Migalki Tales
One of the most publicized of Moscow’s municipal issues of 2010 was the problem of migalki, the blue sirens that high-ranking bureaucrats and businessmen use to avoid the city’s notorious bad traffic.
Cars equipped with migalki can legally disobey traffic laws, driving at high speeds, through red lights, and even on the wrong side of the road, while ordinary motorists become more and more irritated at the sight of these blue flashing lights.
Officially there are almost a thousand of these sirens issued to state officials, but last year it came to light that this number could be higher by hundreds.
Following several high-profile collisions throughout the year, a group was formed wherein motorists attached blue buckets to the roof of their car in protest. As public anger grows, some violence between ordinary drivers and migalki drivers have occurred. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has recently ordered drivers of vehicles sporting migalki to undergo ethics training. For now, the future of the blue sirens in Moscow is unclear.