On January 19, 2010 the Government of the Russian Federation has adopted the Enactment #18 “On the statement of rules for rendering services to organize the passage of vehicles on the toll federal open highways and toll sites on them”.

According to this Enactment, the size of the toll, paid for passing highways, closed for insolvent citizens, will be set by the operators – for example, the State Company “Rossiyskie avtomobilnye dorogi” (Russian Highways, or Avtodor), that will manage some federal highways from May 1, 2010.

The toll calculation methodology as well as its maximum size will be approved by the government. On preliminary calculations, the payment would be 3–5 roubles for 1 km of the route.

The experts, questioned by the newspaper about the approved rules, worry about one thing: whether the alternativesto   toll roads will be proposed. As the leader of  Moscow office of Russia’s Car Owners Federation, Sergey Kanaev told the newspaper, officials still doubt, whether they need to wait when toll–free roads are created.

“The highway can become toll road, if it’s newly built or repaired. And in general, how highways, already built and repaired on taxpayers’ money, can be transferred to the structures which will get tolls for passing? I think, it is not logical,” – Sergey Kanaev explained.

Utro.RU and Government of the Russian Federation