Flag as a sign for them: motorists were required to demonstrate the state symbol

Driving with license plates issued after January 1, 2025 without the Russian flag faces a fine, the Interior Ministry's press service warned. At the same time, the department told in which case it is possible to continue driving with incorrect registration plates. Izvestia dealt with the situation.

"The legislation is not provided for"

"The obligation to replace state registration plates issued before the entry into force of these changes and corresponding to the previously valid version of the standard is not provided for by law," RIA Novosti quotes the response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The press service of the department added that the registration units of the State Traffic Inspectorate continue to issue numbers in strict accordance with the updated national standard, which provides for the presence of the flag of the Russian Federation. A fine of 500 rubles or a warning is provided for the use of non-standard numbers.

"It's clearly not a matter of aesthetics"

Earlier, the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation called for setting deadlines for replacing numbers that do not have images of the Russian tricolor. The head of the Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, in an address to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, pointed out that some owners of new cars outweigh previously issued license plates on them and deliberately make themselves duplicate numbers without a tricolor.

"It's hard to understand what the owners of such cars are guided by, but it's clearly not a matter of aesthetics. Either the owner of the car shows his disdain for the Russian state, denies secular authority, or he calls for separatism or something similar. In any case, this is a reason to pay attention to such citizens," said the head of the HRC and pointed out that the deadline for replacing numbers without tricolor could be one year.

Calls to limit motorists who intentionally drive with plates without tricolor have been heard before.

So, last year, Pavel Krupnik, a deputy of the legislative assembly of St. Petersburg, stated that such a practice "looks like a challenge to society and disrespect for state symbols." He called the ban on the use of a vehicle and the temporary deprivation of a driver's license adequate sanctions for this.

The legend of the special room

The story of license plates without tricolor is also the result of a persistent misconception among motorists. Since October 15, 2013, motorists have been allowed to make duplicates of a lost or stolen state registration plate. This nullified the illegal "business" of stealing and then buying back registration plates.

Before that, in order to get a new set of license plates, the car owner had to write a statement to the police and wait until the theft case was reviewed, and then go to the traffic police department. This was used by the scammers, who offered in a note left to return the loss "quickly" for a reward. "Beautiful" numbers with certain combinations of letters and numbers were especially actively stolen. After October 2013, a motorist could go and order duplicates of stolen or lost signs from a company specializing in their manufacture.

Nevertheless, those who want to cash in on gullible motorists actively promote myths about "special" license plates. For example, without a tricolor or with a "bold font" — supposedly such signs meet the standards of military, diplomatic or police vehicles, they do not receive fines from cameras, and in any case they allow them to stand out in the stream. Naturally, it was possible to charge more for the production of such duplicates than for ordinary ones, which is widely used by private companies.

Moreover, the number without the tricolor was legal. According to GOST R 50577-2018, the registration plates should have had the inscription RUS, and the image of the Russian flag was allowed "additionally". The flag appeared on the numbers in 1994, but in Bashkortostan, Primorye, St. Petersburg and Tatarstan, signs of the old format continued to be issued until the mid-2000s.

Everything has changed since January 1, 2025 — the new edition of the standard 50577-2018 "State registration signs of vehicles" has made the Russian tricolor mandatory on vehicle registration plates. However, duplicate manufacturers still offer to produce them without a flag.

Cameras see everything

Modern complexes can read almost any issue, including foreign ones, Sergey Laskin, CEO of Astra Lab, a manufacturer of photo and video fixation complexes, told Izvestia.

— The font, the number of letters and numbers in the room are not a problem for modern complexes. It should be noted right away that not all regions of the Russian Federation have modern and high—quality complexes," he noted.

Who will be fined

If the car owner received the license plate before January 1, 2025 and for some reason there was no flag on it, then nothing needs to be changed, said Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

— If you want, you can, of course, change the number. Until January 1, 2025, there were no problems whether there was a flag or not. The main thing is that the room meets our standard. If the number is issued after this date, but the flag is not there, then this is already a violation," the expert said.

If the vehicle was registered after January 1, 2025, and the owner still received license plates without a tricolor, then they must be replaced, warns Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement.

"Otherwise, it will be considered a violation, for which, according to Part 1 of Article 12.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, "Driving a vehicle with unreadable, non—standard or registration plates installed in violation of the requirements of the state standard," a fine of 500 rubles is threatened," he explained.

Sergei Radko noted that in this case we are talking specifically about "non-standard" signs, and not about fake or forged ones, for the installation of which a more serious punishment is provided — deprivation of rights for a period of six months to a year.