Since 2010, the phrase “blue buckets” has become a part of the everyday life of Russian citizens. Now it does not mean at all an element for children's play in the sandbox, but a whole social movement.
With the onset of the twenty-first century, the inhabitants of Russia began to think more and more about the creation of a civil society, which not only bears responsibility for its actions, but also prevents the arbitrariness of the authorities. Violations of Russian law by the authorities themselves and their representatives sometimes become so widespread that people can no longer tolerate it. This is what happened in the case of flashing beacons (they are "flashers"), which were boring to motorists, which began to be installed on their roofs by more and more people who have no relation to emergency services, but enjoy the same advantages on the road.
The Blue Buckets Society was founded in 2010, and is considered to be Sergey Parkhomenko as its founder. He expressed the idea of an absolutely legal movement against "flashing lights" in the blog snob.ru. He proposed to attach ordinary blue plastic baby buckets to the roofs of cars and put inside the cabin, which from a distance are quite similar to flashing beacons. The idea was supported by many motorists, who were tired of enduring traffic violations from government officials hiding behind flashing lights. The main actions unfold in Moscow, because it is the capital that more than other regions sin by installing these same flashing lights on the roofs of cars, regardless of the legality of this action.
On April 18, 2010 the first action of the company took place. Under the leadership of Parkhomenko, everyone who wanted to take part installed blue buckets on the roofs of the cars, attaching them with ordinary tape. The column proceeded from Triumfalnaya Square to the observation deck of Vorobyovy Gory. Those who were especially carried away by the idea put the same buckets on their heads.
Representatives of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate stopped the protesters, but they could not think of a reason to remove the bucket from the roof, so after checking the documents, they were released. In the future, they will try to rip off the buckets, which will lead to even greater resonance in society.
The actions of the "Blue Buckets" society gained momentum and took place more and more often. Moreover, the participants not only gathered in large numbers, but also traveled with this distinctive sign one by one. The reaction of the authorities followed rather quickly. The head of the Moscow Region State Traffic Safety Inspectorate Sergei Sergeev spoke on the topic of "blue buckets", expressing his authoritative opinion that flashers are mainly installed on special vehicles, which is useless to fight.
But the bloggers do not object to the flashing beacons on the cars of the services "01", "02" and "03", so the protest continued. Over time, despite the adopted amendments to the laws prohibiting the use of vehicles at rallies, the society accepted more than one thousand people into its ranks.
