Residents of the Daghestani village of Kayakent blocked the federal motorway connecting Makhachkala with the city of Derbent on 24 April, demanding the release of two detained lorry drivers.
On Monday evening, several dozen people blocked the Kavkaz federal motorway for several hours. Their main demand was the release of two lorry drivers from Kayakent, who had been participating in protests against the Platon road tax. Relatives of the detainees joined the blockade, which took place not far from the biggest lorry driver protests in Daghestan, in Manas.
Umar Garisov, a driver taking part in the protest in Manas, told OC Media that the two men were detained as they travelled to Makhachkala to obtain work permits.
‘The guys went to Makhachkala to get work permits and then they disappeared. We’ve had no contact with them since Friday evening [21 April]. We don’t know what happened to their cars either. In general, there is no news’, Garisov said.
Another protester, who introduced himself as Rashid, told OC Media that around midnight, after protesters shut down the motorway, the men returned to their village.
‘Several hours after the motorway was blocked, the two men returned home and their relatives unblocked the road’, Rashid said.
Lorry drivers have been protesting across Russia against the Platon road tax for around a month. A major rally is taking place in Daghestan, where initially around 3,000 lorry drivers protested. Currently, there are around 300 vehicles stationed near the village of Manas, 30 km south of Makhachkala. Reports of detentions of protesters in Manas have emerged periodically, although all detainees have been released after having their documents checked by police.
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