Medvedev's Motorcade Slammed Into Kamchatka Resident Car

A Kamchatka resident has said a member of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's motorcade slammed into her car, causing 319,000 rubles ($10,000) of damage.

Olga Kuklina told the Argumenty i Fakty weekly that she was returning home from relatives with her six-month-old daughter when the collision occurred in early July.

The incident was recorded by the dashboard camera of Kuklina's Toyota Land Cruiser, and Argumenty i Fakty posted the footage on YouTube on Monday. It was not immediately clear why a month passed before news of the collision came to light.

In the video, a police car with blue flashing light is seen racing past Kuklina's car before she pulls over and waits for more oncoming vehicles to pass.

After the first set of police cars pass, a gray minivan careers into the left side of Kuklina's car with a loud crash, spraying the SUV's wing mirror over the bonnet. Her baby daughter, Kristina, starts to wail on the back seat.

Kuklina told Argumenty i Fakty that Federal Guard Service officials then pulled up and told her that she was to blame for the damage caused. When they saw the video camera, they reportedly said, "If this (expletive) didn't have it all on tape, we'd arrange another 1937 for her," presumably referring to the Stalinist terror in the year 1937.

Of the 319,000 rubles' worth of damage caused in the crash, Kuklina said her insurance company had agreed to pay 120,000 rubles. The remainder she will have to seek in court, the news report said.

Medvedev, who inspected new housing and promised financing for earthquake-prevention measures on his Kamchatka visit, had not responded to the incident as of midday Tuesday.

 

The Moscow Times