“Aurus cars for top officials are assembled by hand in Moscow, Putin won’t even notice a stop in the mass production of these cars” - auto expert • The Insider • RIMA — Russian Independent Media Archive
Aurus Senat at the inauguration of Vladimir Putin, 2018. Photo: FSO
The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Anton Alikhanov, announced on February 11 that the project to create a unified modular platform (UMP) for the Russian automotive industry has been frozen indefinitely due to a lack of money in the Russian budget. On the basis of this platform, developed since 2013, a line of Aurus cars was created, positioned primarily as cars for top government officials, including Vladimir Putin.
On the same day, the Telegram channel “Russian Automobile” reported that the Aurus plant in Yelabuga (Tatarstan) stopped work in early February and at least until the end of March. Later, the press service of the Aurus company stated that the company was “working to modernize production operations in accordance with the industrialization schedule, including preparations for the release of an updated model.”
As auto expert Alexey Mochalov told The Insider, Aurus cars for Putin’s garage are assembled in Moscow, separately from the mass production of cars of this brand.
“As far as I can tell, there will be no problems with Putin’s Aurus: he has a large supply of parts, and he rarely drives them. The car production plant in Yelabuga, which has just suspended assembly, and the plant in Moscow, which makes cars for special-purpose garages, are different production facilities. In Moscow, Aurus cars are hand-made specifically for top officials, and the cars produced in Elabuga were planned to be sold to ordinary people in the premium segment. I think Putin won’t even notice that anything has happened.
In Yelabuga they planned to assemble 5 thousand cars a year on the line of the former Fold plant. The plan was gradually reduced, and in the last two years 120–140 cars were produced there. This year there are only 60 cars in the plan. They can safely stop the process for a while. Nobody is in a hurry because there is no demand for these cars.
The owner of Aurus changed in 2025, when Gazprom was forced to buy out 51% of the shares. They didn’t really want it, they were simply told that they had to buy it out. This cooperative is, to put it mildly, unprofitable. The president just said: “It’s necessary,” and everyone has to bear it on themselves.”
As The Insider previously found out after studying customs data, some parts for Aurus were supplied from abroad. Thus, in the period from January to March 2025, six batches of components for assembling engines intended for Aurus Senat cars (Putin sometimes drives such a car) passed through Russian customs. German-made parts were supplied via Turkey.
Mercedes-Benz cars from the special purpose garage at the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi, 2019
Photo: FSO
According to data from the FSO website, cars such as the Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard (W220) and the Mercedes-Benz S600 (W221) were purchased for the presidential garage. In 2017, the special-purpose garage received new cars of the Aurus family, manufactured by specialists from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “NAMI” as part of the “Cortege” project. “Currently, the Special Purpose Garage operates Aurus vehicles and plans to replace foreign-made vehicles,” the website says.
