Truckers' strike: latest news. riot police guarding "Plato"

Yuga.ru figured out what was happening with the shares of truck drivers in the Caucasus.

Where it all started?

In November 2015, Russia introduced a toll for heavy vehicles weighing over 12 tons on federal highways. The payment is collected through the Platon system. The introduction of the system caused mass protests among truckers throughout Russia. At the end of the grace period, on April 15, 2017, the Platon tariff was supposed to double, but on March 24, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev decided to increase it by 25%.

The Association of Russian Carriers decided to organize a strike against the Platon tariff system. A representative of the Association of Carriers, Andrei Bazhutin, said that from 10 to 20 thousand people would take part in the protest on March 27, and most of the heavy truck drivers were supposed to take part in a “passive” strike - form columns of cars along the roads. “The main goal of the strike is to stop freight flows, that is, we stop transportation and, starting Monday, we line up columns along roads in cities.”,” Bazhutin explained to RBC.

Kuban truckers are also outcosiness?

Yes. The action of truckers against “Platon” took place in the Korenovsky district near the village of Platnirovskaya. “We only stood for an hour, and [the police] came to disperse our protest. We decided to resist for now, but we don’t know what will happen next.”, said one of the protesters. “They heard us, they thought that there would be no reaction to us at all. Now let’s see that we were heard, then time will tell. We dispersed - we dispersed, we stood on traffic islands and did not block the road. But the traffic police told us that they would find a reason to “twist the fins”,”- he added.

In Krasnodar, the action was actually disrupted. “All parking lots at the entrances to Krasnodar were blocked by the police today, who did not allow the protesting truckers to organize a spontaneous parking lot and hold a protest against Plato.”, - coordinator of the Association of Russian Carriers Alexander Cherevko told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Sergei Gritsenko, coordinator of protests among truckers in Kuban, told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that a traffic police post was set up in the Seversky district, through which it was impossible to drive a truck. “I was stopped and given a warning that participation in an uncoordinated action would be regarded as extremism. I returned home, from where I coordinate actions", - said Gritsenko.

In the Gulkevichi district, a spontaneous camp of truckers was blocked by the police. The police stopped all passing cars, checked passports and warned about “impossibility of participating in an unapproved event”. According to Gritsenko, on the eve of the protests, three people were detained in different parts of Kuban.

How is the campaign going outside the Krasnodar region?

Truckers from Volgograd, Astrakhan, North Ossetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria joined the strike, but the events in Dagestan caused the greatest resonance. There, more than 1 thousand people from all over the region took part in the action. The drivers left the Kayakent district towards Makhachkala, where they intended to meet with the protesters from the capital of Dagestan.

In total, more than 30 thousand vehicles with a carrying capacity of more than 12 tons are registered in Dagestan. Dagestan truck drivers are among the most active in the country. Since March 27, up to 90% of truck drivers joined the boycott and refused to participate in cargo transportation. The protesters deal harshly with those who continue to go to work. There is information that at least 30 vehicles transporting from Azerbaijan were damaged at the hands of Dagestani truckers. At the same time, the protesters themselves call themselves victims. Four trucks belonging to protesters in Dagestan were damaged on the night of April 1.

According to various sources, up to 2 thousand trucks gathered in the area of ​​​​the settlement of Manas near Makhachkala. At a meeting with truckers gathered from different parts Dagestan, Deputy Minister of Transport, Energy and Communications of the Republic Yakub Khudzhaev arrived. He suggested that the drivers assemble an initiative group that, together with officials from the government of Dagestan, will formulate demands for Moscow. Despite the entreaties of officials, the truckers refused to leave Manas and announced their intention to move to Makhachkala along the Caucasus highway. After the truckers’ camp was left by another group of officials who wanted to persuade the protesters to go home, the participants of the action - 1.5 thousand cars and over 2 thousand drivers - were blocked by troops of the Russian Guard and riot police, and armored vehicles were pulled to the place of the action.

“The Russian Guard is standing 50 meters from us in full combat gear and with weapons. There are 100 people in total, including five big cars and more than ten traffic police cars",” driver Abdula Abdulaev told RBC.

“We are not receiving any threats. Riot police lined up along the road on both sides at a distance of approximately 2 meters from the cars, not allowing us to enter the highway and not allowing cars that were coming down from the mountains to join the strike. Yesterday we brought in a lot of military equipment.”“, said one of the participants of the action, Ruslan Magomedov.

