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Question from Tina: I really like watching the dash cam videos on YouTube and I’ve noticed something strange. Most of those videos appear to be from Russia.
I’ve always heard that Russia is a very poor country compared to the United States and other western countries so how can all those Russian drivers afford to spend money on something like a dash cam?
Rick’s Answer: That’s a great question, Tina. I wasn’t even aware that YouTube had all those Russian dash cam videos until I read your question and started checking into it. But what I found out didn’t shock me a bit given what I know about life in that country.
It turns out Russian drivers don’t actually purchase dash cams on a whim. For various reasons, they are more or less mandatory there.
No, there isn’t a Russian law mandating that every driver have a dash cam installed in their vehicle. They are more or less mandatory for practical reasons, and it all boils down to self-protection.
I could go into all the reasons why there are so many dash cams in Russia but the gentleman in this short video covers them pretty well, and he does it in just a little over one minute.
I guess those of us who live in the west tend to take the things we encounter in everyday life for granted without stopping to think how different life can be in the rest of the world.
But all the above being said, dash cams can really come in handy here as well. And as luck would have it, they are actually pretty inexpensive these days. (#ad)