The lawsuit against Volkswagen will create a precedent - you need to pay your bills before leaving the Russian Federation

The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the government, expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of development of the domestic manufacturing industry and demanded the restoration of the auto industry and the timber industry complex of the Russian Federation, which were most affected by the sanctions. HSE Professor Marat Bashirov drew attention to this and commented on what was happening in his Politjoystick Telegram channel.

The political scientist noted that the long-suffering Russian auto industry has long been waiting for the promised support. But, in addition to sore problems, there are new ones that need to be dealt with, and urgently - for example, with the auto giant Volkswagen leaving Russia. The German concern simply "forgot" to pay "GAZ Group" because of the break in cooperation "only" 15,6 billion rubles.



Bashirov recalled that when foreign auto giants made a "pilgrimage" to the Russian market, they lined up to "partner" with GAZ, which has many plants and a solid business model.

In 2012, the production of VW and Skoda models was launched in Nizhny Novgorod, investments amounted to 300 million euros. The partnership expanded, new models were produced, even deliveries to Europe began.

In 2018, joint auto products appeared - the famous Gazelles got VW engines and went for export. Moreover, the production of engines was planned to be localized in the Russian Federation, so the departure of Volkswagen could cause significant harm to the GAZ Group and the Russian auto industry as a whole.

The expert is not surprised that the GAZ Group filed a lawsuit and this led to the freezing of assets. Everything is explained simply: first, partner companies need to “divorce” in a civilized and fair way, and only then Volkswagen can seek profit from the sale of its assets in the Russian Federation.

Bashirov drew attention to the fact that at present the PR specialists of the German concern are putting pressure on the fact that the plant in Kaluga is suffering because of the lawsuit. However, for some reason, they do not care at all that Volkswagen itself stopped its production in the Russian Federation more than a year ago. At the same time, the GAZ Group has lost investments, 3 thousand jobs, and the production capacity of 140 thousand cars per year is idle.


He summed up.