The prime minister launches new car-making project in Naberezhnye Chelny.
Vladimir Putin devoted the whole of yesterday to the automotive industry in Naberezhnye Chelny, the site of a joint venture by the Russian company Sollers and Italy's Fiat. Under a joint project to produce cars and off-roaders in Russia announced yesterday, by 2016, half a million vehicles will be produced in Russia annually. They will include nine models of the most popular C and D class cars, off-roaders and crossovers.
Putin walked through the assembly plant accompanied by Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev (at Dmitry Medvedev's suggestion, Tatarstan elected a new president, Rustam Minnikhanov, but Shaimiyev continues to discharge his duties until Minnikhanov's inauguration on March 25.)
Putin praised Sollers, a young company which managed to work dynamically even in the face of crisis. He noted, however, that it did not happen without the support of the government, which bought 5.7 billion roubles' worth of ambulance and police vehicles from the plant. The prime minister said that 2,100 Fiats had been bought in Russia on easy term credit and another 1,200 Fiats had been sent to the Far East. He announced that the government would invest 2.1 billion euros in the new Sollers-Fiat project and that the capacity of other automotive plants, including AvtoVAZ, would also be used.
The prime minister also visited the Kamaz enterprise, where he attended the signing of contracts for the procurement of vehicles for the Defence Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Penitentiary Service.
"Thanks to government support, Kamaz was able to sell 40% of its output," the prime minister recalled. "Ten billion roubles' worth of contracts have been signed today. The government will also assist VAZ and GAZ by buying their vehicles."
Putin met with the stellar team of Kamaz-Master race drivers, winner of world cups and the Paris-Dakar Rally.
"Thanks to you, Kamaz has become world famous," the prime minister said, shaking hands with the drivers. "We will back you at this difficult time, and I am sure that in the future you will manage on your own."
One of the top race drivers, a winner of the Paris-Dakar Rally, happened to have his birthday that day. Putin congratulated him and presented him with a watch (a new watch in a box, not his own.) The team's coach Semyon Yakubov suggested to Putin that the famous Silk Route Race run not from Kazan to Ashgabat, but from St Petersburg to Sochi. Putin nodded his agreement.
"But that will cost 15 million euros," Yakubov warned the prime minister.
"You got it," Putin laughed.
"Is the new race your idea?" we asked Yakubov afterwards.
"It's the prime minister's idea now that he has backed it," was the race driver's politically correct answer.
From Tatarstan, Putin flew to Sochi, where he had a video link with the Russian Olympic athletes in Vancouver. More on the Vancouver Olympic Games.
* * *
By the way
The prime minister keeps his promise
Last autumn, Putin visited MuzTV studios to watch the hip-hop contest "Battle for Respect." On that occasion the prime minister promised that he would take the four winners to the Vancouver Olympic Games with him. As it happened, the prime minister could not make it to the Games because of his busy schedule, but he made sure that the winners went to Vancouver without him. He inquired from his aides several times whether tickets for them had been bought.
A person close to Putin told KP that four rap singers, the winners of Respect Contest, would fly to Vancouver as part of the government quota of guests on February 16.
Larisa Kaftan