Russian drivers see red over blue light cars Russia's president and prime minister will make fewer road trips or take to their helicopters, according to Kremlin officials, after mounting public anger at the gridlock caused by official motorcades. The decision follows an incident on Monday, when citizens hurled abuse at the usual phalanx of government cars transporting premier Dmitry Medvedev after it got stuck in a traffic jam in his home town of St Petersburg. "They raised all kinds of fingers at him," according to the local governor Georgy Poltavchenko, decrying the "boorishness" of the local population in a press interview. The Kremlin's move is a recognition that drivers" anger over the motorcades could further undermine the popularity of president Vladimir Putin's rule amid a growing street protest movement. Residents forced over to the side of the road by police sirens every day are seething. Many of Moscow's main thoroughfares are daily shut down for several minutes to allow speeding motorcades to pass, choking up the streets. When you have to close down half the city so that some official can get to his meeting a little faster, you are understandably going to create dissatisfaction. They close the streets to everyone - to fire trucks, ambulances, everyone," said Pyotr Shkumatov, head of an organisation known as the "Blue Buckets" devoted to "democratising" Russia's roads. The name is a joking reference to the blue strobe light atop official cars. The "Blue Buckets" website collects video footage of motorcade abuses. In July, a woman in Kamchatka had her car sideswiped by a van in a motorcade apparently belonging to Mr Medvedev. The footage, recorded on Olga Kuklina's dashboard camera and featuring her infant daughter screaming in the back seat, has been an internet sensation. Ms Kulina said the federal bodyguard service blamed her for the collision until they realised she had filmed it. According to an article in the Argument I Fakty newspaper about the incident, one official was overheard telling another: "If this b**ch didn't have everything on camera, we could do a 1937 on her," apparently referring to the year at the height of Stalin's terror. Another video shows police in the northern town of Vsevolozhsk blocking a street for a motorcade and not allowing an ambulance transporting a patient to pass. Helpless Moscow motorists have taken up the practice of mass honking in protest at motorcades blocking roads. "Now it seems they are doing it in St Petersburg too," said Mr Shkumatov, referring to Monday's incident involving the prime minister. "They [the regime] never paid attention to this problem because they always got where they were going on time," said the traffic activist. Now, they are stuck in it as well, so they have decided finally to do something On Wednesday, Mr Medvedev used a helicopter to visit an electrical factory in Moscow. The Kremlin "plans to expand the use of helicopters" by creating new air corridors and building helipads, according to Vladimir Kozhin, the head of the Kremlin's property department, in remarks to the newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday. Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin's press secretary, said Mr Putin would stay home more often in his residence outside the city in Novo Ogaryovo "to avoid bothering Muscovites." If the meeting does not require any kind of ceremony, it is held in the suburban residence. He really has cut the use of motorcades to the minimum in Moscow. The government has also drastically cut down to the use of "migalki," the flashing blue lights on top of official cars which allow them free rein on Moscow streets. Officially, they used to be 1,000 of them, though Mr Shkumatov reckons the real number was five times as large. Today, there are 567. Two years ago, they were everywhere. Now one practically doesn't see them," said Mr Shkumatov. "People have just put them in their trunks and don't use them" because of the ridicule they caused, he said.