Furious at President Putin, as well as a new national toll that was enacted, hundreds of Russian truckers used their 18-wheelers to block access into the city of Moscow until their grievances are heard.
Furious over a new national toll, hundreds of Russian long distance truck drivers have blocked off an entire section of the gigantic ring that connects the major thoroughfares of Moscow. The action by the truckers on Friday may be a sign of a chink in Russian president Vladimir Putin’s armor as the economic woes of the country are being felt hard by the citizenry.
Not only are they truckers angry with Putin, but they are livid with a Putin crony who is a billionaire who owns half of a newly developed GPS system that will charge all Russian truckers a fee to use when it is finally operational. There is more of a political anger, also, reports The New York Times. The truckers, and most of the Russian people, are fed up with their current recession and the devastating affects of inflation as well as with the drop in oil prices.
Sanctions from Western nations over Putin’s adventure in Ukraine have crippled food imports. One truck driver remarked, “There is no economic program – where is all the money? The country is very rich yet we live like hell.”
With the low price of oil and other major commodities on the world market, the Russian economy has suffered to the tune of shrinking over 4 percent in just the last year with inflation hovering at a frightening 15.6 percent. The country has lost over $1 billion in its reserves in the past year and the ruble is nearly worthless against the dollar.
What is happening, observers say, is that the Russian elite who run the country are continuing to look for more ways to make themselves rich at the expense of the Russian people. The truckers are difficult, if not impossible, to control and people feel that they speak for the middle class who is furious at the elite who want to solve the nation’s economic problems by raising taxes and stealing money from the citizenry.
The truckers also complain that the government continues to raise taxes and tolls because they say it is needed to infrastructure. The drivers say, however, that none of the promised money ever goes into repairing the brutal Russian roadways. One truck driver in Vladivostok wanted to make the trip to Moscow to support the protest but said the roads were so horrible that it would take him 12 days just to get there.
