05:21, 25 November 2015

More than 400 truckers continue strike near Kayakent

Protest rally attended by truck drivers in Manas, Dagestan, November 23, 2015. Photo by Ruslan Alibekov for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Last night, in Dagestan, about 400 trucks stayed on the highway near the village of Kayakent and continued the protest action of truck drivers. The protestors have declared that they are not going to abandon their intention to join the all-Russian strike of truckers to be held in Moscow. On November 30, they are going to "start for Moscow" to take part in the strike.

Truck drivers from a number of Russian regions, including the Volgograd Region, protest against the system introduced on November 15 for collection of tolls from trucks for the use of roads of federal significance. Carriers treat the tolls as too high and point to the lack of infrastructure for the control over the system "Platon", introduced for collection of tolls.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Dagestan, starting from November 15, truckers are on strike within the framework of the All-Russian protest action, by parking their heavy-duty trucks on the highway shoulders. The strike venues are Khasavyurt, Kizlyar, Kayakent and the village of Manas of the Karabudakhkent District. Power agents are deployed near the venues; and drivers reported detentions of strikers and attempts to disperse the action.

"In spite of everything, we will go to Moscow to join the general action. The authorities force us to resort to such extreme measures. We are standing here not because of our good lives. We lose our money and health. We realized that we, the truck drivers, should act all together, and only in this case we can succeed. Those truck drivers, who are going to go to Moscow, join us. Today, several truck drivers on strike in Manas have joined us," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Magomedgadji, a participant of the protest action.

According to protestor Shamil Aliev, a major crisis can occur in the country, unless the demands of the truck drivers on strike are met.

"We have been standing here for so many days. We are losing a lot of money: on average, each truck driver lost not less than 30,000-40,000 roubles during this time. Suppliers and logistics companies are raising the alarm, goods are getting spoiled, and suppliers are losing hundreds of thousands of roubles. Our problem affects not only us. We will go to Moscow... And not only Dagestani truck drivers will go to Moscow, truck drivers from the whole Russia will also go to the Russian capital, and enormous traffic jams will be formed there," the protestor has stated.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Source: CK correspondent