From April 1, 2024, many motorists will have to retake the theory in the traffic police

From April 1, 2024, changes in legislation will work: some drivers will have to retake the theory in the traffic police because of this, and lishentsev will not be allowed to retake. Figuring out how the innovations will work

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From April 1, 2024, amendments to Articles 25 and 26 of the Federal Law “On Road Safety” will come into force. After that, many motorists in Russia will have to retake the theoretical examination for the rights in the traffic police. And motorists deprived of their rights due to drunk driving, on the contrary, will be suspended from the opportunity to retake the theory. We understand the details of innovations.

Who and how will have to retrain for rights

According to the explanations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, starting from this date, foreign national and international driver’s licenses will be invalidated. Their owners will be given a year to replace them, the reference date will be considered:

• the moment when their owner/foreign citizen or stateless person receives a residence permit or acquires Russian citizenship;
• the moment when their owner, who is a Russian citizen, enters Russia for permanent residence.

The exception is the national driver’s licenses issued in the Republic of Belarus, available to Russian citizens and vice versa — to citizens of the Republic of Belarus who have received a residence permit in Russia.

Thus, drivers with foreign rights should pay attention to the date of updating their status in Russia: if by the time of April 1, 2024, the driver has been considered a citizen of Russia for more than a whole year and rides on foreign rights, he will have to change the document immediately. If, for example, he received citizenship only one month ago, there are still 11 months to replace him.

According to additional explanations from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Kaliningrad region, these changes, among other things, are necessary to exclude situations in which drivers with Russian citizenship but foreign rights evade mandatory medical examination. Russians must pass it once every 10 years, and foreigners use their documents in Russia without this check “indefinitely”.

Who will have to retake the exams in the traffic police

As explained in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, motorists with foreign driving licenses of categories “M” (mopeds, scooters, light ATVs) and “A” (motorcycles with an internal combustion engine volume of more than 125 cc and a power of 11 kW (can be obtained from the moment of reaching 18-summer age) and «In » (passenger vehicles) and subcategories «A1», «B1», the exchange will be made after successfully passing only the theoretical exam.To cope with the test, experts advise you to memorize the correct answers to tricky questions in traffic police tickets.

Photo:Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS

At the same time, in order to exchange foreign national driver’s licenses confirming the right to drive buses and trucks, as well as vehicles («C», «D», «CE » and «DE» and subcategories «C1E» and «D1E»), you will need to fulfill all of the following conditions:

• presentation by the owner of a foreign certificate of a qualification document confirming the completion of the final certification in a driving school;
• successful passing of the theoretical exam in the traffic police;
• successful passing of the practical exam in the traffic police.

What penalties threaten those who do not retake the rights

A motorist who has not replaced a foreign license and tries to use it in Russia further will be considered a driver without a license at all. In this case, at the first meeting with traffic police inspectors, they will face a fine according to Part 1 of Article 12.7 of the Administrative Code Driving a vehicle by a driver who does not have the right to drive a vehicle: from 5 thousand to 15 thousand rubles. I warned about this in an interview with Autonews.ru The founder of the public project “Overheard by traffic police” Valentin Ilyinov, who specializes in legal support of traffic police inspectors.

At the same time, according to the explanatory note, there are situations when a driver without a Russian license faces even more serious fines.

In particular, if a driver gets behind the wheel drunk, but does not commit a serious accident, or leaves the scene of an accident, he will be punished under Part 3 of Article 12.8 of the Administrative Code or Part 2 of Article 12.26 of the Administrative Code, respectively, both norms provide for administrative arrest for a period of ten to fifteen days or a fine of 30 thousand rubles.

If a driver without a license violates the norm of Part 3 of Article 12.27 of the Administrative Code, “Failure to comply with the traffic regulations on prohibiting the driver from consuming alcoholic beverages, narcotic or psychotropic substances after an accident in which he is involved”, he faces a fine of 30 thousand rubles. and deprivation of rights for a period of one and a half to two years.

To get a medical certificate, you need to go through several doctors:

ophthalmologist;

psychiatrist;

psychiatrist-narcologist;

therapist or general practitioner (family doctor);

neurologist (visiting a neurologist is mandatory to obtain rights of categories C, D, CE, DE, Tm, Tb and subcategories C1, D1, C1E, D1).

After being deprived of your license for drunk driving, you will not be able to retake the exam quickly

The same changes, as added in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, introduce a ban on admission to the exams in the traffic police and the issuance of a driver’s license for those drivers who have never had a license or were deprived of their rights, but still got behind the wheel and committed gross traffic violations. Those who:

will not be admitted to the exams
• got behind the wheel in a state of intoxication;
• did not fulfill the requirements for passing a medical examination for intoxication;
• did not fulfill the requirements for prohibiting the driver from consuming alcoholic beverages, narcotic or psychotropic substances.

The ban is provided for until the expiration of one year from the date of the end of the execution of the decision on the imposition of administrative punishment for such a violation.

Changes that would prevent motorists caught drunk driving from obtaining a license to drive a car before the expiration of their sentence were proposed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in November 2020. The fact is that before these clarifications, those drivers who did not have a license at all, but got caught drunk driving, could go to the traffic police and pass the license exams; in this case, they could get behind the wheel only with the documents they received.