Civil servants will soon be driving around in Russian-made Volga and even Zhiguli cars just like ordinary mortals. As MK has already reported, Vladimir Putin ordered them to switch to domestically produced cars or foreign cars assembled in Russia earmarking 12.5 billion roubles for the purpose. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has already approved a list of car brands that could be procured for the state. We have tried to find out how realistic this plan is.
Russian-made office cars will be bought for the bureaucrats
The total cost of the project in 2009 will be 27.5 billion roubles, which will include the additional 12.5 billion. The largest number of officials to switch to domestically produced cars is at the Ministry of Defence which will get 4 billion roubles for the purpose. The runner up (with 3.76 billion) is the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development. Procurement of cars for the Ministry of the Interior in 2009 will cost 2.43 billion and for the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, 1.99 billion roubles.
Up until now ministry officials have preferred BMWs. Now the "Shindler's List" of automobiles runs to 37 pages.
The Government will procure cars, trucks, SUVs, school buses, cars for invalids, but especially specialised vehicles, Alyona Shipilina of the Ministry of Industry and Trade told MK. The list is not an order but a recommendation: "It is similar to subsidising car purchase loans. A person comes and chooses a car and the Government subsidises the purchase. The Government agency itself has to decide how many vehicles and of what kind it needs. But we cannot force the Defence Ministry to buy what it does not need."
The main question people asked after reading the state order automobile list is will the ministers really switch to Zhiguli cars? Champions of equality will be disappointed to learn that the support of the domestic automotive industry will not go that far, if only because a Kalina or a Priora cannot, by any stretch, be called a limousine. BMWs are not forbidden, provided they have been assembled in Russia.
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MK EXPERT
Leonid Olshansky, Vice President of the Russian Motorists Movement:
Government officials and Parliament members, I think, should switch to Volgas, only they have to be fitted with multipoint injection, etc. This is the golden mean. The Zhiguli is not large enough. Of course these vehicles are more expensive to maintain and at first glance, there will be no economy. However, supporting the domestic producers is more important. They will use our parts and employ our people. Unemployment is a big problem. The automotive industry creates a lot more jobs than there are people engaged in bringing in foreign-made cars. I think that at the end of the day that measure will work.
For the bureaucrats to switch to Russian-made cars, somebody must set a political example. In the Soviet times all the bureaucrats were expected to wear grey suits until Leonid Brezhnev made himself a navy-blue one and then everyone took to wearing navy-blue. An example must be set if not by Medvedev and Putin, at least by Gryzlov and Mironov.
Tatyana Zamakhina, Nina Kuzmina
