April 19, 2000
Live on the Echo of Moscow radio station: Alexander Krutov, deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma, organizer of the commission on monumental art, and Leonid Olshansky, full member of the Academy of Legal Sciences, head of the department of human rights and judicial reform.
The broadcast is hosted by Sergei Korzun.

S. KORZUN: It seems that today the positions of our guests actually differ on several problems, including the main problem that we announced today regarding paid parking. Are paid parking legal?
A. KRUTOV: If I may, a little history. The Law on the Fundamentals of the Tax System of the Russian Federation, adopted back in 1991, introduced the concept of a fee for parking vehicles. This fee could be established by the representative authorities of the subject of the federation. And in fact, in this part the law is still in force in those territories where sales tax is not levied. In Moscow, sales tax is levied from July 1, 1999, therefore, from the moment this law came into force. Until July 1, 1999, we had the right to charge a fee for the right to park vehicles.
L. OLSHANSKY: I support Alexander in this situation. I want to say that the law on the fundamentals of the tax system actually says so. But our point of view is this: as soon as the Moscow City Duma, and today we are talking about Moscow, adopted a sales tax, parking fees immediately became illegal. What happened before is a long debate that may drag us on. And here I completely agree: as soon as the sales tax came into effect on July 1, parking fees became illegal. There is a second aspect to the problem. My opponents, the opponents of my colleagues, who advocate for parking and try to argue that it is legal, sometimes put forward a different point of view: that this is not the tax nature of the payment, but rental payments such as rent. We have two answers to this. First: if the tax code and the law On the Fundamentals of the Tax System say that this is a specific payment, then we cannot call it a payment differently if the State Duma said payment. And second: a lease, like any other agreement, is voluntary in nature, which is why the agreement differs from a sentence. The driver did not enter into a rental agreement with either the Moscow authorities or the service that operates and operates there. Therefore, there can be no forced payment.
S. KORZUN: Let’s not do it all together, let’s separate it in parts. Alexander, first about July last year. From now on it is illegal, do you agree?
A. KRUTOV: No, I don’t agree. The fact is that there has never been a fee for the right to park vehicles in Moscow. And from the very beginning, the entire parking system was not built as a system of collecting a fee that comes in. What is a fee? Target payment, which is credited to the budget of the appropriate level for the right to exercise some right. This was always a payment for the right to use a place reserved for long-term temporary parking of a car. This, in my opinion, was the main mistake of the Moscow authorities, which has its roots in 1992, when instead of introducing a fee, a completely clear specific type of tax, it was decided to take the path of providing some kind of service for parking rights. And from that moment on, the problems that we are still talking about began to arise.
S. KORZUN: Leonid, how are these issues resolved in the West? Are there paid parking lots, ATMs, etc. in cities?
L. OLSHANSKY: In order to answer how they are resolved in the West, you need to put at least 4 documents on the table: the constitution of this state, the civil code, the administrative code in some places it is called differently and the law of the subject of the federation, for example, the state USA or some state of Germany. Put down four documents and go through them sequentially, understand how the constitution delegates powers to this state. Yes, in America there are more powers to the subject of the federation, in other countries there are less. I believe that our litmus test is the constitution of our state. Following the constitution is the civil code. The third number is the administrative code and then the laws of the subjects of the federation. Therefore, I personally urge you to work and analyze documents the way the Constitutional Court does: does it comply with the Constitution and federal laws or not? I will allow myself to give just one example. The controversy was even more acute than now in 1995-96 over the problem of charging for what people in simple language call registration, but officially it is called registration. And not only was there a decree of the Moscow government, but a law of the city of Moscow was issued. And so on April 4, 1996, we gathered in the building of the Constitutional Court, and the Constitutional Court recognized that the laws of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Caucasian Mineralnye Vody and a number of other regions contradict the Constitution and money cannot be taken. Therefore, my opinion is that we, of course, will analyze everything today, express our points of view, but the final word belongs to the court. And I think that we will approach either the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court, depending on what level we put it on.
S. KORZUN: Alexander, you probably studied the experience of other cities?
A. KRUTOV: Of course, I studied the experience of other cities.
S. KORZUN: Where do these funds go?