“There is no promotion as such. People are standing, this is a special place for the deployment of heavy vehicles. Ministry of Internal Affairs officers are present there in order to prevent violation of public order. There are 66 people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, another 20 are seconded from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. They do not interfere with the passage of cars",” the press service of the Dagestan police told the RBC agency.

According to Novaya Gazeta, tensions have been gradually decreasing since April 2. Most of the Russian Guard forces left the truckers' camp in Manas. Nevertheless, drivers continue to block the Rostov-Baku federal highway.

What do truck drivers want?

Truckers are demanding the abolition or reduction of tariffs of the Platon system, introduced in November 2015. According to the rules, truck owners or carriers with vehicles with a carrying capacity of more than 12 tons must compensate for the damage caused by heavy trucks to roads. At the end of the grace period, on April 15, 2017, the Platon tariff was supposed to double - from 1.53 rubles to 3.06 rubles per 1 km of run. On March 24, after a meeting with representatives of truckers, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev decided that the tariff would be increased only by a quarter - to 1.91 rubles per 1 km. Truckers were not happy with this decision.

Who benefits from “Plato” and why is it called so strangely?

The name "Plato" is an abbreviation for the phrase "payment per ton." The system provides collection, processing, storage and automatic transmission of traffic data vehicle, having a permissible maximum weight of over 12 tons, and applies to all public roads of federal significance.

The funds received are received daily into the federal budget and are used to ensure road maintenance, finance construction and repair work and improve road and transport infrastructure. As of March 15, about 22 billion rubles had been collected with the help of Platon. By order of the government, it is planned to use part of these funds to repair 24 damaged bridges in 2017.

RT-invest company has been appointed operator of Platon Transport systems", its co-owner is Igor Rotenberg, the son of Russian billionaire Arkady Rotenberg.

In the regions of Russia today, March 27, 2017, a protest of truckers against Platon began.

Protest of truckers against "Platon" on March 27: the leaders of the action promised to bring thousands of people to marches

From 10 thousand to 20 thousand people will take part in the “march of truckers” on March 27, the Association of Carriers of Russia told RBC. However, the majority of heavy truck drivers will take part in a “passive” strike - they will simply leave their cars along the roads, said OPR representatives Andrei Bazhutin and Mikhail Kurbatov. Another source in the association said that the total number of participants will reach 20 thousand.

A strike of truck drivers began in St. Petersburg. Lots of cars: the view from just one intkbbee sides of the track: pic.twitter.com/sj0UabjMaR

March 27, 2017

Participants in the “passive” action will form columns of heavy trucks along the roads. “The main goal of the strike is to stop cargo flows, that is, we stop transportation and, starting on Monday, we line up columns along roads in cities,” Bazhutin explained.

The striking truck drivers are accused of supporting Navalny. They: for him and not for Medvedev. Photo of the most beautiful truck) pic.twitter.com/RNtdIaG8gU

— Arseny Vesnin (@ars_ves) March 27, 2017

There are many times fewer supporters of active protests among the strike participants, Kurbatov noted. They will take part in rallies, but the exact number of protest participants will be determined at a general meeting to be held on March 25.

Truckers protest 03/27/2017: what do drivers demand?

Truckers are demanding the abolition or reduction of tariffs of the Platon system, introduced in November 2015. According to the rules, truck owners or carriers with vehicles with a carrying capacity of more than 12 tons must compensate for the damage caused by heavy trucks to roads.

In groups of OPR and other supporters of the protest on social networks, they are branding “false truckers” - participants in the meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on March 23. The heads of six transport enterprises met with the head of government, said one of them, the head of the “12 tons” movement Sergei Sapronov. According to him, they all agreed with Medvedev’s point of view and opposed the strike. Sapronov called the protest participants provocateurs.

Posted by Kirill Shipitsin (@kirillshipicin) Mar 26, 2017 at 11:32 PDT

Where is the truckers protest taking place?

In St. Petersburg, Primorye, Tatarstan, Yekaterinburg and other regions of Russia, protests by truckers demanding the abolition of the Platon system began.

From 10 thousand to 20 thousand people will take part in the “march of truckers” on March 27, the Association of Carriers of Russia told RBC. However, the majority of heavy truck drivers will take part in a “passive” strike - they will simply leave their cars along the roads

Truckers' strike against the Platon system in Ryazan. February 2016 (Photo: Alexander Ryumin / TASS)

Protest

At least 10 thousand truckers from the Association of Carriers of Russia (OPR) alone will take part in a “passive” strike on Monday, March 27, OPR representatives Andrei Bazhutin and Mikhail Kurbatov told RBC. Another source in the association said that the total number of participants will reach 20 thousand.

