When is a car too dirty?

City authorities in Moscow have declared "clean car month". Motorists who do not keep their car clean can be stopped by the police and have to pay a fine. It is no surprise that this is not popular with car owners. This report from James Rodgers.

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This is clean car month, and drivers of dirty vehicles risk being fined. Motorists argue that Russian law is only broken if the number plates are obscured by grime. Traffic policemen, car owners say, are a corrupt lot who take advantage of drivers' ignorance of the law to demand fines for offences real or imagined, or bribes to look the other way.

Motoring programmes on Moscow radio stations have been informing drivers of their rights and encouraging them to challenge officers who stop them.

The website of the newspaper Izvestiya asked its readers for their views. 46 per cent agreed a car was dirty if the number plate wasn't visible. 23 per cent said it was if the car had "wash me" written on it, 22 per cent if the make or the colour of the car couldn't be determined. A stubborn nine per cent maintained that a car was dirty only if the actual driver was invisible.

James Rodgers, Moscow correspondent

Listen to the words

off the streets
parked away from a road e.g. in a garage

blizzards
snow storms

hibernation
when animals sleep through the winter

emerge
come out

fined
ordered to pay money

number plate
the signs on the back and front of a car which show its registration number

obscured by grime
covered by dirt

bribes to look the other way
money to persuade them to ignore the problem

views
opinions

was invisible
could not be seen

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