VLAD CRACKDOWN
Watch as flashy Russian supercar owners dragged away by police after staging ‘Rich & Successful’ rally in Moscow streets
THIS is the dramatic moment Russian cops swooped on supercar owners staging a "Rich and Successful" rally in the streets of Moscow.
Footage shows officers dragging away wealthy drivers flaunting their Western vehicles.
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Cops claimed the organisers had no permission for the rally of around 170 Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royce Phantoms, Ferraris, Porsches, Hummer H1s, Chevrolet Corvette C8s, Audi RS5s, and Bentley Continental GT IIs.
Dozens of car owners were arrested by armed police and their cars impounded for checks.
Footage showed the flashy cars roaring through the Russian capital, before dozens of drivers were rounded up by the police.
Men were seen in handcuffs being forcibly led away by cops.
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Vladimir Putin is known to rage against Russian multi-millionaires who ostentatiously display their riches in front of the masses.
He once said: "In Soviet times, some people used to flaunt their wealth by implanting gold teeth, ideally front teeth, in order to demonstrate the size of their fortune.
"Lamborghinis and other expensive toys are exactly those gold teeth.";
A tiny oligarch set has grown astonishingly wealthy under Putin’s rule - yet he believes they should not flaunt their opulent toys.
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Drivers intended to parade their cars in central Moscow with "Rich and Successful” stickers.
Tickets for the unofficial rally cost up to £4,200 including a breakfast and afterparty, but cops broke it up before it got properly underway.
Rally organiser Alexei Khitrov a 28-year-old cryptocurrency millionaire, said: "The goal of this event is to gather all elite car owners and create an atmosphere for networking.”
When police moved in "at first I thought it was a joke", he said.
He asked who had ordered the crackdown, claiming the authorities were informed in advance.
One of those detained was Russian politician Alexander Donskoy, who once got into trouble for driving his Ferrari around a Moscow shopping mall.
Oscar Liksutov, 17, son of Maksim Liksutov, head of the Moscow Transport Department, was also reportedly taking part.
He was not detained, but escorted home.
A law enforcement source told TASS: "Currently, some of the participants have been identified.
"They will be taken to the police for investigation."
As huge numbers of Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine, a leading pro-Putin senator called for the detained men to be sent to help the war effort.
Mikhail Dzhabarov called for those flaunting their Western cars to be "punished".
"They should be called to help the army," he demanded.
"They would be useless for fighting at the front. But they are quite capable of helping in rear chores or as orderlies in military hospitals.
"This would help their brains to fall into place."
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The rally participants are suspected of breaking the same law used to crush political protests in Russia.
The law bans “meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and picketing”.
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