Download In winter, some Russians simply keep their cars off the streets. Blizzards make driving difficult. Temperatures of minus twenty degrees celsius and below can cause cars to seize up completely. In spring, vehicles reappear on the roads as if from hibernation. In Moscow, they're supposed to be clean when they emerge. 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. off the streetsparked away from a road e.g. in a garageblizzardssnow stormshibernationwhen animals sleep through the winteremergecome outfinedordered to pay moneynumber platethe signs on the back and front of a car which show its registration numberobscured by grimecovered by dirtbribes to look the other waymoney to persuade them to ignore the problemviewsopinionswas invisiblecould not be seen
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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.
off the streetsparked away from a road e.g. in a garage
blizzardssnow storms
hibernationwhen animals sleep through the winter
emergecome out
finedordered to pay money
number platethe signs on the back and front of a car which show its registration number
obscured by grimecovered by dirt
bribes to look the other waymoney to persuade them to ignore the problem
viewsopinions
was invisiblecould not be seen
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