Well if you break the law and get caught, why is the officers motives in pulling the trigger on the radar gun relevant to whether or not you deserve to pay some sort of a fine? :confused1:

I suspect in Russia and other countries, the police are paid a deliberately low income by the state because they are expected to supplement it via "tips". You are not so much supplementing his income by paying him, as you are part of the quota he needs to fulfil to feed his family.

If you dont want to legitimately get caught speeding, its pretty simple to avoid it. Either dont speed, or take back roads. Radar traps are only economically viable on well trafficked highways.

Traffic cops in Russia are not wealthy guys. They are pretty damn low in the food chain. They are not the Russians taking beach holidays in the South of France, or contributing to Jaguar / Range Rover's massive sales growth in Russia. Russia's is a rapidly growing economy where the average person has gone from an average income of 10% that of the west 12 years ago to 50-60% if the west now. Traffic cops are not part of that that dramatic rise. If you take away their supplementary income then the job becomes pretty close to non-viable.

Russian driving habits and traffic enforcement still has a long way to go. The state needs as many of them on the job as it can get. There is sometimes a contradictory set of complaints from foreigners in Russia ... that the standard of locals following traffic rules sux, and that traffic police's willingness to penalise them (the foreigners) for breaking the traffic laws sux. Its illogical to complain about both. The reality is that the locals do not follow traffic rules as critically as western drivers, which should mean we APPLAUD the traffic police for being out there enforcing the rules !

I still have plenty of occasions in Russian cities where I get cut off by drivers cutting across lanes or pushing in front at traffic lights when I am yelling in my helmet "where are the damn traffic cops?"

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