The letters mean nothing in Slovak, but they read "Moscow Z" in Russian. (source: Korzár)
A Košice local was recently on a family walk when a luxury car caught his eye due to its licence plate. It read “MOCKBAZ”.
The letters mean nothing in Slovak. But they mean “MOSCOW Z” in Russian (or “MOSKVA Z” in Slovak). The letter “Z” began to appear on Russian military equipment after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
The person took a picture of the BMW X7 and shared it with Korzár, a local medium.
“I’d really want to know who this person is and why they need to defend violence in such a perverted way,” the reader told Korzár, asking why the police would allow a person to have such a licence plate.
The police, nevertheless, see no problem with the plate.
Moscow is a city, police say
The police argue that it was issued in line with the Road Traffic Act. Licence plates cannot contain offensive and mocking words, the names of political parties, and text supporting movements that suppress human rights.
“Moscow as the capital in this context is not understood as a movement,” argued the police.
They noted that they regularly update a list of prohibited signs on licence plates.
The daily also approached the car owner (he didn’t want to be named in the story). The driver considers Moscow to be the ‘most beautiful and developed city’ in the world, and Russia and its people are close to his heart. He also studied in Moscow.
“I spent the most beautiful period of my life in Moscow,” he said.
When asked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he was brief.
“There are many conflicts going on in the world,” he replied.
Politicians sense a crime
According to former defence minister Jaroslav Naď (Demokrati), a car with such a licence plate shouldn’t be driving in Slovakia. Yet, he admits that the owner is not violating any law given the fact that the letters are untranslatable to Slovak.
“It's more difficult to defend the conscious promotion of the Russian war regime,” he added.
Ex-foreign minister Rastislav Káčer agrees with Naď, saying that “driving with such a licence plate means promoting aggression and approving violence against a group of citizens. Approving such a thing is a crime.”
Car plates cannot contain offensive and mocking words, the names of political parties, and text supporting movements that suppress human rights. (source: Korzár)
