THE Russian ruling elite, long accustomed to sweeping past ordinary citizens in high-speed limousines, are to lose their privileged status on the roads.

Members of the State Duma have voted to surrender special numberplates that offered deputies and senators immunity from Russian traffic laws, regardless of how fast they were travelling.

The notoriously corrupt Russian traffic police are barred from stopping cars bearing the distinctive plates, which carry the national flag in one corner. Less fortunate drivers are routinely pulled over for minor infringements by bribe-hungry officers.

Police are also obliged to ease the journeys of cars with special plates by ordering other vehicles aside, to the fury of Muscovites who endure chronic daily traffic jams.

The Duma’s decision came after President Putin demanded action to reduce traffic accidents, which killed 34,000 people in Russia last year. Kommersant, the daily newspaper, reported that 1,605 cars had privileged plates and that 200 were involved in accidents this year.

Members of parliament will lose their plates by the end of the year, and those issued to ministers and senior government officials will be withdrawn by February. Leaders of the pro-Putin United Russia party have also surrendered the flashing blue lights, or migalki, that allow them to use special VIP lanes on main thoroughfares in Moscow.

Politburo members sped down these lanes in black Zil limousines during Soviet times but wealthy businessmen and criminals now buy migalki on the black market for about £5,000. A presidential decree took effect this month to curb the trade by cutting the permitted number of migalki from 7,500 to 1,000.

The roads will continue to be cleared for Mr Putin’s own armour-plated limousine, surrounded by a blaring cavalcade of police outriders and security vehicles.

Traffic privileges enjoyed by the political elite infuriate ordinary drivers. Thousands staged a national protest in February in support of a Siberian railway worker who was jailed after his car was hit by a speeding Mercedes carrying Mikhail Yevdokimov, the governor of the region of Altay, to a party.

The Mercedes was travelling at more than 90mph when it clipped Oleg Shcherbinsky’s Toyota and spun into a tree, killing the governor. Mr Shcherbinsky was found guilty of causing the crash and sentenced to four years in a labour camp after a judge said that he should have pulled over when he saw the limousine’s migalki.

His conviction was overturned after the outcry. Some cynics have suggested that the latest campaign has less to do with road safety than improving the image of politicians before parliamentary elections next year. They noted that ministries had begun to replace the special plates with ordinary ones bearing distinctive registration numbers so police can continue to recognise them.

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