Lorry drivers gathered in the Daghestani village of Manas are continuing to protest against the Platon road tax. The protests in Daghestan, which are part of a wider nationwide movement, are now entering their 25th day, and show few signs of ending.
On 18 April, Maksim Shevchenko, a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, came to meet the protesters in Manas, 30 km south of Makhachkala. About 1,000 lorry drivers joined the meeting.
‘Shevchenko met with us, listened to us. Then we went to Makhachkala and continued to discuss our problems in his office. Now, we need to draw up an approximate cost plan: how much we spend on taxes, on fuel, on fines, on car repairs, how many cargo we carry each year. Today or tomorrow we must give this information to him, so that he can show it to the Federation Council’, Umar Garisov, one of the protesters, told OC Media.
According to Garisov, there are now about 1,000 vehicles parked in protest in four car parks in Manas, despite some protesters having already left.
‘Some people have loans, someone else has a father in hospital, some just can’t take the emotions, and they leave. But we stay here. We are still many’, Garisov said.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev claimed during a meeting with the State Duma on 19 April that the number of protesters against the Platon tax was only 450, out of a total of 800,000 lorry drivers registered in the system in Russia.
‘These are people who don’t want to do business legally’, Medvedev said.
The protesting lorry drivers were quick to react to the prime minister’s statement. The head of the Russian Association of Carriers, Andrey Bazhutin, countered Medvedev’s estimates. According to Bazhutin, ‘40% of 1.5 million drivers’ are involved in the nationwide strike, which is also supported by many drivers of smaller vehicles. The lorry drivers invited the prime minister to personally visit the parking lots where the strikes are taking place.
A group of protesting lorry drivers in Daghestan have said they are now satisfied, after the government conducted an inspection of the customs post on the Azerbaijani border. They say that there are no longer queues and they no longer have to pay bribes at customs control.
The drivers had been demanding an apology from a customs officer captured in a video in which another official called them ‘fools’, and spoke of extorting money from drivers. Authorities told the drivers the official spea
On 31 October, several dozen Daghestani lorry drivers gathered at the customs post on the Azerbaijani border demanding an apology for insults directed at them by a Daghestani customs officer.
The demonstration came in response to a video widely circulated on social media in which a customs official at the post demands a bribe from an Azerbaijani lorry driver, calling his Daghestani colleagues ‘fools’.
‘Don’t look at these fools, the Daghestanis, who tell you things at the checkpoint
Lorry drivers in Daghestan, who ended a month long strike on 28 April, warned the government on 11 May that if their demands are not met, they will go back on strike.
‘MPs of the State Duma met with us. They promised us that they would solve our problems. They asked for time for that. We gave them time — two months’, Rustam Mallamagomedov, one of the strikers told OC Media.
Russia-wide protests against the ‘Platon’ road tax began on 27 March. In the North Caucasus, Daghestani lorry driver
On 28 April, Daghestani lorry drivers ended their strike against the ‘Platon’ road tax. The strike lasted 33 days in total.
One protester, Abdurashid Samarov, told OC Media that they decided to end the strike after meeting with State Duma deputies on 28 April.
‘We wanted to pass on our demands personally to the deputies, and they listened to us. They can’t abolish “Platon”, but they are trying to meet our conditions at a regional level’, Samadov said.
Lorry drivers began to disperse on
Lorry drivers gathered in the Daghestani village of Manas are continuing to 
