Despite Police Actions, Long-Haul Truckers from North Caucasus Continue Strike in Moscow

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 8 – Faced with repression by regional governments and silence on the part of the central media, long-haul truckers from the North Caucasus are continuing their strike on the Moscow ring road in the hopes of attracting more media and popular attention to their demands that the Plato fee system be done away with.

            In response, the Moscow police have sought to close down the stop on the ring road the truckers have been using, telling the truckers that the authorities will be repaving it and thus  demanding the truckers leave and taking down their names and addresses and forcing them to accept temporary registration.

                                                                                           

            These actions have begun to attract somewhat more media attention. (See kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303941/, kbr.news-r.ru/news/society/110839/, newizv.ru/news/society/07-06-2017/bastuyuschih-dalnoboyschikov-vygonyayut-s-protestnoy-stoyanki-na-mkade-4df89630-c341-44d7-a5d2-6610cd2635c8,  and ovdinfo.org/express-news/2017/06/07/ot-dalnoboyshchikov-na-6-m-km-mkad-trebuyut-pokinut-stoyanku-iz-za-ukladki).

            It is perhaps symbolic of where the strike is now that some trucks feature posters showing truckers with signs saying “No to the Plato System” and with the leading Russian television stations in the guise of monkeys who hear nothing, say nothing and see nothing. (For a photograph, see svoboda.org/a/28533765.html).