You're reading: New York Times: In Moscow, a ‘special highway’ helps the priviledged avoid traffic

New York Times: In Moscow, a ‘special highway’ helps the priviledged avoid traffic

Published April 12, 2018 at 10:13 am

The Kremlin is pictured with its lights switched off to mark Earth Hour, in Moscow on March 24, 2018. Earth Hour, which started in Australia in 2007, is being observed by millions of supporters in 187 countries, who are turning off their lights at 8.30pm local time in what organisers describe as the world's "largest grassroots movement for climate change". / AFP PHOTO / Maxim ZMEYEV

Photo by AFP

It’s known as the “special highway” — a wide, flat road, with a lane down the middle, that links the Kremlin with President Vladimir V. Putin’s residence in the pine woods, 14 miles outside of Moscow.

Reserved by law for emergencies, the median lane is used mostly by Russia’s wealthy and privileged to bypass traffic. To have access to the lane has become a status symbol, the main currency in Russia today.