Ukrainiana

Road Rage: Yatsenyuk Gets Bird from Deputy Chief of Special Highway Patrol Force

While driving about town incognito last Saturday, Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk had a unique opportunity to test the street cred of “one law for all” firsthand.

Ukrainian driving culture, characterized by giant power distance and little respect for traffic rules, didn’t keep him waiting.

Absent a police escort, Yatsenyuk got cut in front of a Porsche Cayenne, whose driver flipped an obscene gesture at him, obviously having misidentified the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada for a non-god.

And you know what? It turns out the funny guy was the deputy chief of Kobra, a special highway patrol force authorized to inspect officials’ cars.

At a MoI staff meeting Monday, President Yushchenko demanded immediate resignation from the top highway patrol brass.

More than 34 thousand drivers’ licenses have been suspended in the first six weeks of 2007 in a nationwide traffic control effort.

Last year, some 9,500 people died from car accidents in Ukraine.

Sources:
http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/379486 http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/events/372135