Fines for drivers with the rights of other countries declared unconstitutional

The complaint of the year is a driver from Khabarovsk, Dmitry Brashkin, who was fined five thousand rubles in 2019 for driving without a license but holding a driver’s license issued in Kazakhstan in 2013.

There is no right in the legislation to change foreign rights, therefore it is impossible to punish for its non-fulfillment, the decision of the Constitutional Court says. Brashkin appealed the fine in the courts, but the authorities took the side of the State traffic inspectorate, stating that since Brashkin has Russian citizenship since 2017, he should have obtained rights in the Russian Federation. The decision of the Constitutional Court drew attention to the fact that in paragraphs 12 and 13 of Art. 25 of the law says that the driver has the right to drive a personal car in Russia with the rights issued in another state party to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. There is no statutory deadline in which the driver must exchange these rights.

Recall that at the end of last month, the Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed the driver's license of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as Ukraine, on the territory of Russia. Four new regions that are part of the Russian Federation will receive their own car codes 80, 81, 84 and 85. Code 80 will be reserved for cars in the DPR, 81 - LPR, 84 - Kherson and 85 - Zaporozhye region.