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If You Drive Around a Bear in Russia, Make Sure It Has a Seatbelt On

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It is no secret that Russia does things somewhat differently, often with a certain stoic acceptance of things that none of us would mirror.

However, this seems a little ridiculous.

A driver in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg took this video:

You see that huge animal sticking its head out the window, taking a treat from a hand stuck out of the front, and then playfully nibbling at it?

That is a bear—an honest-to-goodness Russian bear.

Some speculated that this bear had something to do with the Filatov circus, which was on tour in the town at the time, but the head of the circus insisted they had nothing to with it, saying that the bear in the car is far younger than any of theirs.

“Our bears are much bigger,” she said. “Normally little bears are kind and friendly. If it was more than a year old it wouldn’t have fit in such a car and certainly wouldn’t have gone inside happily.”

The local zoo also said they had nothing to do with it. So, you would suppose police would be on it, right? It can’t be perfectly OK for you to just drive around with a bear in the back seat.


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Russia The Kremlin

We’re in Russia, remember
Image: Mariano Mantel

Well, you can’t—if its seat belt isn’t buckled. Local police refused to take any action, because, apparently, it is totally cool to drive around with a bear in your back seat, so long as it has a seat belt on.

Police didn’t mention how they knew the bear was buckled in, which leads us to speculate that this, in reality, is either a special dignitary of the Russian bear community being driven around by his personal chauffeur (which raises a few questions), or a man dressed as a bear to avoid police (which raises a few more questions).

Grizzly Bear

Is there going to be a problem, comrade?
Image: Scott Calleja


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News Source: Daily Mail