Participants in the “passive” action will form columns of heavy trucks along the roads, they specified. “The main goal of the strike is to stop cargo flows, that is, we stop transportation and, starting on Monday, we line up columns along roads in cities,” Bazhutin explained.

There are many times fewer supporters of active protests among the strike participants, Kurbatov noted. They will take part in rallies, but the exact number of protest participants will be determined at a general meeting to be held on March 25. “It’s clear that people are intimidated, they are afraid to protest loudly,” added the OPR member. According to him, the strike participants will also discuss forms of active protests at the meeting.

Truckers are demanding the abolition or reduction of tariffs of the Platon system, introduced in November 2015. According to the rules, truck owners or carriers with vehicles with a carrying capacity of more than 12 tons must compensate for the damage caused by heavy trucks to roads.

Split

In groups of OPR and other supporters of the protest on social networks, they are branding “false truckers” - participants in the meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on March 23. The heads of six transport enterprises met with the head of government, one of them, the head of the 12 Ton movement, Sergei Sapronov, told RBC. According to him, they all agreed with Medvedev’s point of view and opposed the strike.

Sapronov called the protest participants provocateurs. He recalled the sensational video filmed by activist Alexander Rastorguev (Kurbatov told RBC that he had nothing to do with their organization). The author is in it reports that on March 27 “thunderstorms, rockfalls and all sorts of unusual natural conditions“, and calls on opponents of the strike, whom he calls strikebreakers, “not to go to the line that day.”

According to Sapronov, he and other representatives of “peaceful” truck drivers have received threats more than once because of their refusal to participate in the strike. “There was a case in Dagestan: cars were being loaded, and they wrote down their license plate numbers and threw them on the Internet. Is this fair? — he told RBC. In his opinion, no more than 50 drivers will join the active protest.

Kurbatov, in turn, stated that the leadership of the OPR “never threatened anyone or staged provocations.” “These people, Sapronov and [president of the Gruzavtotrans association Vladimir] Matyagin, are fake truck drivers; they appeared when the Kremlin needed participants in meetings with the authorities,” he clarified. “Matyagin doesn’t even have his own transport.”

Protest of truckers in St. Petersburg. February 2016 (Photo: Evgeny Stepanov / Interpress / TASS)

"Spring drying"

Every year, spring restrictions for heavy vehicles are introduced on Russian roads due to floods. This is a period lasting about a month during which some roads are closed to truck drivers for “spring drying.”

The indefinite action of truckers can be tied precisely to this time, Valery Voitko, coordinator of the Truckers association, told RBC. “Because of the serious fines, people will just stand around, but they will call their standing without work a strike. That is, you can point your finger at any heavy truck parked on the side of the road and say: here are the strikers,” he explained.

Like Sapronov, Voitko believes that “an insignificant part of truck drivers from the total number, within the statistical error,” will join the protesters.

Member of the OPR Kurbatov, in a conversation with RBC, denied this assumption. “The drying times are different in each region, we specially scheduled the campaign earlier than they begin, at the end of March, so that there would be no such hints,” he explained. According to the Dorinfo portal, which collected information on the timing of spring restrictions in 2017, the action of truckers will coincide with the “drying” period in 14 of the 61 regions included in the selection.

Meeting with Medvedev

On March 22, six representatives of different trucker movements with members of United Russia, and the next day with the head of the party, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He was impressed by the arguments of the truck drivers, RBC attended the meeting with Prime Minister Matyagin.

At the end of the grace period on April 15, 2017, the Platon tariff was supposed to double, from 1.53 to 3.06 rubles. per kilometer of travel. However, on March 24, Dmitry Medvedev decided to increase it only to 1.91 rubles. Thus, we are talking about an increase of 25%.

Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who also participated in the meeting, said that the decision to raise the tariff was made for an “indefinite period.” An RBC source in United Russia said that one of the reasons for the government’s attention to the problems of truckers could be the planned all-Russian strike on March 27.

After the introduction of “Platon” in 2015, the authorities have already encountered protests by truckers; in the capital, MKAD trucks. The authorities will then reduce the rate of tariff growth. At the end of 2015, the protests of truck drivers were supported by 70% of Muscovites in the Levada Center.

Truckers are against the Platon system, which provides for the collection of tolls for trucks traveling on federal highways. It was previously reported that the strike was being organized by the Association of Carriers of Russia (OPR). Last week, a government decree was issued, according to which, from April 15, the preferential tariff in the Platon system will increase from 1.53 rubles to 1.91 rubles per kilometer.

