Car Number Plates

If you have already been to Russia, you probably note, that different vehicles have different types of number plates. If you only going to Russia, it may be useful for you as well.

All numbers consist of two fields — one for car number itself (left) and one for region code and some special signs (right). All car plates examples on this page have region code 78 — Saint Petersburg area.

Main difference between number plates is in their background color.

First, and most prevalent is private car number — it has black letters on white background and region code shown.

Private vehicle number plate sample

There is one more type of number plates with white background — they have no region code, but three-color Russian flag is shown instead of it.

Government vehicle number plate sample

These are government vehicles. They often equipped with special flashlights (flashing lights) and signals. Often moves very fast. These are a kind of VIP vehicles.

Other important vehicles are the diplomatic ones. This may be a reason why they have number plates with red background.

Diplomatic transport vehicle number plate sample

All licensed public transport has number plates with yellow background.

Public transport vehicle number plate sample

All police vehicles have number plates with blue background.

Police vehicle number plate sample

And finally black background is for militaries.

Military vehicle number plate sample

Here are some other region codes you may often see in Saint Petersburg:

• 47 — Saint Petersburg suburbs;
• 99— Moscow.

All car number plates, shown on this page are fictitious. All possible coincidences are accidental