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Russian law bans government purchase of imported cars
April 4, 1997
Web posted at: 2:45 a.m. EST (0745 GMT)From Correspondent Steve Harrigan
MOSCOW (CNN) -- A new Russian law bans the purchase of imported cars for government use, and officials may have to go back to using the Russian Volga -- a car more fond of sputtering and stalling than getting up and going.
"It's a bad car, like driving a dump truck. It was a bad car 40 years ago, and nothing's gotten any better," said Yevgeny, who for 30 years drove a Communist official around in a Russian-made car.
The force behind the law is young reformer and new Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. The law is aimed at cutting government costs. Fancy motorcades are out of place in a country unable to pay pensions on time.
The law also revives a symbol of Russia's communist past.
"It's a step back to communism, when the black Volga was a special symbol of your position in the society," automobile critic Nikolai Kachurin said.
But more than anything, the car is a symbol of poor quality. So bad is the Volga that government officials are assigned two cars -- one to drive while the other is in the shop. And of the 700 Russian cars purchased by the Kremlin each year, most are said to break down within weeks after the purchase.
The factory has now promised government officials a special edition car equipped with a British engine. But the car's cost is estimated to be the same, if not more, than the price of many imports -- proving that Russia's cost-cutting plan may wind up a lemon of a law.
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