Note: The Central Asian states which were part of the former Soviet Union still have a common road numbering system with Russia, see CIS. All other former Soviet republics now have their own systems.

Russia

Area code 7Common abbreviation RUSLast updated 19-1-2008
Road classSyntax explanationAdministrative subordinationSub classesZonesSystemRemarks
NewFormer
European roadE[0-9]<2-3>EuropeSee Europe
Federal arterial roadMain arterial road (Magistral')M[0-9]<1-2>CISM[0-9]<1-2>Spider-web
Other federal main roadM[0-9]<2>
Other national road (doroga nacional'nogo znacenija)A[1-3][0-9]<2>A[1-3][0-9]<2>Formerly 1,2,3Clustering
Republican road (doroga respublikanskogo znacenija)[12]R[0-9]<2-3>national1R[0-9]<2-3>
Regional road2R[0-9]<2-3>
General description:
The roads have been classified differently in 1997. Federal arterial roads are the M1-11, M18, M20, M29, M51-60. Some unnumbered roads are also classified as Federal arterial.
The remaining M numbers and some A and R roads are now classified as Other federal roads. A digit '1' was prepended to the R roads.
Other roads have been downgraded to Regional roads, possibly with a prepended '2'. No more information about this is known.
Description of the old M, A and R roads:
M: M1 - M10 are main roads from/to Moscow (Moskva). The M1 is the E30 to Minsk. Other numbers evolve in counterclockwise order but 3 comes before 2, 6 before 5 (branching off 4) and 10 (to St. Petersburg) before 9. There is some clustering in other numbers.
A: There used to be zones defined by the first digit: 1 for Russia, 2 for the West (the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine) and 3 for the Caucasus and Central Asia. These zones are not strict: some roads cross the borders. Therefore some numbers from each zone remain. There is some clustering within zones. Numbering begins near Moscow with A100 (parallel to the M1). The highest number is the A349.
Many M and some A roads have spurs (pod"ezdy) and/or bypasses (obchody) with the same number. An extreme example is the M7 which runs from Moscow to Ufa but there are spurs to Ivanovo (which used to be the A113!) and to Izevsk and Perm' (several 100 km).
R: The name Republican highway refers to the republics of the Soviet Union. The 'R' is denoted as 'P' in cyrillic.
There is a complicated administrative road numbering system which defines a road number consisting of four parts for each road (including even pricate roads):
  1. a numerical code for the administrartive unit the number belongs to
  2. a two-letter code indicating whether the road is public or not
  3. a two (capital) letter code indicating the administrative importance
  4. the actual road number, to which a European or Asian highway number can be added
An interesting fact is that in the fourth part, the class identifier and the numerical part are separated by a hyphen, while that normally does not appear on signs.
Road signs:
Road/destination typeBackgroundText Sometimes (but not often) a dash is written between the class letter (M or A) and the digits, e.g. M-10, A-104.
MotorwaysGreenWhite
Other roadsBlueWhite
Local destinationsWhiteBlack
This picture was taken on the Moscow ring road (MKAD) in 1992. It shows all the main roads around Moscow. Note that the number A102 is missing and the E95 has since been changed to E105.
History: The system with M, A and R numbers was introduced around 1980. Before that, there were very few numbered roads (some Soviet republics only had one). Numbers were between 1 and 37. In 1992 there were still some signs with the old numbers.
Some examples of old versus new numbers:
OldNewOldNew
1M110M10
2M311M9
3A10112M17
4M213M19
5M414M29
6M620M20
7M521M11 (M12/A216 now in Baltic states, changed to national numbers)
8M731M51/M53
9M837M41
The new system with Federal arterial roads etc. was introduced in 1997 but not all signs have been changed yet.
All states outside the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) have introduced their own road numbers in the 1990's, but the Cantral Asian CIS countries still have the old Soviet system.
The M7 was extended in the late 1990's from Niznij Novgorod to Ufa/Perm'.
E numbers have been changed around 1997:
The E95 was rerouted via the M20 Saint Petersburg-Kyjiv-Odessa, and the old E95 Saint Petersburg-Moscow-Simferopol' was changed to E105. This road was extented via the M18 to Murmansk and further to Kirkenes in Norway. The E115 is a new E road via the M4 Moscow-Rostov and the M29 Rostov-Baku. The E30 was extended further east to Penza (via the M5) and the E93 between the M2 and M20 was renumbered to E381. Also, the E97 was extended between Trabzon in Turkey and Rostov, via Batumi and Soci.
More odd 3-d numbers have been added and even numbers were extended further east. For more information see Europe and E Route list.
The numbers E105 and E115 are clearly an extension of the system of main north-south routes Ex5, which is a violation of the system in principle. Note that there are no E roads in Scotland (where numbers E1xy belong), so this does not cause confusion. This is similar to US101, which is a main north-south route of the same class as the odd 2-digit US highways rather than a road derived from US1.
Sources and links: Various maps and atlases, personal experience, GIBDD (Gosudarstvennaja Inspekcija Bezopasnosti Doroznogo Dvizenija - State Road Traffic Safety Inspection)

    Official sites:
  1. Administrative road numbering system 11 april 2007
    Other links:
  2. Detailed information on major roads
  3. Route list M, E Wikipedia
  4. Route list E, M, A and R
  5. roads.ru
  6. KAD St. Petersburg ring road
  7. Biarmia roads on the Kola peninsula
    Other pages within this site:
  8. Europe
  9. E Route list
    Pictures:
  10. Road pictures around Moscow

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