Ivan v. Migalka

In late november, a cold snap hit Moscow like an ice block to the jaw. Traffic fell into a state of frigid deadlock and average Ivans clashed in outrageous fashion with the dreaded migalka. 

The migalka – that flashing blue light atop government cars that allows their drivers to blithely ignore the traffic laws which apply to mortals – have become a symbol of much that is wrong with Russia and its roads, and has birthed grassroots efforts to battle the “unfair, feudal practice.” But so far it is sound and fury with little significance: the privilege is as yet undiminished. In fact, it seems like every week there are new, jaw-dropping migalka incidents.

A migalka-outfitted car belonging to the speaker of the Ingushetian parliament rammed a car that refused to switch lanes, so as to let it pass. Goons exited the speaker’s car, threatened the other driver with a gun, and offered him 5,000 rubles ($150) as compensation for the dent they caused.

“I think the driver of the official car decided to make some extra cash by offering his services for money,” Ingushetian President Yunus-bek Yevkurov told gazeta.ru, explaining that the speaker is currently in Ingushetia, not Moscow.

A recent post in livejournal community of ru-vederko, the nerve-center for discussing migalka atrocities: 

“The incident on the Ring road involving the cortege of Forbes list member Telman Ismailov shows the abyss between big capitalists and ‘simple’ Muscovites… They can come out and attack another driver on Moscow’s largest highway, ignoring the numerous witnesses, showing that the law exists not for them, but only for the plebes. These guards knew perfectly well that dozens of drivers sitting in the stop-and-go jam will memorize their license plates and that this information will reach the police.”

The post was written shortly after Alexei Smirnov, a wealthy lawyer (though not apparently wealthy enough), was besieged in his car and attacked by armed men who were driving escort for a car registered to multimillionaire property developer Telman Ismailov. The lawyer did not pull over to let Ismailov’s car pass.

Ismailov fell out of favor with Putin after throwing an insanely lavish party to open a luxury hotel in Turkey – the $1.65 billion Mardan Palace, recently voted the world’s top luxury hotel. He was allowed back into the country after apparently promising to build a large hotel in Sochi for the Olympics there, a project that all industry experts have called loss-making. Later reports indicated that Ismailov’s son was in the main car, and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has asked Moscow police to look into the case.

From the book Everyday Life of a Russian Traveler in the Era of Roadlessness, by Nikolai Borisov, indicates that the migalka runs deep indeed:

“A traveler on the road on an ‘official matter’ had substantial priorities over a private person. He had the right to choose the horses first at postal stations where one could pay according to set tariffs… Sometimes governors sent couriers to the capital seemingly on an ‘official matter,’ but in fact for their private needs. [Writer Alexander] Radishchev has told a story about one governor who regularly sent a courier to Petersburg to buy fresh oysters for his dinner table. Lack of horses at the postal station was an eternal problem for any traveler. It often happened that an ‘official party’ that went through shortly before would take all the horses. The traveler would then be obliged to wait for an unpredictable amount of time for their return, or hire horses for double the amount from commercially-minded locals who used their own horses to make money.”

“The Blue Buckets society is a decentralized and apolitical civic group that engages in a humorous fight for its rights according to the laws of the
Russian Federation.”

– Declaration 

community.livejournal.com/ru_vederko

Some Russian drivers have taken to demonstrating with blue buckets on their heads, to signify their distaste for the blue migalkas.

55 percent of Russians support the demonstrations

12 percent do not

(Levada Center, November 2010)

“Moscow. Night time. Two bears are moving along a street. The bigger bear tells the small bear: choose the tin can with a migalka on it. The meat is fattier in those.”

Maverick Automakers

While the russian government has been pouring cash into bailing out AvtoVAZ – maker of the Lada line of cars, rather more exotic models have recently appeared from rather unexpected directions. 

Behold, the Yo, or Ё-мобиль (yo-mobil.livejournal.com), a ‘Russian hybrid’ (which looks a lot like the Smart car) cobbled together on the outskirts of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s empire. 

Prokhorov, who made a name for himself in America by buying the New Jersey Nets (and whose publishing project Сноб made a big splash in the U.S. this fall), has also jumped on the bandwagon of President Medvedev’s modernization drive and is making the Yo for the Russian market. The car is expected to cost about $10,000. Prokhorov envisioned not a regular car with over 6000 parts, but something made of 400 “blocks,” Vedomosti wrote.

More complicated is the Marussia (confusion remains whether the Russian version is Маруся or the less poetic Мараша, which was probably the international brand-maker’s intention), a super car that has become the passion of Nikolai Fomenko, a Russian comedy actor. Fomenko, who picked up car racing as a hobby a decade ago, has now moved on to making a Russian sports car, and has opened a mini-factory in Moscow. To show he’s a serious newcomer in the world of racing, he bought into Virgin Racing, a Formula One team, and plans to use Marussia cars, wiry black and red vehicles with elements of Khokhloma design, as a signature touch. [marussiamotors.ru]