10 days before I left Russia, I was near Red Square with a German when we both got stopped by the tourist police. I was able to prove with my wad of receipts that I hadn't been in Moscow for long enough to need to register my visa there (or indeed any other part of Russia); the German didn't have any proof and had to pay a 500 rouble bribe.

1 very minor suggestion - have all your papers in a clear plastic wallet ready for when you get stopped for frequent dokumenty inspecty and proffer it out the window as soon as you stop. Makes it look like you've nothing to hide and speeds things up.

Mark

overlandcruiser.net

No, I don't think they necessarily know better. Like I said, If I don't agree with the rule and wish to break it, the factor that determines my actions is the likelyhood of getting caught. Various times drank one or more beers then got on the bike whilst I was in Russia. I made judgements at the time (which may not have been accurate) that I was unlikely to get caught.

I break the speed limit constantly whilst riding the bike here in the UK at the moment. I'm having a good run, done about 50,000 miles over the last year and not got into any trouble with the old bill. If I thought the government/police 'knew better' I would be driving everywhere sticking to the speed limits.

Hey Nath your blog is interesting - But it seems a shame you have such anger and a lot of the rebel still burning in you - you seem to have learnt little from your travels - usually lets you open your mind a bit.
I don't really agree with your views on rules and you knowing best - But hey ho everyone to their own way !.
Some may say your disregard will knock onto the next guy travelling through where ever - but I suppose that's not really your problem.
I do often wonder with viewpoints like yours where there is such disregard for authority where ever it may be - if and when the shite really hit the fan and you end up in some far off police cell, or maybe one of them corrupt officials trying to keep you alive at the side of the road after a bad off,or maybe stuck in a hospital bed seriously injured - would you stick to your guns and not ask help from anyone in authority (ie embassy etc) to maybe give you legal advice, interpreter, repatriation or anything else you may need when everything else has fallen apart.
It just appears to me that here in the nanny state we have where views can be voiced you often see those that protest against authorities the most - shout even louder when they feel they are hard done too, missing out or needing help.
Be interesting to see where you stand on the views of authorities helping you when your in need, . Its no problem to me either way - not my life - but always wonder where you might be sitting on the fence when the cards are down.

The place was just a normal roadside police "control post" or what they are called in English. The cell was the first room after the entrance so yes, if they absolutely wanted us inside the building for some reason it was the easiest place to put us even if a cell gives you a pretty bad feeling.

But yes, they did never ask for any money or anything else, they just had the idea that their registration was too late and spent some time inside the police station with their documents. It's possible that they used that time to check what the rules are and found out that everything is in order.

The reason I posted it is pretty much to tell people to keep calm and wait and see what's happening. The way the police operate over there is a bit different to Europe but things have a tendency to sort out even if the situation feels bad.

Most of the contacts with the police in Russia are just regular stops to see your documents. At worst I have been stopped four times in one day. Usually they are just curious and want to know from where you are where you are heading. After my first trip I bought a A5 sized book with ten transparent pockets so i have all my vehicle documents and Russian documents available for easy viewing. Highly recommended.

Hey adventure950,
Your post is a little strange, I'm not sure where you got the idea from that I'm brimming with anger held against 'authority'? I simply do not feel obliged to blindly obey traffic rules/laws (and to some extent rules/laws in general). If you ever break speed limits then you are hypocritical to condemn me for this opinion.

My original post was with regards to what happens when you get caught by the old bill. Colebatch said he thought you should cough up straight away, that it's immoral to try and sit it out, wait to be let off. I don't agree with this at all. If they're trying to penalise you for a technicality, then it's fair game to try and wriggle out of it however.

Some would say that your eagerness to break out the 100 dollar notes the moment a policeman stops you and accuses you of a traffic rule infringement, "will knock onto the next guy travelling through where ever", but I suppose if he doesn't have the same unlimited depth wallet as you that's not really your problem.


For the record, I never had any difficulties with Russian police, the only encounters I had with Russian traffic coppers were pulling over at their checkpoints to ask them directions. I am only able to say from these encounters that they were fairly polite and helpful. In central Asia however I got stopped numerous times by dodgey coppers trying to accuse me of made up offences asking for money. I never payed any of them a penny, and all of them were quite friendly and cheerful when eventually letting me go - Obviously there are enough 'two wheeled cash machines' out there to make trying it on a a lighthearted but worthwhile affair for them.