On February 1, the deadline for submitting a report on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the priority use of highly localized domestic cars as official transport for civil servants expires. The head of state issued the relevant order to the Russian government, presidential administration and regional authorities in September 2023. In anticipation of this date, socialbites.ca learned from deputies and high-ranking officials what kind of official cars they drive.
State Duma deputy Oleg Leonov (New People group), reported He continues to use Lada Vesta for business trips, he told socialbites.ca about replenishing the vehicle fleet of the lower house of parliament with domestic cars.
“It is important to understand that MPs do not have personal cars. There are cars allocated to the Chairman of the State Duma, his deputies and committee chairmen. The rest have cars ordered for the trip. About once every two days I come across Lada Vesta and drive it with pleasure,” explained Leonov.
According to him, currently the new Lada Vesta, as well as Ford Mondeo and Hyundai Sonata, remain in the fleet serving State Duma deputies.
“One of Vesta’s disadvantages compared to foreign cars is its low ceiling. It’s okay for me, I’m an average height person. However, if the passenger is tall, he will lean against the ceiling. And there is no central armrest, no place to put your hand,” the parliamentarian shared.
On the contrary, the presence of a USB connector in Vesta is very useful, because you can charge your smartphone and continue working on the go, he added.
“It is important and good that there is no campaigning regarding the transition to domestic vehicles. The vehicle fleet is large, so we need to replace cars gradually until the service life of the old ones is over,” Leonov emphasized.
United Russian State Duma deputy Airat Farrakhov told socialbites.ca that, in addition to Lada Vesta, Haval crossovers assembled in Russia are used to serve State Duma deputies.
“I have used both Vesta and Haval. Normal, good impressions. It seems to me that drivers did not trust these models either. The most important thing now should be reliability,” Farrakhov said in an interview with socialbites.ca.
According to the MP, Haval crossovers such as Lada Vesta have been delivered to serve MPs since the new year.
Farrakhov added that UAZ Patriot is preferred as the company vehicle for inter-municipal travel of civil servants in the regions.
Alexander Solovyov, deputy head of the Russian Accreditation Service, told socialbites.ca that the department uses Chinese Chery Arrizo 8 sedans supplied under a contract for the provision of transport services.
“We had a competition last year, so we don’t have a domestic car yet. However, we demand from our contractors who come to us for competition to first provide us with Russian cars,” Soloviev said.
According to him, the products of the Chinese automobile industry do not cause any complaints, and at the same time, department officials do not make increased demands on the level of comfort. Solovyov emphasized that cars of European brands leaving Russia are not used in transport services for department employees.
The governor of the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, told socialbites.ca that for business trips he uses a Mercedes car, as well as a Volkswagen Transporter minibus produced about five years ago.
“We had a fleet of Volkswagen cars produced in the Kaluga region and had not updated it for two years. If there is something to buy for the regions, it is definitely the domestic auto industry, Lada and UAZ,” said Shapsha.
As for further developments, he added that the PSMA Russian plant was restarted last year and the former Volkswagen plant is also planned to be restarted, which will make it possible to use cars to be produced in the Kaluga region. The governor hopes to purchase cars produced in factories in the area if the vehicle fleet needs to be updated.
“I now have a Mercedes-Benz and a Volkswagen minibus. The vehicles are not new anymore, they have been in our fleet for a long time. They already have good mileage. We do not plan to update the park yet, we use it carefully. There are no problems with maintenance,” Shapsha concluded.