The State Automobile Inspectorate (, GAI), formerly known as the Main Directorate for Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (, GUOBDD, or , ГИБДД, GIBDD) is a federal

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

specializing in

traffic policing Traffic police (also known as traffic officers, traffic enforcement units, traffic cops, traffic monitors, or traffic enforcers) are units and agencies who enforce traffic laws and manage traffic. Traffic police help to assist in patrolling ...

. They are responsible for the regulation of

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

, investigating traffic accidents, operating stop lights and issuing driving license in Russia. The Administration is part of the Public Security Service of the

MVD The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; , ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia. The MVD is responsible for law enforcement in Russia through its agencies the Police of Russia, Migration ...

. The Administration has

patrol A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, or security personnel, that are assigned to monitor or secure a specific geographic area. Etymology The word "patrol" is derived from the Frenc ...

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

over all Russian highways and roads.

History

The GAI ( rus, ГАИ, p=ɡɐˈi), short for ''State Automobile Inspectorate'' (), was formed on July 3, 1936. The GAI was part of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. Its tasks included: preventing accidents, keeping records of them and analyzing their causes, cleaning accident scenes, arraigning individuals responsible for accidents, developing technical standards for the operation of vehicles, supervising the preparation and education of drivers, managing the issuance of license plates, filling data sheets, and searching cars. In 1961 it was merged with the Road Traffic Control Department. During the guerilla phase of the

Second Chechen War Names The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...

, as well as during the

Insurgency in the North Caucasus History and background In late 1999, Russia's Premier, Vladimir Putin, ordered military, police and security forces to enter the breakaway region of Chechnya. By early 2000, these forces occupied most of the region. High levels of fight ...

, traffic safety officers were regularly targeted by Pro-Ichkerian, and later Jihadist insurgents. They made up a large portion of the law enforcement and Russian government casualties, in addition to FSB,

, and GUOOOP members who were assassinated or otherwise killed in action. After the

dissolution of USSR Dissolution may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dissolution'', a 2002 novel by Richard Lee Byers in the War of the Spider Queen series * ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), by C. J. Sansom, 2003 * ''Dissolution'' (Binge novel), by Nicholas Bing ...

, GAI was renamed GIBDD - General Administration for Traffic Safety. There were rumors from March 2017 that the GIBDD was about to be dissolved until December 2018, as part of

Russian police reform Russian police reform (, ''Zakon o Politsii''; Law on Police) is a reform initiated by then President Dmitry Medvedev to improve the efficiency of Russia's police forces, decrease corruption and improve the public image of law enforcement among ...

and would be merged into the patrol service of the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

. The Minister of Internal Affairs denied those rumors. On May 28, 2024 GIBDD was renamed back to GAI.

Structure and organisation

Roads Patrol Service (Дорожно-патрульная служба) * Roads Inspection and Traffic organisation Service (Служба дорожной инспекции и организации движения) * Inspection and registration (Служба технического осмотра и регистрации) * Investigation Division vehicles (Подразделения розыска автотранспорта)

Other names

* ''Department for Ensuring Road Traffic Safety of

of Russia'' () abbreviated as DOBDD, since 1994 * ''State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety'' () abbreviated as GIBDD, since 2002 * GAI ( rus, ГАИ, p=ɡɐˈi), short for ''State Automobile Inspectorate'' (), until 2011 * DPS (), short for ''Road Patrol Service'' () - a part of the GAI/GIBDD directly responsible for patrolling the streets

Heads of Administration

* Vladimir Feodorov (1992–2002) * Viktor Kiryanov (2003–2011) * Vladimir Shvetsov (2011) * Viktor Nilov (2011–2017) * Mikhail Chernikov (2017–)

References

External links