Winterize your X5

[Armen]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

Armen, thank you for the insight... My situation is slightly different - for my registration I MUST have all of the above, as I will not and can not bribe and the cops will not be taking bribes from me on the road anyway... they might try though... Under bilateral agreement between RF and the US, I MUST produce upon first demand ALL of the required safety items, I am prohibited under the US law to bribe ANY official in ANY country, and I am not subject to breathilzer test among other things... Not that I'll be drinking and driving, even though your statement about vodka being out of fashion is breaking my heart. Do Russians now drink Coca-Cola? Oh my God, what the world has come to be...

For a $100 registration bribe I can get an $85 extinguisher and comply with my office's regulations...

On the other hand, how much money you (regular Moscovite) need to have on you daily when you drive in the city - there are for sure at least 2 or 3 cops between your house and whatever place you go, and if everyone of them will stop you for real or imaginary infractions, pretty soon you'll have to sell the car to pay the bribes...

And yes, in the US the bribes are counted in hundreds of thousands of dollars - there is no more small bribery in the country, you would go to jail in a heartbeat for tipping your friendly US cop a $20... But if you need to build factory and need to redo the commercial zoning into industrial, then you sure can bribe a mayor or a senator about $100 -500K...

You know, if you are going to steal, might as well steal a million, right?...

Here you can purchase any beverage you desire - coca cola is already out of fashion too Talking about daily spendings i advise you to relax - Moscow is suffering from the heavy traffic even on the weekends and it is very difficult to violate traffic rules - anyway if you've got a diplomatic ID you should be ok - cause compared to your police our police can tolerate moderate violations especially if they see that you are a foreigner - I mean that our police are friendly. It is possible to get a speeding fine only if you drive at night on a highway and if it happens so that you are pulled over by an angry cop (it is a rare find though). And don't believe those legends that our cops will use any ways to force you to pay - such tricks do not come cheap for them cause the internal security service is eager to catch every cop stuck in dirty bribery. But nevertheless corruption here exists - but no one forces you to pay. You can give a cop a small bribe and forget about the incident in 5 minutes or as well spend 20 minutes and get a ticket/ But as far as I am concerned such tickets will be sent to the embassy and will not be given to you directly because you're not an RF citizen. Feel free to ask any questions - and don't fear coming to Russia. Vodka, Severe winters and white bears do not exist here Only stunning girls, expensive cars and it's a pity a lot of jealous people (unfortunately this is a fact).