A. KRUTOV: As a rule, this is decided exactly as it was decided by the law on the fundamentals of the tax system. This is a special type of municipal fee; this money goes to the municipal budget. This is how it is done in Spain, in Germany, in France, this is how it is done in the country with the most democratic constitution, in the most stable country in the USA. Nowhere does the question of an attack on human rights arise. In general, the United States is very sensitive to human rights, but regarding parking, this is sacred. I remember in 1994 we were guests of the US Congress, we were accompanied by a member of the US Congress. We got off the bus near Congress while it was moving, because stopping there is prohibited. In fact, the bus stopped for 2 seconds, we jumped out, and it drove away and then drove around this block all the time until we got out to the appointed place. This is sacred. The rights of each end where the rights of others begin, so we need to look at this as a whole, and not according to one of the individual problems. As for the decision of the Constitutional Court, it was not about that much. The issue was the recognition as unconstitutional of a fee for the right to live in Moscow for people who had not previously lived in Moscow. It contradicted everything in the world, indeed, including my beloved law On the Fundamentals of the Tax System.
S. KORZUN: Nevertheless, Leonid, your comment is about how it is in other cities. If not compared with the constitution
L. OLSHANSKY: I can’t say that I’ve been all over, but I asked, I looked into this issue. There is no such thing as that you can’t park a car or that you have to pay everywhere. There is an alternative everywhere. It is not allowed at the entrance, after 10 meters there is a fee, and after 50 meters it is free. I still want to return to the Constitution. According to our Constitution, according to Article 19, all citizens are equal, regardless of social, financial status, etc. What happens if in the center of Moscow all the streets are lined for paid parking? If I have money, I came to the same City Duma for 5 hours, I have to pay 5 times 10, that is, 50 rubles. And if I don’t have money, that means I can’t drive a car, I have to use public transport! These are gigantic fees, people are already talking about the parking mafia. I believe that paid parking should be a service where the car is protected and people are responsible for it. I would give an example with a train station: either I am afraid for my suitcase and hand it over to the locker, read the sign at the locker, how many rubles per hour I have to pay, or I am careless with my suitcase, leave it in the waiting room and go to buffet, etc. What will be will be. But at the station or at the airfield they don’t charge me for throwing my suitcase in the middle of the hall. And in Moscow, almost every department store. It is important to emphasize that they do not provide any service. They do not wash, do not clean, and are not responsible for the car or for the things left in it.
S. KORZUN: Nevertheless, legally this is a service today?
L. OLSHANSKY: No. This is my dispute with some Duma deputies and government representatives. I believe this is not a service for two reasons. Firstly, I did not order any service, and the consumer protection law prohibits the imposition of paid services. Secondly, what is the service? He doesn't guard. Their people called them speculators of air and land. Let them answer me: what service did he do me? He put a sign on what happened before without him, and comes up and takes the money.
S. KORZUN: Ostap Bender, no?
A. KRUTOV: No, far from it. This is a simplification of the situation. What is the basis for the creation of a state unitary enterprise that is engaged in parking in Moscow? I am not delighted with its activities. It all starts with the conclusion of a land lease agreement between the Moscow Land Committee, its territorial administration, and this enterprise, which provides a service for temporary parking of cars. .
S. KORZUN: Is this agreement concluded for the roadway?
A. KRUTOV: And we have no restrictions on the disposal of land in terms of whether it is a roadway or not. Have you ever tried to drive past FAPSI? There, an entire street is blocked on both sides by barriers, and this was done by the federal authorities. There is no lease agreement. And this street has been removed from the Moscow traffic pattern. When was the last time you drove through Tretyakovskaya Passage, even before the renovation? For example, I don’t remember. In essence, the result is a seized area. The law, strictly speaking, does not prohibit this. If we talk about whether it should be adjacent to the curb or not adjacent. This must not interfere with traffic. So, the basis is the lease agreement. There is a company that has leased this plot of land. And then you have the right to drive your car into this area or not. So, for the right to enter and park, they charge you money at the rate established by the Moscow government. Would you like an analogy with a train station please? You can sleep at night, resting your head on your suitcase, in the waiting room, if the police don’t kick you out, or you can sleep with the same comfort in the mother and child’s room, having paid a certain amount of rubles there. What service did you receive? Yes, exactly the same place you occupy, which, generally speaking, is rented by someone. That's the whole point of this business in Moscow. Another thing is that we have a monstrous economy here, and the old question regarding where the money goes is roughly clear. Because the city budget does not reach even a third of what it should.
S. KORZUN: An interactive survey begins on the waves of Echo of Moscow. The question today is: should paid parking on the roadways be legalized? We continue the conversation with the participants in our discussion on this very issue. Leonid, you have the floor. Alexander spoke out. Your answer to the question just asked There is no need to legitimize, this is obvious.
