莫斯科救护车变身豪华出租车 高价为VIP服务

因报道称莫斯科一些救护车经内部改装后以高价出租为商务人士提供出行服务，莫斯科警方将于近期对救护车开展专项检查。同时，警方也发现网络上已有所谓“救护出租车”的广告，每小时收费高达6000卢布（约合194美元）。莫斯科的主干道和环路经常因为乱停车和不守规矩的驾驶行为而持续拥堵，救护车出行时可以通过警笛声让其他车辆让路，这一优势被不少赶时间的商务人士看重。据报道，此前已有交警在执勤时发现此类“救护出租车”，车内装饰豪华，所有人均着便装且不愿透露身份。为了缓解莫斯科交通拥堵，俄罗斯总统普京已表示大部分时间会在家办公，以减少出行时的交通管制；而俄罗斯总理梅德韦杰夫则表示会多选择直升机出行。

Police in Moscow are to carry out special checks on ambulances after reports that emergency vehicles have been fitted with plush interiors and are being rented out to VIP commuters hoping to dodge the city's abysmal traffic jams.

Random checks will be performed on the vehicles after companies advertising rides in "ambulance-taxis" for upwards of 6,000 roubles (£120 or $194) per hour appeared on the internet.

The vehicles are said to use their sirens to scatter traffic and deliver harried businessman to meetings on time.

A law enforcement source told Izvestiya newspaper that one such vehicle had already been identified. "During one patrol, a medical car was stopped because it was breaking traffic rules," said the source.

"The driver appeared strange, and did not resemble an ambulance driver at all. The police officers opened the automobile to check it and saw that the interior was fitted out like a high-class limousine with comfortable seats for transporting VIP passengers." The source added that inside the ambulance were "not medical personnel but some people in civilian clothes who refused to identify themselves."

Moscow's boulevards and ring-roads often stand still because of ill-parked cars and no restrictions on driving in the city centre. The foul-ups are compounded when police block off roads for official cortèges such as that of Vladimir Putin, who causes gridlock when travelling to and from the Kremlin in his Mercedes Pullman.

In October, Mr Putin's spokesman said the president would spend more time working at his home, the Novo-Ogarevo estate to the west of the city, to avoid producing bottlenecks. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's office said he would be travelling more frequently by helicopter.