There may be measures in Russia taken against second-hand and right-handed foreign cars

Nowadays any second-hand foreign car may be officially imported to Russia if it meets the requirements of ecological standards �uro-3 and tighter ones. However in the nearest future customs clearance of second-hand cars may be seriously slowed down and become more expensive. Recently deputies have introduced the draft project into the bill �About traffic safety� to State Duma.
Under this document requirements to technical state of new cars imported to and produced in Russia will be implemented to the cars with mileage, says Gazeta.ru. Body and cab construction, safety belts, brakes, lightning, noise and even climatic norms will be examined. Besides as the Russian requirements to technical car performances are very close to the European ones, cars from Japan, USA and China will be examined in the first place.
Experts remarks that the bill is directed against �illegal� import to Russia that is why the lawmakers pay attention to second-hand cars. The problem is that many �illegal� importers bring practically new cars into the country under the image of the second-hand ones in order to escape difficulties at the customs. The following scheme works - the new car is registered in the producer country then it runs 62 miles and is imported as a second-hand one.
According to lawmakers the new bill may close the door befor the right-hand cars. But now the question is about the implementation of limited list of requirements for cars with mileage and after the adoption of the law the number of norms may be enlarged. For example, as in the case with new cars the import of second-hand cars with the right steering wheel may be forbidden. Lawmakers and lobbyists of Russian assembly have been speaking about bar of the right steering wheel for a long time referring to increased danger of driving such cars in traffic.
According to �AUTOSTAT� last year a bit more than 370,000 second-hand foreign cars were imported to Russia.