L. OLSHANSKY: Yes. I read the statements of the Moscow City Duma deputies. Their point of view today in a concentrated form sounded like this: it is not known where the money goes, more attention, let's take a closer look, there is something wrong there too, control and accounting, so that the money flows into the city budget. And the point of view of human rights activists is this: what difference does it make whether he gives a check or doesn’t give a check, 10 rubles an hour or 11, whether he has a parking meter or takes money in cash? Paid parking has been illegal in Moscow since July 1, and therefore we will not pay. Now for the arguments. The prosecutor of St. Petersburg has the same situation not only in Moscow, but in many regions, and some other prosecutors lodged a protest against government documents or, if this is already formalized by law, against the law. This protest calls for the abolition of parking fees. Second question: if I owe you money, I scratched your car, but I don’t want to pay, what do you do? Go to court. If I do not agree with the traffic police inspector who imposed the fine, I will appeal his decision to the court. If this service believes that it is renting legally, and I have not paid it (and now every day they are not paying more and more, a wave of popular indignation is rolling in. Walk the streets: every second person says that it is illegal, walking around with our clippings from newspapers, doesn’t pay), then let the parking service or the parking attendant himself sue the driver, and we’ll see. And we already have a court decision, where the driver specifically paid 10 rubles, took the receipt, we filmed it, and the judge declared the seizure of 10 rubles illegal precisely because sales tax was introduced on July 1. Of course, a ridiculous decision: return 10 rubles. But precedent is important.
A. KRUTOV: It’s a pity that there is no document. Because a decision was made on the basis that the collection was not in effect. There was no collection. Our trouble is that at one time the Moscow government did not take the simple path. In 1992, a model regulation on the fee for parking vehicles was issued. I have it with me. Everything is written here: how it is charged, who pays, what the receipt looks like. If this municipal tax had been introduced in Moscow in 1992, we would have calmly collected it until July 1, 1999, there would have been no problems. But, unfortunately, the collection was not introduced, and the result was a rather curious thing. Since we were actually talking about a paid service - the service consists of granting the right to place a car on a rented land area - this is income from business activity, on which you must pay income tax, including to the federal budget, value added tax, all necessary deductions from the wage fund, etc. Instead of just collecting a fee that goes entirely into the city budget, we actually get maybe 10% of what is collected into the budget. And everything else goes either to the federation or to extra-budgetary funds.
S. KORZUN: But the proud consciousness that we are paying for the good of the state
A. KRUTOV: It’s good, of course it’s good. However, the main mistake of the Moscow government was that it did not do what needed to be done in time in accordance with the tax code. Now this can no longer be done, because fees cannot be introduced now. But no one has decided that the Moscow authorities have the right to lease land plots in the city, including along sidewalks. Right or wrong, that's a different point of view. From my point of view, everything is wrong here. I, to the delight of human rights defenders, would do the following: taking into account the critical situation with car traffic in the city, I would put markings of type 1.1 (no parking) on ​​all curbs on the Boulevard Ring, prohibiting parking in accordance with the rules of the road and allowing parking only in designated areas. But we are not ready for this in urban planning right now. But if these decisions were made in 1992, we would have had time to prepare; there would have been multi-storey and underground parking lots, etc. Generally speaking, the thesis that if they take money from you, they must provide you with some kind of service, is a little Soviet: give me a thing for my ruble. In Spain, you park your car, there is a dumb metal post next to it, with a device hanging on it. You throw pesetas there, no one bears any responsibility if your car is scratched or stolen. You pay for the right to stand here. That's all.
S. KORZUN: And in Paris, girls run and if they are overdue, they also impose a fine.
A. KRUTOV: It’s even worse in Paris. There is a trick of our motorists who fight for their rights, forgetting that other people have rights, and turn on the emergency stop signal - even this is monitored. In front of my eyes, two nice girls sniffed the cars for 15 minutes and recorded signs that this was intentional and there were no signs of accidents.
L. OLSHANSKY: I listened with great pleasure to another part of my opponent’s speech and was convinced once again that there is no legal basis. The respected Deputy Chairman of the Duma once again said that they made a mistake in the region of 91-92. My opinion is this: we need to bow low at the feet of the State Duma deputies. Now, if tomorrow a corresponding section appears in the civil code. Here’s another example: we have an article in the administrative code: Ticketless travel. There is a punishment, a fine. And it was determined that it is not the policeman, but the controller who takes the fine. If you don’t like it, they will take you to the police or to court. Now, if tomorrow the Moscow City Duma, as a legislative initiative, goes to the State Duma and an article appears in the code of administrative offenses: non-payment of money in a municipal paid parking lot, the punishment is such and such - that’s it, there’s no escape. Please persuade. After all, there is no such thing. I want to remind you about one more outrage. I would like to hear my opponent's point of view. Let's remember what we had before August 1997 for parking a car under a prohibiting sign, where there is no paid parking, but simply a sign prohibiting parking, or parking a car in a paid parking lot, but did not pay. In both the first and second cases, first the blocker, and then they took it away, from a thousand to one and a half