Valery Shantsev refuses from police escort vehicles

Valery Shantsev, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, refused from using escort police vehicles. Officials with the press service of the governor and the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region said that Shantsev refused from using rotating beacons on his duty vehicle two years ago. Not so long ago, the governor started traveling about the city without escort police vehicles.

"The head of the region made this decision last Monday," Roman Skudnyakov, the director of the press service of the governor said.

The governor does not come late for his meetings despite the two novelties, although he does spend more time in his car now. "It now takes not 10 but 20 minutes to travel from the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin to the TV center," officials said.

Yevgeny Semyonov, a scientist of politics, the general director of the Center for Social and Conservative Policy in the Volga Federal District, said that the governor's decision to refuse from escort police vehicles deserved respect. The effects from those decisioыn are complex, though, he added.

According to him, most people will take the decision not to use escort police vehicles as a refusal from personal preferences. Many will think that the governor decided so not to create problems to passengers and drivers. "This is a positive factor, of course. However, there will be no long-term effect from this decision.  This won't be left in people's memory for long," Nizhny Novgorod news agency quoted the official as saying.