Kommersant: "Putin’s Gift Scrapped"
Sergei Sklyarov and Ernest Filippovsky
On December 23, officers of the Khabarovsk Territorial Traffic Safety Inspectorate removed a white VAZ-2101 Lada car from a private-company garage in Khabarovsk.
Those involved in a December 21 protest against the Government's decision to raise foreign car import duties wanted to present the car to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The protesters placed the Lada on the railway-station square and offered a chance for everyone to leave a message for Mr Putin. Slogans addressed to the Prime Minister, the President, the Government and the Russian automotive industry were quickly written in marker on the car.
Some of them read: "Take a Ride, Vova," "We Are Not Riding This Bucket," "I Wish You Were Dead, You Damn Lada Car." The sentence "A Gift to Putin from Khabarovsk Residents" was written in red letters on the car hood. A truck towed the vehicle towards the local United Russia office where a demonstration was held.
Representatives of the Yabloko political party's Khabarovsk organisation wanted to deliver the first-generation Lada car to Moscow and to place it near the Government House. Zhan Manko, leader of the local Yabloko chapter, said the city police department and the above mentioned Traffic Safety Inspectorate had located the car's owner and persuaded him to submit a written request to have the vehicle scrapped.
A tow truck came and took the derelict car to a special parking lot along a bypass highway, the longest and most deserted city road. Foreign car drivers who saw the slogan-covered car snapped photos using mobile-phone cameras.
The Territorial Traffic Safety Inspectorate's information department declined to comment on the car's confiscation. "Although there is no official ban, we will not comment on the issue," a department official told the paper.
