Today Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Industry Denis Manturov supported the opinion, which has been repeatedly expressed in the State Duma, that a Russian official should drive a Russian car.
Ministries, departments, the administration have asked to continue [purchases], to focus on foreign-made cars, to continue this practice. I said this should be absolutely excluded and all officials of the country should drive domestic cars.
Vladimir Putin
Present at the meeting with Putin is the President of AvtoVAZ Maxim Sokolov, and Denis Manturov is the chairman of the board of the Volga automobile plant. It seems quite obvious that the main beneficiary of the decisions that can be made after this meeting will be exactly AvtoVAZ.
It should be noted that VAZ will have something to offer Russian officials, and I don't mean only Granta. In June, the factory unveiled an extended and luxury version of Lada Vesta with a 1.8-liter engine and a variator named Lada Aura. Already then Maxim Sokolov hinted that Aura will perfectly suit officials.
And for higher-ranking officials, the company will offer a Chinese liftback FAW Bestune B70 under the Lada brand - production of such cars is expected to start soon at the Lada Saint Petersburg plant (this was previously the Nissan factory).