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TRUCKERS STRIKE: a REVOLUTION DELAYED * Russia: Trucks revolt, postponed again.
* Moscow - Activist Leonid Volkov: “In fact, right now, as we speak, the long-haul truck drivers are blocking the beltway” around
(Video by euronews - Dec 3, 2015: Russian truck drivers are continuing to protest over a government plan to "introduce new road tolls" that they say will put them out of business)
-- On Friday afternoon, I was speaking with the anti-Putin organizer and anti-corruption activist Leonid Volkov. He was predicting the regime’s impending collapse when he glanced at his iPhone and said, “In fact, right now, as we speak, the long-haul truck drivers are blocking the beltway” around Moscow. The protest had been awaited for weeks, and it was expected to be big, possibly historic... Russian long-haul truck drivers had been staging smaller protests since at least the middle of last month, demanding the repeal of a new road tax that went into effect Nov. 15. The tax, ostensibly designed to compensate the state for the damage heavy vehicles cause to roads, amounts to 1.53 rubles (less than 3 cents) per kilometer until March 1, and 3.06 rubles (almost 5 cents) thereafter. At current exchange rates, come March, a Moscow-Novosibirsk run would cost about $150 in taxes, or roughly as much as a driver would be paid for the same distance... To add insult to financial injury, truck owners are required to install a tracking payment-processing system called Platon (an acronym for “payment for tonnage” that sounds just like the way Russians pronounce the name of the Greek philosopher), made by a company that belongs to Igor Rotenberg, the son of one of President Vladimir Putin’s lifelong friends and closest associates... The new tax is widely perceived as nothing more than a conduit for corruption. In this country of long distances and import-dependent economy, there are nearly two million long-haul trucks. Their drivers and operators have the power and the equipment to make the Russian economy slow down and its road traffic come to a standstill... With the beltway closed to them, the drivers could still blockade Moscow by clogging the dozen or so highways that lead to it. They have the numbers to do this. But they may lack the level of organization and trust necessary to carry off such a complicated protest. Even if they overcome those obstacles, state-controlled media will likely continue to ignore them, allowing Mr. Putin to continue ignoring them as well. And if it’s not televised, the protest will not be a revolution...
Moscow, Russia - The New York Times, by Masha Gessen - Dec. 7, 2015
Labels: strikes and protests
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