GORKI, October 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Drunk driving will be punishable in Russia by a penalty worth a price of a moderate car and stripping of driving license for a term of up to three years, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Friday after a government meeting dedicated to problems of traffic safety.
According to Shuvalov, the government insists that permitted alcohol content in blood should be set at zero.
“It is necessary to increase considerably administrative fines for drunk driving. Experts say these fines must be equal to an average car price,” he said. Along with that, drunk drivers must be stripped of driving licenses for a term of up to three years.
In his words, punishment for drunk driving must be so severe so that “a driver and his or her family felt unfavorable consequences of drunk driving.” The government, he added, will discuss whether to fix the sum of the fine for the entire country or to fix only its upper and lower limits and let regions decide on its size by themselves.
“It is suggested that recurrent drunk driving record should carry criminal liability of very high fines and stripping of the driving license for a longer period,” he noted. The government, in his words, is against differentiating of degrees of alcohol intoxication. “The majority of participants in the meeting spoke in favor of a complete ban of alcohol percentage,” he said. These recommendations will be further worked on before submitting a relevant bill to the State Duma lower parliament house.