2023-06-16 14:59:00
A hilarious moment took place at the St Petersburg Economic Forum hosted by President Vladimir Putin on Friday when a Lada car, the new pride of the Russian auto industry, had trouble starting.
Dmitry Medvedev at a Lada showroomPhoto: Alexander Astafyev / TASS / Profimedia
The moment was noticed on his Twitter page by the journalist Max Seddon, the head of the Financial Times bureau in Moscow, who noted that it is a luxury sedan model of Lada.
To show off a new luxury Russian-made Lada sedan, Sberbank’s Herman Gref was invited for a test drive… and it wouldn’t start.
Later, finance minister Anton Siluanov got behind the wheel and it did start up. pic.twitter.com/rbd9jdZK8A
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 16, 2023
Herman Gref, the CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Sberbank, Russia’s largest commercial bank, fell “victim” to the embarrassing moment. Gref previously served as Minister of Economy and Trade in Russia from 2000 to 2007 during the first governments of President Vladimir Putin.
Max Seddon notes that the Lada car finally started after Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov tried his luck with the key.
Russia wants to produce more Lada cars with the help of prisoners
The moment with the car that wouldn’t start at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum came just a day after AvtoVAZ, one of the Russian automakers that took over Renault’s operations after the French company pulled out of Russia, announced that will appeal to prisoners sentenced to hard labor to supplement the production of Lada cars.
AvtoVAZ estimated that the move would allow it to increase production volumes for the Lada Vesta model by 28% by September and 40% from January 2024. Russia’s Federal Prison Service has already said it estimates that up to 50% of this need can be covered by prisoners sentenced to hard labor.
According to AvtoVAZ President Maxim Sokolov, the workforce expansion is due to plans to increase production in 2023 and launch new Lada models in 2024 and 2025. AvtoVAZ’s production plan for 2023, approved by the company’s board of directors, is 401,600 vehicles.
A source at AvtoVAZ confirmed to Interfax, one of Russia’s state news agencies, that a similar option to attract staff from Russia’s prisons and penal colonies was previously considered but not yet implemented.
Putin says Russia doesn’t want foreign companies back
IN A wide speech speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Russia’s biggest business event, on Friday, President Vladimir Putin talked about Western companies leaving the country, saying that Russia he doesn’t want them to come back.
He told the forum that Russia was managing to cover its own needs “more or less” and that there had been “about 90,000 new companies established”.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that when I talk to Russian businessmen, they emphasize that Western firms should not be allowed to return. At all these international economic forums and meetings, my main request was that Russian enterprises do not allow Western companies to return,” he stated.
But he immediately contradicted himself, saying he was hearing “more and more positive messages from Western businesses” and that Russia would provide “appropriate conditions” for them to return.
Renault sold its Russian operations in mid-May last year after months of resisting the move despite strong pressure to do so. Immediately after the deal was initialed, Russia announced that it would resume production of Lada cars at some of Renault’s former plants.
A few months later Lada became after more than a decade the best-selling car brand in the Russian capital Moscow as many Western car manufacturers withdrew from the country led by Vladimir Putin in protest against TRIPPING the war in Ukraine.
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