In the week following Putin’s demand to transfer officials to domestic cars, government agencies allocated more than 53 million rubles for foreign cars

Government agencies have announced at least 6 tenders for foreign cars

Russian government agencies continued to purchase foreign cars despite Vladimir Putin’s demand to transfer officials to domestic cars. In the week after the president’s statement, government agencies announced at least 6 tenders for foreign cars totaling 53.5 million rubles, Vorstka calculated based on data from the government procurement portal.

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In particular, the Putin administration itself does not plan to abandon foreign cars - the Sochi united sanatorium, controlled by the presidential administration, on August 9 placed a tender for the purchase of a minivan for 9.2 million rubles. The make and model of the car are not indicated in the documents, but its characteristics and probable price correspond to the Mercedes-Benz V‑Class car.

JSC Rural Development, established by the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of Mordovia, decided to purchase the most expensive car. We are also talking about a minivan - Megsedes-Benz V 300 d 4MATIC. However, much more money has been allocated for it - 18.1 million rubles . The tender notes that Rural Development is not a state customer and therefore can avoid the ban on the purchase of foreign industrial goods . But in essence, “Rural Development” performs the functions of a fund in the region - it finances agricultural enterprises. In 2022, the fund was criticized by the head of Mordovia, Artyom Zdunov. The reason was that for two years, Rural Development concluded 90% of contracts with only one company and “served the interests of a private enterprise.”

Another 13 million rubles were allocated for foreign cars by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "National Fish Resources", subordinate to the Federal Fisheries Agency. The company intends to purchase the Kia Sorento Black Edition for 6 million rubles , as well as the Chinese luxury sedan Hongqi H9 for 7.5 million rubles .

The Ernst Federal Research Center for Animal Husbandry also plans to buy Chinese cars. We are talking about two Chery Tiggo7 ProMax cars worth a total of 6 million rubles .

In addition, the Ekaterinburg Aquatic Sports Palace placed a tender for a foreign car. The institution plans to build a seven-seat crossover for 6.6 million rubles . The make and model of the car are not mentioned in the documents.

On August 3, Vladimir Putin said that Russian officials should switch from foreign cars to domestic ones. He did this after a request from ministry representatives to continue the practice of buying foreign cars. “I said that this should be absolutely excluded. And all the country’s officials must drive domestic cars,” the president said.

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