At the same time, the action on the Vladivostok highway, next to the Minutka cafe, continues. In the morning, six traffic police squads were on duty there. The protesters emphasized that they exclude political overtones in their actions, noting that with their exit they want to draw attention to the problems in the Platon payment system.

The all-Russian action against the Platon system was supported by truck drivers from Blagoveshchensk. About 30 heavy vehicles lined up on the side of the road along the Novotroitsk highway on the outskirts of the city to conduct a “passive strike,” Amur.info reports. According to the organizers, the main goal of the protest is to stop cargo flows and block transportation. The main goal of the protesters is the abolition of the Plato system.

About 100 people gathered for the rally. Traffic police officers who arrived at the scene warned drivers not to go onto the roadway.

One of the protest participants, Alexander Cherepanov, suggested that there would be no strikes if the Platon system were not run by a private company. “If the government had not become so impudent that they allowed a private individual to deploy a group of this “Platon” so that he would collect tolls for federal roads that were built under the communists, if they had done all this through the Ministry of Transport, maybe there would be no strikes and it wouldn’t have happened,” the protester explained.

According to the portal, protests are also taking place in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

In Chita, drivers of about 50 heavy vehicles went on strike against the Platon system, reports the city portal Chita.ru. According to the site's correspondent, the action began in the area of ​​the Ugdan ring, after which some of the protesters, at the request of the administration, moved towards the village of Ivanovka. The press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Trans-Baikal Territory confirmed the fact of a protest by truckers in the Ugdan ring area. The department noted that police officers are on duty at the scene.

Drivers expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that after the introduction of the Platon system, they had to equip their cars with tachographs at their own expense, each of which costs about 42 thousand rubles. In addition, they are fined for working more than eight hours a day. Truckers are also outraged that the preferential coefficient in the Platon system will increase from April 15.

At a large press conference on December 17, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “the Platon system device should be provided to everyone free of charge.” The head of state also called on truckers to “get out of gray schemes.” Putin noted that a large number of people have appeared who buy heavy trucks and use them, “but these are absolutely gray economic schemes, they are not registered even as individual entrepreneurs". “I myself am from a working-class family, I understand that men work hard, work, and sit behind the wheel, but we need to get out of these gray schemes,” the president concluded.

Meanwhile, truckers in the Kurgan region abandoned the idea of ​​holding a protest against Plato. The drivers decided to get together, write down their proposals and send them to the Russian government, reports Ura.ru. According to the site's sources, such meetings should take place on Monday in Kurgan and Shadrinsk.

At the same time, Ura.ru previously learned that truckers who refused to participate in the all-Russian protest action complained to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika and the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin about threats from the organizers. IN in social networks an open letter appeared from activists of the “12 tons” movement, who contacted the heads of two departments with information that drivers were being called upon to take part in the strike on March 27, and if they refused, they were threatening to break their car windows and break their cars.

In addition, a protest against “Plato” is planned in St. Petersburg. As Anatoly Shilov, coordinator of the action in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, told RBC, on Monday morning the strike participants stopped fulfilling contracts for freight transportation. The official start of the strike is announced at 10 a.m. at an open meeting of cargo carriers in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which the St. Petersburg OPR branch holds at the Logistics-Terminal container terminal.

On March 23, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev met with representatives of small and medium-sized businesses in the field of road transportation. As a result of the meeting, a government resolution was adopted, according to which, from April 15, the preferential coefficient in the Platon system will increase by 25% and amount to 0.51, that is, 1.91 rubles per kilometer of heavy truck travel on federal highway. Now the preferential coefficient is 0.41 (1.53 rubles per kilometer). Before this, it was planned to increase it from April 15 to 0.82, which would have increased the fee for one kilometer of heavy truck travel on the federal highway to 3.06 rubles.

Against this background, it became known that the Ministry of Transport will soon submit to the government abolishing the principle of a single fine in the Platon system for one day. In addition, an increase in the fine for non-payment of travel from five thousand rubles to an amount ranging from 10 thousand to 50 thousand rubles is being discussed.

“Platon” is a system of charging trucks with a maximum permitted weight of 12 tons to compensate for damage when driving on federal highways, which went into operation in Russia on November 15, 2015. The system assumes the use of on-board devices, as well as route maps.

Its launch was accompanied by malfunctions in the system, as well as mass protests by truckers: they complained about the unfairness of the system, pointing out that they were already paying transport tax, as well as excise taxes included in the cost of fuel.

