Cars with Armenian number plates are in Russia illegally

In Russia, they began detaining the cars registered in Armenia, but documented for Russian citizens. This is due to the increasing frequency of traffic violations involving cars with foreign number plates, because drivers of such cars cannot be fined by the law, experts explain.

The Russian citizens who bought their cars in Armenia have faced the demand to register the cars in Russia and pay the customs duties. They complain about high customs rates and the fact that such a decision was a surprise to them.

The authors of the petition posted on the "Change.org" website note that about 300,000 Russians are afraid of losing their cars. According to their version, the owners of such cars either need to clear the cars at customs at the rates of the Russian Federation that are 2-3 times higher than the cost of the car, or sell them in Armenia, which is impossible, since about one million cars are on sale in Armenia.

Russians had hoped to save money on customs duties and use a "quasi-legal scheme," said Pyotr Shkumatov, the coordinator of the "Blue Buckets Society" Movement. According to his version, the cars imported not under the temporary import rules have eventually occurred illegal; and now they are detained as incorrectly cleared.