Petersburg's trucker protest is part of a Russia-wide strike against the Platon system, which collects additional taxes from HGV operators. (c) Natalia Shkurenok. All rights reserved.On 27 March, Russia’s Association of Hauliers started a non-stop strike. From Russia’s Far East to the northwest, thousands of long-distance drivers have parked their trucks and vans along federal highways and local roads in protest. The main trigger for this protest, the second action of this scale in two years, is the Platon system, which collects an additional tax to compensate for damage done by heavy goods vehicles to Russia’s roads. It doesn’t help that Platon is operated by Igor Rotenberg, son of Arkady Rotenberg, a close ally of the Russian president, and inflicts heavy fines on those who don’t pay.
But the strikers’ demands, which include canceling the Platon system of collecting road fees, and transport tax, as well as corrections to legal norms governing work and leisure, fuel tax, are not only economic. They’re also political. The truckers are calling for the resignation of the Russian government.
The drivers say this strike, which is supported by other organisations and drivers’ trade unions, is countrywide — truckers from 84 of Russia’s regions are participating. But if you watch national television, you’d have no idea there was such a large-scale protest going on. State television is keeping quiet, and the country is only aware of the issue thanks to opposition media, the internet and social networks. None of Russia’s officially registered political parties has officially supported the strikers yet. Only Solidarity, an opposition political movement, has so far offered help.
