VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Consumers in Russia's far eastern Primorye region held protest demonstrations Sunday against new duties slapped onto foreign cars, officials said.
The import tax hikes -- 50 percent higher on used foreign cars and 100 percent on used foreign trucks -- hits hard in and around the isolated city of Vladivostok where more than 90 percent of vehicles are used Japanese cars. Police officials told RIA Novosti they dispersed more than 100 protesters angry at the new duties during an unauthorized demonstration Sunday.
The Russian government passed a resolution this month to raise import duties starting Jan. 12 in an effort to protect domestic auto producers and foreign companies assembling vehicles in Russia during the global recession, the news agency said.
Police said they urged demonstrators to go home as they gathered in Vladivostok's central square, then forcibly broke up the rally and arrested several protesters who put up resistance.
