Vehicle registration plates of Russia

Russian registration plate, as observed in 2007 -177 stands for Moscow.

Russian registration plate, as observed in 2007 -51 stands for Murmansk Oblast.

Bus with the licence number painted in large letters

Vehicle registration plates are the mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in Russia for many decades. Most motor vehicles which are used on public roads are required by law to display them.

History

The format of vehicle registration plates in Russia has changed immensely since the collapse of the Soviet Union. License plates in Russia originated in the 1910s and were not standardized, as there was a small amount of automobiles. In 1932, license plates became standardized for each region and had special numbers representing which region the automobile was from. Soviet plates prior to 1982 were white-on-black. They had combination of four digits, grouped by two and three Cyrillic letters in smaller type. The rear plate was square with letters located below the numbers. From those letters, the first two indicated the region. For example, the combination 75-63 КЛЖ referred to a car from the Kaliningrad Region. After 1982 a new black-on-white format for newly registered cars was adopted. The 1982 format differentiated privately owned from government owned cars and trucks (virtually all vehicles used for business, as all businesses belonged to the government). The government owned vehicles retained the NNNN LLL scheme (the digits were no longer grouped by two and all characters were the same size) and the rear plate was square on trucks and buses/coaches but oblong on passenger cars, while private vehicles used L NNNN LL (with a smaller-sized first letter - for example, c 5969 ME on a van from the Moscow Region) and invariably oblong format. The last two letters indicated regions or large cities. Largest cities usually had several two-letter codes to account for a larger number of cars. For example, the city of Kiev used КИ and ХТ codes while the Kiev Oblast' region (excluding the city itself) used КХ. The use of Cyrillic characters meant that in some cases replacement plates with characters looking like Latin characters had to be temporarily issued to vehicles going abroad.

Current plate format

Vehicle registration plates for motorcycles

License plate used by police

License plate for diplomatic vehicles

License plate for military vehicles

The current format uses a letter followed by 3 digits and two more letters. To improve legibility of the numbers for Russian cars abroad, only a small subset of Cyrillic characters that look like Latin characters are used (12 letters: А, В, Е, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, Х). Finally, the region number (77, 97, 99, 177, 197, 199, and 777 for Moscow, 78, 98, and 178 for Saint Petersburg, etc.) and letters "RUS" are included, as well as the national flag (the flag was not used on some of the earliest plates of this format). There is a different format for trailers (2 letters and 4 digits).

The standard size for the license plate is 520 mm by 110 mm.

Some vehicles, like trolleybuses, are not required to have license plates, because they cannot leave the network they operate on and can be identified by number that is painted and is given by local public transport authority. Trucks and buses generally have their licence numbers repeated in large letters on the rear of the vehicle for easier identification (a practice continued from Soviet days), although they also bear licence plates. Some autonomous regions are not required to have the flag on the licence plates.

Vehicles used by certain organisations or categories of persons carry special plates:

• Police forces have special numbers on blue colored plates and the format is one letter and four digits. The letter signifies the branch of the police force, and its meaning may change from city to city; for example, in Moscow, A ####|99 rus stands for traffic police, У ####|99 rus for patrol cars, O ####|99 rus for police guard service etc.
• Diplomatic cars have white characters on a red background. The first three digits on the plate are a code identifying the embassy to which they belong, assigned in order based on the date at which that country established diplomatic relations with Russia or the Soviet Union. For example, the United Kingdom is 001, the United States is 004, and Paraguay is 157. On cars assigned to rank-and-file diplomats this code is followed by D and three digits (for example, 004 D 108|77 rus), while ambassadors' cars have a slightly different license plate format (004 CD 1|77 rus).
• The Armed Forces have white characters on a black background and the format is NNNN LL for vehicles and LL NNNN for trailers. In this case the two digits on the right are not a regional code but a code for the Armed forces branch or service and go with a certain letter combination. For example, #### CA|14 rus is a vehicle belonging to the Railroad Troops; #### BC|27 rus denotes the Air Defence Force, #### TO|18 rus denotes the Ministry of Emergency Situations etc. Unlike all other categories, number plates of Armed Forces are not light reflective.
• Public transport vehicles (such as buses, licensed taxis and licensed share taxis) have black characters on a yellow background and the format is LL NNN. Since such vehicles are relatively few, the region code does not change often; in Moscow, for example, yellow "public transport" plates are still issued with the code 77 in December 2009. (Note: This type is not to be confused with similar-looking yellow license plates having the format LL NNN L, which were issued to cars registered to foreign companies operating in Russia; the latter type has now been withdrawn.)

