It most often happens when the driver travels between two cities, which means that they have to travel the long, empty roads (a travel between two major cities takes about two to three hours in the Western Siberian region). At some point, the driver's bound to meet a DPS squad.

DPS [deh-peh-EHS] stands for, translated, "Traffic Post Service" is a suborgan of GAI [gah-EE], which stands for, translated, "Governmental Automobile Inspection [Service]" (and interestingly enough, it fits the abbreviation still) and is the part of police force that monitors the roads and punishes those who break the traffic code, both outside and inside towns and cities.

DPS' job is to establish a post at a selected position on the road (hence the name) from which they monitor the traffic activity. It is the DPS officers* who stop you and give you the dreaded and loathed ticket if you broke a law or two.

Needless to say, Russian drivers don't like DPS policemen. If they noticed a post as they drove by (which is a skill in itself, given how DPS policemen are allowed to hide themselves in bushes and the like to monitor the road), they'd often notify drivers going the opposite way by "blinking" them with the headlights twice or thrice. It's a code that people learn from observation or by being told by the more experienced drivers; it's not written down in any documents or driving instructions.

People in Russia are among the most anti-law I've seen or heard of so far. I'm afraid to step into the stereotype territory, but Italians may fit in the same category, given how they, too, are quite proud of their Mafia.

It doesn't mean that Russians like to break laws - it mostly means that they don't mind them as long as nobody's there to point it out to them. It means speeding on highways beyond the speed limit (and buying the speedometer detectors, which are legal in Russia), crossing the road where there's no pedestrian crossing, finding ways to not pay for public transportation ticket ("What do you mean it's not the X route?") and not paying taxes for some sorts of work, among other things I'm not familiar with.

When I worked at the construction site, my first six weeks of work were unofficial, and so the payment to me wasn't declared anywhere (probably ascribed to buying a bit more materials); as such, I received what's called "black payment" (which is analogous in meaning to black market, with "white payment" being taxed over and "grey payment" being a combination of two - so you might make 80k in total, but the organization only pays taxes on the officially declared 30k).

This sort of mentality is well-present in the modern Russia's society. It's not uncommon to see people crossing the road when the red light is up but no cars are around or they're standing on their own red light while the other part of the road is active. I once stood before the red light on a crossing with a DPS squad on the crossroads, their car just a few meters a way. A woman next to me asked why am I not crossing. "There's a red light, don't you see?". She pshawed at the notion, but stood by until the green light was up.

As you may have heard, corruption in the Russian government officials and businessmen is abundant - a result of the same mentality. It's not common to "give vzyatkas" - to bribe - but it happens often enough for everybody to know it. That being said, I was once called as a citizen witness to observe how a corruption case proofs were handled: the investigation service is thorough with the job. All of it is not to say bribes aren't being fought with - it's to say that it's so deeply ingrained in many Russians that it's hard to fight.

All of it may stem from the fact that Russians tend to get things for themselves preferably to giving them to others, sharing or doing for the community. It's not to say that either of those things isn't practiced here - it's to say that selfishness seems to thrive in many families. Another aspect of influence might be the Russian materialism that currently prospers in many minds: people race to have cooler and more expensive things to impress their peers and generally feel better about themselves because they lack the taste of spiritual growth, of integrity, of many qualities that make up a capable human being with strong character. It simply isn't practiced often.

Reasons may vary or combine, but the fact is - material values are more important to many Russians. The law often just stands in the way. No wonder that most of the TV series of Russian production are either about criminals or policemen (or, as they were called before the 2010-something reform, militiamen, pronounced in Russian as [mih-LIH-tsi-yah]).

* Don't call a Russian policeman "officer". They aren't associated with the military in the country, despite having the same rank system.

One proper way to address a policeman on duty is "tovarisch politseyskiy" [toh-VAH-risch poh-lih-TSEY-skiy], meaning "comrade policeman" (you can address any profession or rank in that manner; in fact, this is the only proper way to address a higher-ranked soldier or policeman by a soldier or policeman themselves.

Another, which was deemed "diminishing to the citizens" by the loud-mouth debaters during the discussion of the reform (which was already accepted at the time), is "gospodin politseyskiy" [gos-poh-DIN poh-lih-TSEY-skiy], meaning both "mister policeman" and "master policeman", because the word "gospodin" derives from the word "gospod'" [gos-POD'], which is used to address the Christian god.