A committee of the Russian Federation’s Council of the Federal Assembly has proposed conditions for the return of foreign automakers to Russia. According to a letter from the committee’s chairman, Andrei Kutepov, to the First Deputy Prime Minister, Denis Manturow, the stringent requirements are intended to ensure that foreign companies do not abandon the Russian market and its workers, as they did in the past.
The proposed measures, as reported by the newspaper Wedomosti, include the following: first, foreign automakers must operate in a joint venture with Russian companies, with the Russian side retaining control over the venture in terms of ownership and management; second, the intellectual property, design documentation and technical data of the joint venture must remain the property of the Russian side; third, foreign companies must operate in accordance with general rules and high localization requirements, without any preferential treatment or exemptions; and fourth, the company must be registered in a country that does not impose sanctions on Russia, if it wishes to return to the Russian market.
Denis Manturow had previously warned that foreign automakers would not easily return to the Russian market, as they left it and that the Russian government, with a good memory, would not make hasty decisions. The Russian Finance Ministry also stated on February 25 that foreign companies from unfriendly countries would need the approval of the government commission for the control of foreign investments to return to the Russian market.
According to auto expert Dmitri Popov, in an interview with the Regnum news agency, German automakers face a number of obstacles in returning to Russia, as the freed-up spaces are already occupied by Chinese manufacturers and the Germans must find a way to regain interest in their cars, for example, by establishing new locations or providing significant marketing incentives.