Special plates in the above four categories never carry the Russian flag.

There are special series (usually numbers starting with A) reserved for government officials (for example, A 001 AA usually belongs to the governor of the region). The license plates for federal government officials originally had a larger flag instead of the regional code but this type has now been withdrawn as well.

Rich businessmen, prominent politicians and crime lords often use para-legally acquired special licence plates (government or police) to get preferential treatment from the transport police and as a status symbol. Often, this is used in conjunction with a flashing siren. The Society of Blue Buckets is a protest movement that opposes this trend.^[1]

As of 2014, there are new codes for Russian plates; number 82 for the Republic of Crimea and 92 for Sevastopol which were previously under Ukrainian administration.

Runout problem

As per GOST provision, only 1,726,272 combinations may be issued within one administration unit. In certain regions, the amount of vehicles exceeds that number, and the combination may not be reused after a vehicle was taken off the registration. All this creates an issue of running out of numbers.

A short-term solution was introducing more codes for those regions. Thus, some regions have two codes issued to them, Perm Krai and the city of St. Petersburg have three, Krasnoyarsk Krai has four, Moscow Oblast has five, and the federal city of Moscow has seven codes. But this does not fully solve the problem, as the authorities may eventually run out of three-numeral regional codes, and a fourth digit will not fit without changing the standardized layout of the plate.

Introduction of new style license plate is being considered as a future solution.

Regional codes

Numbers of the license plates of Russia

Codes of diplomatic representative offices and the international organizations on diplomatic license plates

