YEREVAN. - Sometimes for pure vanity, sometimes as a charm against traffic police, Armenia’s residents are picking their own license plate numbers and paying handsomely for them, reads the U.S. Embassy Yerevan cable published on the WikiLeaks website.

Flashy number plates have become de rigueur for Yerevan’s flashy cars, and identify relatives and close associates of Armenia’s tycoons. Even the middle classes cannot resist the temptation to pick their own lucky numbers. As a result, custom license plates have become a steady source of informal income for Armenia’s traffic police.

In many cases oligarchs have purchased exclusively use of all the double-zero plates available with their chosen number for the cars of their family, staff and friends.

The oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan, owner of Yerevan’s first Hummer and Rolls Royce, has de facto exclusive rights to the various possibilities of using 08 XX 008. Samvel Aleksanian has preserved 06 XX 006, and Ruben Hayrapetyan 05 XX 005.

Besides the benefits of vanity and prestige, lucky number plates bring immunity from harassment by the traffic police. Special plates signify a special relationship.

Even those Armenians who are unwilling to pay for custom license numbers are surprisingly willing to accept the practice as legitimate. It is not perceived as real corruption, as anyone can receive a normal (random) license plate. All private numbers have the same legal status. Perhaps Armenians are so keen to accept the system because it simply adds clarity to familiar systems of nepotism and favoritism. At least you always know who is cutting in front of you, reads the cable.