for the first day of evacuation, and then 300-500 rubles for each day. Representatives of the Moscow City Duma and the Moscow government said: This is legal. And we said: It’s illegal. And almost overnight, the Supreme Court declared the Moscow government’s evacuation order illegal; it not only recognized it, but published it in the Supreme Court bulletin, given the great importance of the issue. And the State Duma introduced an amendment to Article 115. It is long, but in short: for all this, blocking, evacuation, removal of license plates, as well as taking any other measures, except for those expressly provided for by federal law, are strictly prohibited. This can be interpreted this way: federal law does not provide for a fee, and you charge, which means you are violating Article 115. Of course, my opponent can now classify it as extremism, but I believe that the actions of the parking attendant even contain an article of the Criminal Code: Fraud. We proceed from the fact that this is prohibited, but he takes, that is, withdraws money through deception or abuse of trust.
S. KORZUN: Our voting is completed. 744 people called in 5 minutes. What is your forecast? Do you think more people are in favor of legalizing paid parking on the roadway or not?
A. KRUTOV: There are much more people who dream of everything being free. This is the bright dream of humanity.
L. OLSHANSKY: If the issue with the word is legitimized, I think there will be more people who will say to legitimize it. But if we put the question differently: who is in favor of not paying? - there would be a different result.
S. KORZUN: Logically, you should have had other assumptions. In fact, only 21% think it should be legalized, 79% think it shouldn’t. We follow precedents. Indeed, Alexander, the evacuation and blocking were declared illegal, and accordingly, all this had to be canceled in Moscow.
A. KRUTOV: Again, not quite like that. The Moscow City Duma took an active part in ensuring that this did not happen. My opponent knows the name of Deputy Maksimov, who collaborated with him at that time. He, the first chairman of the Moscow Duma, worked to ensure that illegal evacuation from Moscow disappeared. And evacuation is provided for by the traffic rules, but this must be done by the traffic police, as they are now called. And reimbursement of costs is made in the amount of reimbursement of costs, and no commercial organizations can take on these functions, this is quite obvious. Therefore, we cannot have any disagreements here. But again, I come back to this: there is no tax in Moscow, which was abolished by the introduction of a sales tax, and never has been. We are talking about providing services to business entities. Because it is an economic entity. Moreover: any organization can win a competition to locate this paid parking lot and operate it. And there are rules for licensing this service. And federal legislation operates with this concept all the time. I can cite a dozen quotes from federal law, from the law on the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, which directly states that people with disabilities in these paid parking lots have the right to park for free, to documents from the customs committee, which sets import duties on equipment for paid parking lots. That is, this is a term of legal circulation. Therefore, to say that they cannot exist because they are not liked. And who likes to pay for the water they consume?
S. KORZUN: Is there anything else to say about parking, Leonid?
L. OLSHANSKY: We went, in my opinion, in the second circle. There is a point of view that this is a service, my point of view is that this is not a service, I did not order the service, it is a fee. We went for the second time and exchanged. Now a few words about tow trucks. Indeed, Deputy Maksimov, who was elected to the last Duma from the 19th district, did a lot of work, indeed, I came to him, we collaborated, we did what we could. However, I want to note that the legality commission at the commission level adopted a conclusion on the illegality of the evacuation, but when the issue was brought up for consideration by the entire Moscow City Duma, it did not receive the number of votes; we did not get a Duma conclusion. Next, Maksimov wrote a draft law for the city of Moscow On Parking, and he, too, unfortunately, did not get the required number of votes.
A. KRUTOV: It wasn’t quite like that. The draft law was developed by Deputy Ilyin, and it was practically not considered by the Duma; it did not reach the first reading. This issue is stuck and is still being worked on. But the position of the Duma here was different from the position of the Moscow government.
L. OLSHANSKY: I dare to object. Deputy Ilyin was our serious opponent, I criticized him as best I could. These are diametrically opposed bills. Maksimov’s bill: you cannot evacuate, because there is no such sanction in the Russian code. The strategy of Ilyin’s bill: we will simply legitimize both bollards and tow trucks with Moscow law. Now I want to object again about tow trucks. The word tow truck is not in the Russian code. Due to violation of parking and stopping rules, neither then nor today, neither the traffic police nor anyone else has the right to evacuate the car. In a very limited number of cases, this is discussed in the article On Administrative Offenses - a car can be detained if the driver is drunk, if there are no documents, if the brakes or steering wheel are faulty. Once again I want to emphasize: even for a day, even for a thousand hours, standing under a prohibitory sign will only result in a fine, a fine, and another fine. And in order for us to move forward at least a little, I want to say: I don’t work in the Moscow City Duma, but information is leaking out that a document is being prepared on the recycling of vehicles. And I have already seen in it the grossest violations of the civil code, and I immediately want to emphasize: if there is