MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Foreign citizens will be allowed to work as drivers in Russia only if they have Russia driving licenses starting from November 2013, a spokesman for Russia’s traffic police told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
“The federal law on amendments to the Russia law on traffic safety and the Russian Code of Administrative Offence comes into force on November 5, 2013,” the spokesman said.
According to the spokesman, the amended law “prohibits to drive motor vehicles with foreign or international driving licenses while carrying out entrepreneurial or labor activities.”
Apart from that, “legal entities and private entrepreneurs may not allow drivers who do not have Russian national driving licenses to use motor vehicles.”
The Code of Administrative Offence will be supplemented by a new provision to fix administrative liability in a form of a fine (50,000 roubles) to be imposed on officials responsible for the technical condition of motor vehicles and for allowing drivers, who do not have Russian driving licenses, use motor vehicles.
According to Russian traffic police, holders of driving license of a foreign states will have to pass a knowledge exam to be granted Russian driving licenses.
On July 13, a horrible traffic accident involving a passenger bus and a heavy duty truck near Moscow’s Podolsk claimed the lives of 18 people. More than 60 were injured. The driver of the Kamaz truck that was loaded with crushed stone, Grachya Arutyunyan of Armenia, rammed the commuter bus. The truck driver has been arrested on charges of violations of traffic rules resulting in the death of two or more people (part 5, article 264 of the Russian Criminal Code).