Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony LEE
In the first case it is quite legitimate to try and talk your way out of it - and that happens all over the world on the assumption that the officer might give you a warning instead of a ticket - but if that fails then the correct fine has to be paid at the right place. What's to complain about?
Not legitimate to pay the officer a bribe to not write the ticket, if only because you are then breaking the law too.
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What's to complain about? Have you ever gotten a ticket in Russia? First of all you generally have to go to the bank and pay a fine, which would be no problem except for two minor details:
1) depending on the violation, often they won't let you take your bike until you can show your receipt, so you have to take a cab or some other form of transport;
2) unless you are in a city, you might need to go quite a long way to get to a bank, and then back to your bike;
3) penalties for some violations are very harsh; IIRC you can lose you license for six months for passing in a no passing zone (before you say that that sounds reasonable, you have to see all of the wide-open stretches of road in Russia which are no-passing zones).
all in all, it is a system designed to encourage drivers to settle things on the spot one way or another.
things are changing here, however, and I expect that pretty soon motorists will be able to instantly pay traffic fines from the roadside via mobile phone, and that will be a real game-changer.
In the meantime, as Colebatch says, it is just not common any more to be asked for a bribe in Russia if you haven't done anything wrong. In fact, in the last five years or so, I'm not sure it has happened to me even once. Therefore, if you are flashing cash every time you get pulled over in Russia you're certainly doing something wrong.