a thing, then it must be registered for a year, as the article of the civil code says: Ownerless property. It can be three times rotten, twice without wheels and without glass. Only a court can declare a thing ownerless. And the illegal actions of the Moscow government to evacuate shells. It turns out to be a disgrace: there is a rusty car in the yard. The owner returns from a business trip, from the hospital, or somewhere else, there is no car, they tell him: We disposed of it. There is no such concept in the civil code of recycling. This means there will be a flurry of lawsuits. My opinion is this: one point of view has been expressed, I have a different point of view. All disputes are resolved in court. Let the court judge us, as it judged us on the issue of tow trucks, let any court judge us on parking issues. Now we are facing the evacuation of cars from yards, although this is property. By the way, all cases are won based on shells.
S. KORZUN: Leonid, not everything fits together. Shells and evacuation in two cases?
L. OLSHANSKY: Three.
A. KRUTOV: There is clause 1.5 in the traffic rules, under which I can sum up anything: It is prohibited to leave objects on the road that interfere with traffic. And road safety regulators are required to ensure safety, so transporting an object that interferes with traffic is perfectly acceptable. Otherwise, we come to the absurd: we parked our cars in three rows, blocked the entire street, and no one can touch us for a thousand days. As for shells, this is a separate topic, I would not like to touch on it at all, because who wins, whose rights are violated and how many patients did not make it to hospitals due to traffic difficulties - this is a very painful topic for the city. If you want, we can talk about this separately.
S. KORZUN: What is your position on evacuation? Is it legal?
A. KRUTOV: Within the framework of the law, if this is done by services ensuring road safety in order to remove traffic obstructions.
L. OLSHANSKY: Towing for violation of parking rules has been outlawed by the Supreme Court, and not a single inspector will go tow a car today until there are amendments. But tomorrow there will be a heated debate in the Code on Administrative Offenses
A. KRUTOV: There is one inaccuracy here. Article 115, indeed, has been supplemented with a note: for violation of paid parking rules, evacuation is illegal. We must call all things by their proper names until the end. And in other cases, which are provided for by the traffic rules, if a vehicle creates an obstacle to traffic, then the road service authorities are obliged to ensure the removal of this obstacle.
L. OLSHANSKY: The amendment reads as follows: For violation of the rules of parking and stopping, as well as the procedure for using municipal paid parking lots, blocking, evacuation, removal of license plates, as well as any other measures are prohibited. State Duma deputies in 1997 emphasized that it is equally forbidden to take a car if it is parked under a prohibitory sign and if municipal parking rules are violated and does not pay money. And I repeat once again: the Supreme Court bulletin says that if you parked the car under a prohibitory sign, you categorically cannot take it precisely because there is no such sanction in the Russian code.
S. KORZUN: Tomorrow the State Duma will discuss the administrative code in the second reading. As many write, the Moscow Duma has already studied this project due to its strong repressive nature?
A. KRUTOV: Yes, we studied this topic. I have a point of view that coincides with the point of view of many deputies: the flaw of the new edition of the code is that instead of judicially adopting certain sanctions for administrative offenses, including for violations of traffic rules, there everything is left to those who do it on the spot. We still need to move towards a more civilized practice: if you break the rules, you will receive a summons to court. We are introducing the institution of justices of the peace in Moscow, there will be 384 of them, we will relieve the workload of the court of general jurisdiction, which is exactly the job for them. Good, clear work for many, many years to come.
S. KORZUN: Leonid, you finish.
L. OLSHANSKY: My respected opponent covered one hundredth of this gigantic document. I can say briefly: this code is oversaturated with gigantic repressions, it narrows the right to judicial protection, if only because Muscovites can now go to court not at their place of residence, but at the location of the organ. For example, there was a conflict 100 km away, you will go to that court, in Sochi there was a conflict there. When it comes to road traffic, drivers face unprecedented repression. An attempt is being made to revive points, coupons, tow trucks, bollards, and to legalize the removal of license plates. In short, tomorrow is a serious controversy, and drivers and the lawyers who defend them are determined to fight seriously. Well, the opinions of deputies are expressed on the pages of newspapers even today, read them.
S. KORZUN: Alexander, should we intensify repression or should we comply? New Arbat is under our window. Parking is prohibited on both sides, but they are standing. Or there is a traffic police station, which performs the functions of the same parking attendants.
A. KRUTOV: Both humanly and legally, we must act within the framework of the law. If the law is imperfect, it needs to be improved. If there is no sanction for transportation from under the sign, this sanction must be introduced, because this really violates the rights of other people. The question of the balance of rights is a thousand-year-old one.
Live on the radio station Echo of Moscow were Alexander Krutov, deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma, organizer of the commission on monumental art, and Leonid Olshansky, full member of the Academy of Legal Sciences, head of the department of human rights and judicial reform.

