The issue of vehicles with special signals has returned to the spotlight in Russia after amendments signed by Vladimir Putin in late summer 2025. The law clarified how drivers must act when cars with blue and red flashing lights and a special siren approach. In practice, motorists are now required to yield a lane to any such vehicle, regardless of who is inside.
The article links this decision to the return of an older system of road privileges. It refers to lyrics written by Noize MC fifteen years ago after the crash on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow involving a Mercedes associated with LUKOIL that carried a flashing beacon. The quoted lines are used to illustrate public anger over the special status of such cars.
The piece notes that in Russia’s prosperous 2010s, a special signal was seen as a symbol of success and exceptional status. Flashing beacons were criticized, mocked, and formally restricted, yet the practice never disappeared. After a presidential decree that cut the number of officially authorized beacons, there were about 500 of them nationwide. But, the article says, their numbers later began to grow again.
The Chuysky Trakt Crash
At about 9:20 a.m. Moscow time on August 7, 2005, a crash involving the car of Altai Krai governor and actor Mikhail Yevdokimov occurred on the M-52 Chuysky Trakt highway on the Biysk-Barnaul stretch.
According to the account cited in the article, the governor’s Mercedes was traveling at more than 140 kilometers per hour while overtaking a Volga. After the maneuver, it failed to return to its lane in time and tried to pass a Toyota Sprinter on the left as that car was turning left at an intersection.
To avoid a direct collision, the Mercedes driver sharply turned the wheel to the left. The car clipped the Toyota and flew into a ditch. Citing the criminal case materials, the article says the vehicle’s speed was 149 km/h. Witnesses said the car traveled about 20 meters above the roadside after impact. The airbags deployed around the cabin, but, according to the text, the force of the crash tore them apart.