Putin compared the number of Russians dying in road accidents with the number of war victims

Vladimir Putin instructed officials to continue work to improve road safety. According to the president, Russia cannot afford to lose as many people in road accidents as in hostilities.

“We need to continue this work together with the police and road workers. We cannot lose as many people on the roads as during military operations,” Putin said at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.

Khusnullin said that within the framework of the national project "Safe and high-quality roads", the death rate in Russia has decreased. This year, the decrease in deaths came even as traffic activity increased compared to last year, when the country was actively implementing covid-19 restrictions .

At the same time, according to Rosstat data published in June, the number of road accident victims in 2020 remained practically unchanged compared to 2019. Then there were 13,565 of them, in 2020 - 13,384, despite the CORONAVIRUS restrictions imposed by the authorities in the first half of last year, which, among other things, led to a reduction in car traffic. According to Rosstat, in 2020, the death rate from traffic accidents decreased by 1.3%. In 2017–2019, the decline was 4.7–5.3% annually.