Moscow authorities continue to struggle with motorists who do not want to pay for parking and remove license plates for this purpose. However, it turned out that the methods used for this are not always recognized by the courts. Metropolitan motorist Dmitry Osipov faced a similar situation, in detail the one who told your Facebook story.

In May 2017, he parked his Volkswagen Tiguan without license plates in a paid parking zone. Osipov did not answer questions from users about why the car had no license plates, saying that he did not violate any parking rules and that parking without license plates was supposedly “completely legal.”

“Any motivation can be appropriate - even if he took it off himself, even if the hooligans, even if they fell off,” says Osipov.

As a result, the car without license plates was evacuated to the impound lot. Then the driver received a fine in the amount of 2.5 thousand rubles for non-payment of parking in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 8.14 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Moscow “Failure to pay for placing a vehicle in a paid city parking lot.” At the same time, the resolution showed a Volkswagen Tiguan belonging to Osipov without license plates. Then the motorist wrote a complaint to the State Public Institution “Administrator of the Moscow Parking Space” (AMPP), arguing that the fine should be canceled by the fact that the photo shows an unidentifiable car, but was refused. Then he appealed to the Basmanny Court of Moscow,

but the judge also upheld the ruling: so, in addition to the photographs on the ruling, the court referred to the car identification act. It is important that for some reason it was not included in the case materials.

However, the motorist decided to go to the Moscow City Court and there, already in January 2018, he was able to get the fine canceled. His case turned out to be far from isolated. For example, another metropolitan driver, Yuri Borkovsky, faced a similar situation, who was also able to get the fine cancelled, and immediately in the court of first instance, the Presnensky Court.

The State Public Institution “Administrator of the Moscow Parking Space” (AMPP) explained to Gazeta.Ru how they identify cars without license plates using the example of motorist Osipov’s Volkswagen Tiguan.

“This car, parked in a paid parking zone, was moved to a special parking lot by decision of the anti-terrorism commission of the city of Moscow for police checks, since it did not have license plates and it was impossible to determine the owner,” the AMPP said. — Upon receipt of the car, the owner signed an identification document in which he confirmed that it was his vehicle. The parking was not paid for - the owner was fined in the amount of 2.5 thousand rubles. The report is drawn up in a special parking lot by traffic police officers when checking a car in the presence of the car owner.”

The AMMP clarifies that after inspection by law enforcement agencies and identification of the vehicle (by VIN number or identification certificate), a resolution is issued against the owner in the case of an administrative offense under Part 2 of Art. 8.14 Code of Administrative Offenses of Moscow.

It turns out that Osipov’s car could first be identified by its VIN number, and then he himself signed the same identification act that was not included in the case file.

In addition, the AMPP said, cars without license plates can be identified using stationary cameras installed in some places in the city. They read the car's license plates as it pulls into the parking lot. Then, when the car leaves, the number is also recorded, which makes it possible to identify the vehicle license plate and issue a fine for unpaid parking.

Why can't I overcome the problem?

The problem with motorists unwilling to pay for parking arose with the capital's authorities immediately after the introduction of paid parking. At first, drivers hid license plates with foreign objects - for example, scraps of paper or even CDs. Foot inspectors were sent out to fight these “inventions.”