One of the complaints against the Platon system was that it was created and works in the interests of the son of “Putin’s friend.” The fact is that the work of Platon is provided by the company RT-Invest Transport Systems LLC (RTITS), the beneficiary of which is Igor Rotenberg, the son of businessman Arkady Rotenberg, close to the President of Russia.

Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, after the launch of the Platon system, published a secret document, according to which the agreement between the state and RTITS was concluded without a competition, and the company itself, which essentially collects taxes from truck drivers, does not pay the state for this.

Photo Gettyimages

An all-Russian protest action by truckers has been announced for today. According to NG, up to 60 regions and about 10 thousand people can take part in it. But the allies of the drivers - “Polite Farmers”, who planned to start the “Tractor March” in the direction of the capital on March 28, apparently, will no longer be able to do this. Peasants receive police summonses, the prosecutor's office is on the ground, exits from villages are blocked, protest leaders are detained and arrested.

On the website of the Association of Carriers of Russia (OPR) in last days There was a timer counting down to the action on March 27th. As I wrote), the demands of truckers relate primarily to the abolition of the Platon system or its reorganization with transfer to the state. They also oppose transport tax in its current form, the work and rest regime, require the establishment of order at weight control posts and the provision of reasonable calculations of the amount of excise tax on fuel. Their action also has a serious political component - the resignation of the government of Dmitry Medvedev and an expression of no confidence in President Vladimir Putin.

The protest activists were further angered by the fact that at the end of the week the Prime Minister met only with some of the community representatives about “Plato”. For example, the president of Gruzavtotrans, Vladimir Matyagin, and an opponent of the anti-Platonov protests, truck driver Sergei Sapronov, who created the “12 tons” association a month ago, were invited. However, no one was invited from the OPR and the Interregional Union of Professional Drivers (IPVP).

As OPR leader Andrei Bazhutin told NG, no government actions affect the protest plans. “We have advocated for the complete abolition of Plato, and we still do,” he emphasized. Active preparations are underway in the regions, meetings are being held where action plans are discussed. The police, according to him, are also starting to prepare for the action - carrying out targeted strikes for now. In particular, in Vladivostok, a group of drivers was arrested right in the parking lot of an enterprise; in Lipetsk, one of the activists was detained on the road, etc.

But, according to Bazhutin, no one is going to abandon the action; on the contrary, the number of supporters is growing. In addition to truckers, minibus and taxi drivers also expressed a desire to participate.

Judging by the announcements on websites, the strike, starting at 10 a.m., will consist of parking on the side of roads in major cities of the country. The OPR leader recalled that drivers will park their cars along the highways, without blocking them, and will hang posters with protest slogans on their cars. The goal is to achieve compliance with the requirements, and therefore the action is unlimited. As you know, truckers expect that the authorities will hear them after the store shelves are empty.

As Bazhutin told NG, the strike was supported by colleagues from abroad - drivers in Belarus and Kazakhstan plan not to travel to Russia, and in Europe and America, truck drivers there will decorate their cars with solidarity posters.

But the authorities are trying to block OPR’s allies – the Krasnodar organization “Polite Farmers” – in this region; the situation there already resembles a war. As activist Oleg Petrov told NG, the “Tractor March” to Moscow scheduled for March 28 is in danger of being disrupted. According to him, police are on duty on the roads of central villages, they are also stationed at the houses of well-known protest leaders - and even accompany them to the fields.

Farmers receive summonses from law enforcement officials for March 27 and 28, and prosecutors carry out explanatory work, explaining that the event has not been approved. The leader of Polite Farmers, Alexei Volchenko, was arrested for 12 days for allegedly being one month late in paying alimony. And although he was ready to repay the debt immediately, according to Petrov, “a quick trial and a sentence of arrest took place.” In his opinion, on a far-fetched pretext, traffic police officers took away the registration certificate for the tractor - and the document has not yet been returned.

Petrov doubts that Krasnodar peasants will be able to travel outside the region. “Maybe truck drivers will come to us, load our tractors onto their trucks and take them to where we can protest. But so far we have few opportunities to join the action,” he noted.

Farmer Nikolai Maslov confirmed to NG that the situation in the Krasnodar region is not yet conducive to action: “The police are blocking all the roads, for example, in the middle of the village of Kazanskaya there are as many as nine cars parked. I received two summonses investigative committee, on March 27 and 28. Threatening calls and harassment of our activists continue.” However, he emphasized, no one has canceled the march, and although the police are trying to stop even farmers visiting each other, the peasants will discuss the situation in the next two or three days.