167 is a code for Djibouti in Russia

Code	Country or Organization
001	United Kingdom
002	Germany
003	Canada
004	United States
005	Japan
006	Spain
007	France
008	Belgium
009	Greece
010	Denmark
011	Italy
012	Luxembourg
013	Netherlands
014	Norway
015	Turkey
016	Australia
017	Austria
018	Algeria
019	Egypt
020	Rwanda
021	Argentina
022	Afghanistan
023	Myanmar
024	Bolivia
025	Brazil
026	Burundi
027	Ghana
028	Bangladesh
029	Guinea
030	Zambia
031	Peru
032	India
033	Indonesia
034	Jordan
035	Iraq
036	Iran
037	Ireland
038	Iceland
039	Cambodia
040	Kenya
041	Cyprus
042	Congo
043	Costa Rica
044	Kuwait
045	Laos
047	Lebanon
048	Libya
049	Mali
050	Morocco
051	Mexico
052	Nepal
053	Nigeria
054	Venezuela
055	New Zealand
056	Pakistan
057	Burkina Faso
058	Senegal
059	N/A1
060	Somalia
061	Sudan
062	Sierra Leone
063	Thailand
064	Tanzania
065	Tunisia
066	Uganda
067	Uruguay
068	Philippines
069	Finland
070	Sri Lanka
071	Chad
072	Switzerland
073	Sweden
074	Ecuador
075	Ethiopia
076	Angola
077	Democratic Republic of Congo
078	Colombia
079	Cameroon
080	Guinea-Bissau
081	Portugal
082	Bulgaria
083	Hungary
084	Vietnam
085	N/A
086	Poland
087	North Korea
088	Cuba
089	Mongolia
090	China
091	Romania
092	N/A2
093	Serbia
094	Benin
095	Gabon
096	Guyana
097	Mauritania
098	Madagascar
099	Malaysia
100	Niger
101	Singapore
102	Togo
103	Central African Republic
104	Jamaica
105	Yemen
106	N/A3
107	Palestine
108	Nicaragua
109	Mozambique
110	Equatorial Guinea
111	Sovereign Military Order of Malta4
112	Malta
113	Cape Verde
114	N/A
115	Zimbabwe
116	United Arab Emirates
117	Ivory Coast
118	Namibia
119	N/A5
120	Oman
121	Qatar
122	N/A6
123	N/A7
124	South Korea
125	Chile
126	Panama8
127	Israel
128	Macedonia9
129	Albania
130	N/A10
131	Vatican City
132	Lithuania
133	Syria
134	Estonia
135	Latvia
136	Bahrain
137	South Africa
138	Armenia
139	N/A11
140	Saudi Arabia
141	Slovenia
142	Uzbekistan
143	Kyrgyzstan
144	Croatia
145	Azerbaijan
146	Ukraine
147	Moldova
148	Czech Republic
149	Slovakia
150	Belarus
151	Tajikistan
152	Turkmenistan
153	Kazakhstan
154	Guatemala
155	Bosnia and Herzegovina
156	Eritrea
157	Paraguay
158	Georgia
159	Brunei
160	Gambia
161	Vietnam
162	Mauritius
163	Dominican Republic
164	Montenegro
165	South Ossetia
166	Abkhazia
167	Djibouti
168	South Sudan
499	European Commission
500	European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
501	N/A12
502	N/A13
503	Arab League
504	International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
505	International Monetary Fund
506	International Organization for Migration
507	International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
508	International Committee of the Red Cross
509	International Finance Corporation
510	United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
511	United Nations
512	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); code 126 used earlier.
514	International Bank for Economic Complementation
515	International Investment Bank
516	Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications
517	International Centre of Scientific and Technical Information
518	International Scientific and Technical Centre
520	International Labour Organization
521	Interelectrode International Organization for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation in Electrical Industry
522	Coordination Centre of the Intergovernmental Commission for Cooperation in Computing Machinery
523	Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States
524	European Space Agency
525	Eurasian Patent Organization
526	earlier Taipei-Moscow Coordination Commission for Economic and Cultural Cooperation
527	The Headquarters for Coordination of Military Cooperation of the state-participants of the Commonwealth of Independent States
528	Interstate Bank
529	Eurasian Economic Community (earlier - Integration Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community)
530	International Research Institute of Management Problems
531	Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTA)
532	Intergovernmental Statistical Committee of the CIS
533	Secretary of Council of Interparliamentary Assembly of state-participants of the Commonwealth of Independent States
534	Eurasian Development Bank
535	Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational Cooperation of the CIS
555	Eurasian Economic Commission
556	Program Office of the Council of Europe in Russia
557	Antiterrorist Centre of CIS member states
900	Honorary consuls and offices headed by them

Notes

¹Code 059 is a former code for Syria. The current code for Syria is 133.

²Code 092 is a former code for Czechoslovakia. Currently, codes for Czech Republic and Slovakia are 148 (Czech Republic), and 149 (Slovakia).

³Code 106 is a former code for the Central African Republic. The current code for the Central African Republic is 103.

⁴Earlier, code 111 belonged to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Replaced by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

⁵Code 119 is a former code for South Africa. The current code for South Africa is 137.

⁶Code 122 is a former code for the Arab League. The current code for the Arab League is 503.

⁷Code 123 is a former code for Liechtenstein.

⁸Earlier, code 126 belonged to UNESCO. Replaced by Panama.

⁹Earlier, code 128 belonged to the European Union. Replaced by Macedonia.

¹⁰Code 130 is a former code for the International Organizations.

¹¹Code 139 is a former code for Georgia. The current code Georgia is 158.

¹²Code 501 is a former code for the Un International Center.

¹³Code 502 is a former code for the Eurocommision. The current code for this organization is 499.

See also

• Vehicle registration plate
• European vehicle registration plates

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to License plates of Russia.