Then drivers began to simply twist numbers. And it turned out that virtually nothing can be done about such economical motorists.

Thus, there is a penalty for driving a car with unreadable or altered license plates (Article 12.2 of the Administrative Code “Driving a vehicle in violation of the rules for installing state registration plates on it”), which ranges from a fine of 500 rubles to deprivation of a driver’s license for up to a year. But the article does not apply to parked cars. Then, at the instigation of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a special anti-terrorist commission was created, which was supposed to check such cars for threats.

And in May 2017, the practice of towing “unnumbered” cars appeared to make life even more difficult for drivers who may not have been affected by a 2.5 thousand fine.

In a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, coordinator of the Blue Buckets community Pyotr Shkumatov called the actions of the AMPP, which issues such fines, illegal. According to him, there are a huge number of examples where motorists can find themselves without license plates completely legally. For example, a driver who is a resident of a paid parking zone can leave his car in the yard for several months, and a disgruntled neighbor can deliberately tear off his license plate. The license plates can freeze and come off due to parking in the snowdrifts, which, as we all saw during the recent snowfall, utility workers dumped right on the parking spaces; in addition, when buying a new car, the driver has the right to drive for 10 days without any license plates at all.

“The Code of Administrative Offenses does not stipulate such a norm - to evacuate cars without license plates and issue fines for this,” says Shkumatov. - There are anti-terrorist regulations, but this is just a methodology.

- So, if the car is towed free of charge, without issuing a fine, then this can still somehow be far-fetched. To say that the FSB was afraid of the terrorist threat, issued an evacuation order and ordered to check a specific car. But the AMPP went further, they began issuing fines. But they do not have the right to do this on the basis of vehicle identification: the traffic police have such a right, and the AMPP has the right to issue fines only on the basis of photo and video recording.

No numbers - no photo recording. Theoretically, the AMPP can collect all the materials and send them to the traffic police, but it is not clear how to do this.

Therefore, it is necessary to change the Code of Administrative Offenses, but it is impossible to change this code without a radical transformation of many procedures; AMPP have become hostages of their own system. And until there are changes in legislation at the federal level, this situation is unlikely to change.”

1. Paid parking must comply with the requirements provided for in Article 12 of this Federal Law, as well as the requirements of this article.

2. The law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation may prohibit paid parking in areas directly adjacent to sports facilities, buildings housing educational organizations, including preschool educational organizations, medical organizations of the state and municipal healthcare systems, cultural organizations, government bodies, local government bodies and organizations providing state and municipal services, as well as on land plots that, in accordance with housing legislation, belong to the common property of apartment buildings.

3. The amount of payment for the use of paid parking lots on highways should not exceed the maximum amount of such fee determined in accordance with paragraph 7 of part 1 of Article 6 of this Federal Law and is established by the owners of parking lots.

4. The law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation may establish periods of time of day, as well as weekends and non-working holidays, when paid parking lots located on lands owned by the state or municipally are used free of charge.

5. The territory where paid parking is organized must be marked with road signs and road markings, equipped with an automated payment system in cash or non-cash form in accordance with the traffic management project.

6. The owner of the paid parking lot ensures the maintenance of the paid parking lot, including charging a fee for using the paid parking lot from the user of the paid parking lot.

7. Collection of fees for the use of paid parking from the user of paid parking must be organized using an automated payment system in cash or non-cash form.

8. Charging for the use of paid parking is not permitted in relation to vehicles used for the activities of the fire department, police, medical ambulance, emergency services, military automobile inspection, as well as vehicles of the federal executive body in the field of security, federal executive body in the field of state security, military police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, federal executive body exercising special functions in the field of ensuring federal courier communications in the Russian Federation, used in communications with business needs.

(see text in the previous edition)

9. The right to free use of paid parking is granted in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The owner of a paid parking lot has the right to establish additional categories of paid parking users, categories of vehicles that are granted the right to free or preferential use of paid parking.

The main reason for the massive launch of new paid parking zones throughout the country is the introduction of modern payment collection mechanisms, as well as control over violators. There are legal and illegal ways to avoid paying for using paid parking lots; we will consider only the first.

How paid parking works

The new control system is based on recording the license plate of a vehicle parked in a paid zone and then checking it against a database of cars that have paid for parking. If it turns out that the owner of a car has not made payment, then a fine will be imposed on it in the amount established by law (today it is equal to 2,500 rubles).

