Linden and suckers

While the investigation, losing its head, is unwinding a corrupt scheme for taking driver’s license exams, prices for fake driver ’s licenses have increased in the Northern capital. How to get behind the wheel in St. Petersburg today without cramming the rules and without learning to drive, the editors of the online publication “Kompromat Group”

Extern for driving

There have been legends about how snide inspectors fail exams at the City State Traffic Inspectorate since Soviet times in Leningrad. Subsequently, stories about how and how much an examiner needs to “gild his pen” became one of the traditional stories about city life. Today these stories have become the prose of the day and, one might say, everyday routine. Rather, the information that someone managed to pass the exams on their own, without paying a bribe, is now perceived as a myth.

The vicious system of passing exams has long turned into a profitable business. A week ago, the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs went on the warpath. The implementation was large. The task force raided five driving schools where it was possible to give away 65 to 160 thousand rubles and receive documents on completed training in driving theory and practice. The corruption scheme was put into motion. Now a lot of searches and arrests have fallen on the suspects. Both former and current traffic police officers fell into the network of managing their own security. In addition to the St. Petersburg dodgers, two more MREOs were found in the region, where exams were stamped “externally” for money.

The first prisoners arrived in the pre-trial detention center. Thus, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted the investigation’s request to select a preventive measure in the form of detention in relation to Maxim Morgunova, Deputy Head of the Interdistrict Registration and Examination Department of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate No. 10 of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (*aggressor country) for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. According to the investigation, he developed a criminal plan to start receiving bribes (through intermediaries, etc.) from applicants for passing exams, without the exams themselves. The average bribe taken from vehicle owners being examined was 65 thousand rubles. The money was transferred to the intermediary’s card, and the cash ended up in Morgunov’s hands. Today, the enterprising traffic police officer has been arrested until the end of March. Blame Maxim Morgunov does not admit and refused to testify in accordance with Art. 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). However, this arrest is not the last. The MREO case promises to be crowded.

As practice shows, while police officers most often take bribes quietly and alone, traffic cops act in groups or, to put it in official language, in squads. Not long ago, a verdict was given to one of the 13 defendants, who, according to the investigation, was part of “an organized criminal group of officials from the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (*aggressor country) for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region and the North-Western Interregional Department of State Road Supervision.” The traffic cops, as we already wrote, imposed a tribute on the drivers of heavy trucks and in a couple of years shook them up 47 million rubles. The robbery of regional cargo carriers took place according to a classic mafia scheme – for general patronage and assistance in the future for possible administrative offenses.

Remote rights

As soon as an ordinary city dweller decides to get a car, life around him begins to look like a bad dream. The instructors can be strange and the fleet can be from the Cro-Magnon era. But the most difficult part of learning is passing the traffic police exam. Everyone knows about bribes during exams, and there may also be retake fees, weeks of stress, waiting and depression. Therefore, the most timid (or, on the contrary, prudent) decide that since they will have to pay anyway, why bother and it’s easier to buy the rights rather than suffer.

It is a well-known fact that demand creates supply. Now on the Internet, like in a supermarket, there is a huge selection of offers for purchasing driver’s licenses. Prices vary from 10 to 70 thousand rubles. The range of services is wide – registration of duplicate rights to replace lost ones, registration of rights in another region (for those who were deprived), production of a duplicate PTS, adding a category to rights.

Enterprising businessmen offer several options in terms of complexity and production time. Here is a regular advertisement from a standard office producing licenses in the Northern capital.

Our company’s specialists offer assistance to everyone in acquiring a driver’s license on a legal basis. All information is entered into the database of the traffic police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the MREO. By contacting this organization, future driver’s license holders save a significant amount of money, a large amount of personal time and do not experience nervous stress. Thanks to cooperation with this company, its clients receive legal documents prepared using original forms. Qualified, experienced specialists provide assistance in purchasing driver’s licenses and adding the necessary categories.

Since the organization’s employees carry out their activities in accordance with Russian legislation, there is no doubt about the legality of the documents received. A driver’s license will pass any, even the most complex, test, although this is never required. The certificates issued by the company are registered with the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate in St. Petersburg.

There are many options available. The simplest is a license with the client’s data, with his photograph but without being entered into the traffic police database. Production time is up to 5 days, the cost is the lowest from 10 thousand rubles. But such rights are practically a sham, and they are valid until the first check by road guards. Such rights are not suitable for city roads.

The second option is more complicated. Rights are issued in another region of the country. They must be obtained in another city using temporary registration. The offices promise completely “clean” licenses. Without difficulties of use and intersection with the real traffic police database. Here prices are already higher and vary from 40 to 50 thousand rubles.

The third option is when a duplicate of another person’s rights is concocted. The same series and number, first and last name, only with a photo of the client. The rights are officially in the database. They are valid and can be safely demonstrated. Just without a passport. Otherwise, an unpleasant incident will result. Such rights cost from 100 thousand rubles.

Not an extra ruble

According to insiders, over the past two years, prices have increased significantly. If previously, motorists deprived of their licenses, or newcomers who did not want to take courses, could easily negotiate with traffic police officers to purchase new driving documents, but now this is more difficult to do. The minimum bribe amount for such services has reached 70 thousand rubles. But companies offering their services on conditions of complete anonymity have grown like mushrooms.

The problems of the St. Petersburg traffic police officers can be understood. New leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, like us already wrotetook active measures to introduce the local traffic police into the kingdom, which resulted in a local confrontation that ended with the overthrow of General Semenov and the initiation of a number of criminal cases.

Now the Department of Internal Security has begun cleaning the rows and closing off the main “feeders.” After all, as they sarcastically write on forums for motorists: “Without a sucker, the life of the traffic police is bad!” If drivers have learned to cope with ambushes in the bushes, with tripods and other inventions of traffic cops, and “word of mouth” regularly posts addresses and pictures of “waiters” in uniform, then with licenses and exams – this was an eternal goldmine. It’s still difficult to even imagine what interesting surprises it will give investigation “exam mafia”. It remains to be hoped that the next stage of the fight against corruption in the ranks of the traffic police there will be a massive closure of offices for the purchase and falsification of licenses. After all, in general, these are links of one chain.