Moscow and “Muscovites” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 28 (7473) dated 02/15/2023

On Wednesday, the Moscow City Duma will consider a draft appeal to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on replacing the mayor’s office fleet with domestic models, primarily with the new Moskvich 3 crossover. Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin (Yabloko), who prepared the appeal, had previously sent a similar letter to the mayor on his own behalf; in the answer received from the manager of the mayor’s office, it was only about the possible use of electric vehicles. According to the deputy, under the sanctions, his idea has a much better chance of being implemented than the failed project of transferring officials to the Volga in the late 1990s. However, some colleagues of Mr. Mitrokhin at the Moscow State Duma doubted the expediency of his proposal.

In his personal address to the mayor in November 2022, Sergei Mitrokhin noted that, “as a Muscovite,” he was proud that his hometown was “reclaiming all-Russian leadership in the field of industrial development,” but success needs to be consolidated, and “the revived automotive industry Moscow – in all-round state support. As one of these measures, Yabloko proposed a “phased renewal of the Moscow City Hall’s fleet” by completely replacing foreign cars with “domestic models”, primarily with the new Moskvich 3 crossover. Mr. Mitrokhin “has no doubts” that members of the government, deputies and other employees of city structures using official vehicles will “ardently support” his initiative.”

In response, Andrey Berezin, deputy manager of the affairs of the mayor and government of Moscow (Kommersant got acquainted with him), notes that at present, organizations subordinate to the mayor’s office are carrying out activities “to create and test the infrastructure necessary for the operation of vehicles with an electric motor,” and as a result of this work will “consider the issue of determining the volume of demand for electric vehicles.” The mayor’s office did not say anything about the possibility of replacing official foreign cars with Moskvich, and Mr. Mitrokhin decided to repeat the appeal to the mayor on behalf of the Moscow City Duma.

The Moskvich car is produced by the Moscow plant of the same name (until 2022 – Renault Russia). In May 2022, the Russian assets of Renault passed into the state ownership of the Russian Federation, and the plant was transferred under the control of the Moscow government, which soon announced the resumption of production of Moskvich. In November 2022, mass production of the Moskvich 3 crossover was launched (worth from 1.97 million rubles). In 2023, the authorities plan to reach the production level of 50,000 cars, including 10,000 Moskvich 3e electric cars (3.5 million rubles). According to the published documentation, both cars are a variant of the Chinese JAC JS4. The Avtostat agency reported that in December 2022-January 2023, 36 Muscovites were sold. Vice Mayor of the capital Maxim Liksutov, in an interview with Kommersant, said earlier that many members of the city government are considering Moskvich cars for commuting, and the Traffic Management Center is thinking about replacing parkons with cameras based on Hyundai Solaris with Moskvich “.

The MHD plans to consider the draft appeal on Wednesday, February 15, but its adoption is possible only if the document is supported by deputies from United Russia (ER) and the My Moscow association loyal to the mayor’s office. The leaders of the United Russia faction, Stepan Orlov and My Moscow, Elena Nikolaeva, did not answer Kommersant’s questions about the future voting.

Sergei Mitrokhin himself says that he is counting on the support of the United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia, because “they all talk about supporting domestic producers and refusing foreign products under sanctions.” According to the deputy, now the idea of ​​​​transitioning to the domestic auto industry is more feasible than in 1997 (then Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov proposed to transfer all officials to the Volga), since then there were no sanctions, problems with components and a jump in prices. “Then foreign cars were freely available. And now what will happen after the park fails? We must prepare now,” Mitrokhin explained to Kommersant.

The Just Russia and Yabloko factions will support the appeal, their leaders Magomet Yandiev and Maxim Kruglov told Kommersant. At the same time, Andrei Medvedev, a non-factional deputy, deputy chairman of the Moscow State Duma, told Kommersant that he did not see economically sound logic in Sergei Mitrokhin’s proposal: “The fleet of, say, the Moscow City Duma is a Russian-assembled Toyota Camry. There are also a lot of such cars in the city hall. That is, to change a Japanese car of Russian assembly to a Chinese car of Russian assembly, which is sold under our brand?” At the same time, the vice-speaker says that he “would definitely support” a “more intelligible and economically sound proposal that would allow the Moskvich plant to be loaded with work” – but in general, he “doesn’t care what kind of official car someone has,” because he himself he drives his own car and rarely uses a company car. It is unlikely that the Communist Party faction will support Mr. Mitrokhin’s idea either: as its leader Nikolai Zubrilin told Kommersant, the Communists would rather offer to transfer government representatives to UAZs: “The times are serious now, and it’s worth thinking about a universal car both for urban operation and in rough terrain. For this, there is a suitable and easy-to-use UAZ-469 car.

It should be noted that the operation of passenger cars of the structures of the capital’s mayor’s office and the Moscow City Duma is carried out by the State Budgetary Institution of Moscow “Avtokhozyaystvo” (formerly the State Unitary Enterprise “Automotive FHU of the Moscow Mayor’s Office”). The last time it made purchases of cars in 2020, it published a tender for the purchase of 58 cars for 99.6 million rubles. The documentation did not indicate the make and model (this is prohibited by law), but, judging by the dimensions and technical characteristics, it was about the Toyota Camry XV70. City Hall structures use not only purchased, but also rented cars: in December 2022, the city department of labor and social protection and its subordinate directorate placed a tender for car rental in 2023-2024 in the amount of 542 million rubles.

Elena Rozhkova, Alexander Voronov