At the moment, the data processing center uses the following means to detect violators:

In view of the factors mentioned above, you won’t be able to simply forget to pay for parking, since from the moment the car is parked in a paid zone, everything no longer depends on the owner of the car, but on the employees of the data center.

They don’t start any heart-to-heart conversations, they don’t make demands, they simply record the car’s license plate number for subsequent checks to see if the parking was paid for. If not, there will be a fine.

Thus, the only way to prevent them from performing the check is to interfere with the process of reading the license plate. This is what all the following ways to avoid paying for parking are based on.

We complicate Parkon's work - what are the ways to avoid paying for parking?

So, method one. Its main essence is to interfere with Parkon's ability to correctly read the car number. A whole bunch of different tricks were invented for this.

Here are just a few of them:

Pros: relative speed and convenience. If the need arises, you can remove the paper or wipe the number in just a couple of minutes.

Minuses: The above tricks only save you from Parkons. These manipulations will in no way prevent foot patrols from taking photographs and collecting fines. Data processing center employees have the right to wipe down the numbers, free them from pieces of paper and other obstacles that interfere with identification. Therefore, it is advisable to use this method only where patrols are rare.

Parking without license plates - how to avoid paying for parking?

An improved version of the first method. Why bother with hiding part of the license plate, or endure mud or snow on your car, when the seal can simply be removed? According to current laws, it is prohibited to drive a vehicle without a license plate (Clause 2 of the Traffic Regulations of the Russian Federation), while parking without license plates is completely legal (and how, in principle, can one prove that the license plates were removed intentionally in order not to pay for parking, but not, for example, stolen by criminals). And in the absence of license plates, neither Parkon nor the foot patrol will be able to do anything, since the car will be impossible to identify.

Pros: 100% guarantee that you will not receive a fine for non-payment of parking.

Minuses: Constantly removing and attaching numbers takes a lot of time, plus there is a possibility of forgetting to put the numbers back in place in a hurry, which, as we have already found out, can have serious consequences. To simplify the procedure, various devices were invented: license plate magnets, devices against theft of license plates (they make the process of removing and attaching significantly easier), etc.

In light of the new regulations adopted and coming into force on May 1, 2017, approved by the Anti-Terrorism Commission, leaving a car in a parking lot without license plates risks finding it later in a fined parking lot (so far there have been precedents only in Moscow). According to the document, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representatives of the Department of Transport have the right to evacuate cars without license plates for a parking fine in order to identify them.

The official reason is the fight against terrorism (supposedly these are the vehicles most often used in terrorist attacks). Such actions are planned to be carried out only in relation to cars parked in places where large crowds of people are potentially possible.

Use of numbers from other countries

Due to new changes affecting the evacuation of vehicles without a license plate, motorists have improved their methods of dealing with paid parking. Since parking without license plates is now dangerous, drivers began to change their license plates during parking to those of other countries (the license plates of border countries - Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltic countries - are especially popular). The services will not be able to evacuate such a car, since they have the necessary identification data. Another thing is that today the traffic police does not have a unified database on cars of foreign countries, so photographing them with Parkon (as well as foot patrols) is useless.

Pros: The car is definitely not towed to the impound lot.

Minuses: installing false numbers is still not entirely legal, since this action contradicts Art. 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which states that:

Installation of knowingly false state registration plates on a vehicle entails the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of 2,500 rubles (for those whose work is related to the operation of a vehicle, as well as for legal entities, the fines are higher).

However, you need to understand that liability will arise only if the driver, as they say, is caught red-handed. In all other cases, it is impossible to prove the intentionality of actions (what if it’s hooligans playing around). Therefore, by observing basic caution or using, for example, quick-release frames for license plates, the chances of getting caught are minimal. And even in the most unfavorable case, an ordinary citizen faces only a fine of 2.5 thousand, which is much cheaper than evacuation, and in addition, he will not have to waste time searching for a car at impound lots.

Other reasons not to pay for parking

As a bonus to all of the above methods, there are various types of parking benefits provided for different categories of people.

Among others, on absolutely legal and legal grounds, the following may not pay for parking:

• Representatives of large families (subject to obtaining the appropriate parking permit).
• Disabled people (only in places marked with a special sign).
• Residents of populated areas (if paid parking is located within the municipal area in which their residential premises are located).
• In addition, owners of electric vehicles may not have to spend money on paying for paid parking. And they don’t even have to obtain any additional permits.

Moscow motorists have come up with a way to avoid paying for parking in the center of the capital