Cops Fail to Identify Putin’s Limousine

Moscow police refused to investigate President Vladimir Putin for alleged traffic violations, saying it could not identify his car in the official video from his inauguration.

Putin cruised through the empty streets of Moscow on May 7 in a black limousine without a front license plate, accompanied by black jeeps and police on motorcycles.

Video of the motorcade was transmitted live by the country’s prime television channels, including Channel One, and is available on YouTube.

Putin’s procession prompted activists of the Blue Buckets motorist rights society to file a complaint with traffic police in May, asking it to find and punish the driver of the limousine in question. Motorists driving without a license plate can be fined up to 5,000 rubles ($150) or lose their license for one to three months.

City police took more than two months instead of the required one to reply to the complaint, an activist said in the Blue Buckets’ LiveJournal community blog on Sunday.

In the end, police said it could not find the driver because it failed to identify who the limousine belonged to, the post said. Police did not comment on the video being an official broadcast that clearly identified Putin’s motorcade as such.

Putin’s representatives made no comment on the matter as of Monday evening. His limousine had no front license plate during his previous inauguration in 2004. Neither did then-President Dmitry Medvedev’s during his ascension to the Kremlin in 2008.

 

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