Investigating Russian Number Plates

Russian license plates come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can reveal interesting information regarding the owner of a target vehicle. In this article, I’ll show you the OSINT information you can obtain from different Russian license plates.

Private & Commercial Vehicles in Russia

Figure 1 — Example Russian License Plate for a private car

Several iterations of license plates have been issued in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In all cases, Russian car/lorry license plates are written as LNNNLL and LLNNNN for trailers, where L= letter and N = Number (Figure 1). Motorcycles, mopeds and scooter plates use the format of NNNNLL with the four digits at the top and the two letters at the bottom of the plate (Figure 2).

Figure 2 — Example Russian license plate for a private motorbike, moped or scooter

A registration region code is used by all non-military vehicles in Russia and is used to record where in Russia the vehicle originates from (Figure 1). For example, the license plate in Figure 1 is registered to St Petersburg and the motorcycle plate in Figure 2 is registered to Moscow. Some Russian cities have multiple region codes due to the large driver population in these areas. The full list of Russian vehicle regional codes is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3 — Russian region codes for license plates

Multiple private number plate formats have been attributed to departments in the Russian government. For example, the A***AA series is installed exclusively on cars subject to state protection. Vehicles using the X***KX, K***KX and E***KX license plates are reportedly used by the FSB and FCO [1]. Many different license plate variations have been attributed to different Russian government departments. However, some of these plates are also avaliable for purchase on the black market [1]. As a result, license plates are not necessarily a reliable method for attributing vehicles to different government departments.

Several letter combinations on Russian license plates have hidden meanings [2]. Vehicles using the letter combinations A***YE (anonymous criminal unity) and В***ОР (ВОР means thief in Russian) are popular among people who sympathize with Russian criminal culture [2](Figure 4). In Chechnya, the K***PA95 license plate shows support to Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmatovich with 95 highlighting the regional code for Chechnya [2]. A***KM (modernized automatic Kalashnikov) implies that the driver is as menacing as the AKM firearm [2].

Figure 4 — Private Russian vehicle used by Maxim Yakubets using a В***ОР license plate

Diplomatic Vehicles in Russia

Figure 5— Example Diplomatic License Plate used in Russia

As seen in Figure 5, diplomatic vehicles operating in Russia have white characters written on a red background. The first three digits on the plate identify the embassy that the vehicle belongs to [3][4]. The full list of country codes is presented here . The letters on the diplomatic license plate identify the user of the vehicle:

CD = Ambassador

D = Diplomatic personnel

T = Technical assistance personnel

CC = the consul or head of the consular mission.

Consequently, for the example license plate in Figure 5 we can identify that it belongs to the German Ambassador and the vehicle is registered to St Petersburg.

Russian Military Vehicles

Figure 6— Example Russian Military License Plate

As seen in Figure 6, Russian military license plates have white characters wirtten on a black background and are formatted as NNNNLL for vehicles and LLNNNN for trailers. Unlike the other number plates in this list, military number plates are non-reflective.

The final two digits at the end of the license plate identify the armed forces branch that the vehicle belongs to [5]. A full translated list of these military codes is presented in Figure 7 below. Using this information, we can identify that the license plate in Figure 6 is from the Leningrad military district.

Figure 7— Russian Military License plate codes

Russian Police Vehicles

Figure 8— Example Russian Police Vehicle License Plate

Russian police force license plates have white numbers printed on blue coloured plates using the format LNNNN (Figure 8). The letter at the beginning of the license plate identifies the branch of the police force that the vehicle belongs to [3][5]. Several of these are documented on Russian websites but could not be independently verified. A list of alleged license plates used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs can be viewed in Figure 9.

Figure 9— Alleged Russian Police Number plate codes

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References

1. Autolegal.ru [Internet]. Available from: https://autolegal.ru/pereoformlenie- avtomobilya/kak-proverit-registraciyu-avtomobilya-posle-prodazhi/
2. Russia Beyond — License Plates [Internet]. Available from: https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/327032-hidden-messages-of-russian-license
3. Licenseplatemania.com Website [Internet]. Available from: https://www.licenseplatemania.com/landenframes/rusland_fr.htm
4. Olavsplates.com Website [Internet]. Available from: http://www.olavsplates.com/russia.html
5. Auto-uch [Internet]. Available from: http://www.auto-uch.info/nom_ros.html