Fake Russian “espézetky” also spotted in Prague. We know how to proceed, assures the police
Motorists from the Russian Federation like to remain anonymous when traveling abroad. The original registration plates of the car are changed to others, on which the inscription RUS and the national flag are missing. Several readers responded to the Aktuálně.cz article, which recently pointed out the problem. One of them sent a photo of a car with a modified license plate that he took in the wider center of Prague.
Buying a car registration plate in Russia that looks like German, British or even Czech is not difficult at all these days. Their production is according to information several companies deal with Russian newspapers, two such “tables on request” will cost approximately 1,200 crowns.
Russians with such altered signs go abroad to escape the anger of local residents due to the war in Ukraine. Some install them on the car only when the car is parked in the parking lot, but they are usually used in normal traffic as well.
“At the end of September, I came across a special mark in Prague, it would correspond to the Czech license plate, but the combination and number of characters did not,” Pali Baran, a reader who managed to catch the car at the intersection of Želivského and Vinohradská streets in Prague, described his knowledge to the Aktuálně.cz editors photograph. “It was strange that the brand did not have an EU stripe. It could mean that it is a license plate before entering the Union, however, the combination of the old license plate and the new Ford Kuga did not match,” adds the reader.
According to him, the brand looked trustworthy, its origin was also enhanced by the mat with the Czech advertisement. “It occurred to me that it could be an imitation of a Czech license plate with Russian data only when I saw the same combination and number of numbers in your article,” shared Pali Baran with his observation.
Reader Mirek from Olomouc again sent the editors link to discussion, which is conducted on the traffic server K-Report in connection with fake Russian signs. It shows that the occurrence of modified Russian tables is not an exceptional phenomenon in the Czech Republic.
“Driving with an invalid license plate is an offense that we encounter quite often. That’s why police officers know very well how to proceed in such a case,” Ondřej Moravčík from the press department of the Police of the Czech Republic told the editors. According to him, however, the statistics cannot distinguish from which state the invalid mark comes from. “However, this is an illegal act, for which a driving ban is pronounced,” adds Ondřej Moravčík.
If a car arriving from the Russian Federation with an altered license plate causes an accident on our territory, there is a risk that the victim will not receive compensation. When the driver runs away from the accident, the police usually conclude that the perpetrator was not found. In such a case, the damage cannot be reimbursed even from the guarantee fund of the Czech Office of Insurers, as confirmed by its spokeswoman Veronika Pilková.
In addition, official license plates of the Russian Federation are also invalid in the countries of the European Union, if the car equipped with them comes from the occupied parts of Ukraine. They inform about it on the website of the Roadpol organization, which brings together the traffic police of the member states of the union. The article also contains precise instructions on how to detect such a sign on the street.