Mazda aims to build a vehicle assembly plant in Russia as the automaker recently announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Russian firm Sollers for a new joint venture.

Sollers, Russia’s industry giant, worked with many automakers, both domestic and foreign, to set up production and distribution channels throughout the country. Mazda’s future plant will be placed in Vladivostok, located in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District.

Sales in the country had risen 77 percent in the first nine months of 2011 for Mazda and there are no signs of slowing down. Given that Russia is currently Mazda’s second-largest European market, this new joint venture manufacturing plant to anticipate future demand should prove prudent.

[Source: Left Lane News]

U.S. private equity firm North Street Capital, has purchased Spyker, after a deal to sell the Dutch outfit to Russian investors fell through. The Financial Times reported the news after viewing a preliminary draft of the announcement.

It’s unclear how the Spyker sale will impact parent company Swedish Automobile, and its attempts to restructure Saab, the legendary Swedish car company once affiliated with Spyker. The Dutch sports car maker was due to be sold to CPP Global Holdings, owned by Russian investor Vladimir Antonov.

Swedish Automobile wanted to sell Spyker to focus on Saab, and a series of deals with Chinese auto makers were also announced, with little tangible results.

[Source: Financial Times]

The zany ZAZ takes to the skies! Ex-pilot Valery Bulgakov turned this 1987 ZAZ Tavria into an airworthy flying machine, through hard work, acres of sheetmetal, and lofty Russian ingenuity.

ZAZ cranked out thousands of Tavrias in the 1980s and 1990s, and aside from a few examples that must have been thrown off a cliff under various circumstances, none of them ever offered spacious aerial views. But Bulgakov welded wings onto the front fenders and rear windows, installing ailerons and painting them in patriotic Russian colors in order to tackle the skies: the flying car (of the future) can get up to 10 feet in the air, for a distance of 600 feet.

While this is a bit off from even, say, the efforts of the Kalinin K-7, Bulgakov doesn’t expect his car—which goes 0-60 in an FAA-unapproved 20 seconds—to revolutionize transportation. He uses the vehicle to train aspiring pilots: and given their familiarity with car controls, seems like a natural progression before tackling the challenges of the Yak-130.

Click the jump to see the flying Tavria in action. Translator not included, however.

[Source: Discovery Channel]

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It’s been 40 long years, but like perestroika, the last remnant of Italian-derived Soviet majesty finally comes to an undignified end. In Soviet Russia, production ends you!

The venerable Lada 2107, as it’s known, was already a 4-year old design (from Fiat) when it first entered production in 1970, gleaming and full of hope for the People. “Khrushchev’s Folly,” as it was never called, proved to multiply like the cockroaches that survived the Tsar Bomba—16.8 million were built, or if laid end-to-end away from Earth, enough to propel forth the Soviet Union’s space program.

The famous Lada sold for the low, low price of $7,500 under the names of Riva, 1500, 2101, 2107, and the evocatively-named Classic. Over the years it’s been raced, rallied, fornicated in, breathed upon by Lotus, driven through mud and snow with frightening alacrity, and abandoned in Chernobyl. Like cheap vodka and dubious wristwatches, it was still built in Russia, as well as Egypt, West Germany, and Kazakhstan.

And despite an increase of sales to 136,000 in 2010—spurred on by a “Cars For Clunkers-” type program that substituted clunkers for both parts of the equation—the last Classic strides off its line, Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR blaring from the Red Army Choir. It takes its rightful place among the Volkswagen Beetle (ironically enough, given the Beetle’s original development) as two cars with the longest production runs. Legions of fans around the world (and some in the UK) will miss it. За тех, кто уже не с нами!

[Source: TTAC, Wikimedia Commons]

General Motors has its hands in all corners of the globe, and while most consumers know about their operations in Europe and South Koreas, their arm in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan is shaping up to be quite the powerhouse in the all-important Russian market.

Despite only being in existence since November, 2008 GM Uzbekistan’s operations are credited with a 40 percent rise in sales in the first half of 2010. With 45,217 Uzebkistani-made vehicles sold, GM ranked 10th overall in the Russia market. While GM produces mostly modern Daewood-engineered vehicles in Uzbekistan, consumers can also buy the Chevrolet Nexia (pictured above) based on the wretched Pontiac LeMans which originally debuted in 1986.

In Soviet Russia, opulence has you! The latest car designed and built in Russia is an SUV, but it isn’t decked out in armor or whale penis leather—it’s a hybrid, and it’s been so popular that the waiting list is backlogged for the next 10 years.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to the BMW X6, the Ë-mobile (pronounced yo-mobile) received 51,188 orders in its first day. By the end of the week, more than 100,000 people had reserved one. If you want one, you’ll have to enjoy Soviet-throwback lines of waiting lists for the next 10 years—though since none of the 100,000 have paid a deposit yet, the figure could drop pretty sharply once cold, hard rubles are introduced into the mix.

The company Ë-Auto debuted this concept back in 2010, with mass production scheduled for next year in St. Petersburg. It plans to build a lineup of hybrid coupes and sedans alongside, all built with pride in Mother Russia (with some components from Austria’s Magna-Steyr). The price will start at the equivalent of $12,000-15,000; between the price and the homeland pride, there’s little surprise it’s been so popular.

[Source: Automobile]

If any more proof was needed that the Nissan GT-R is a tank, this video certainly confirms it.

Shot recently by security cameras in Moscow, watch as a the GT-R (top of the screen) swerves to avoid another car and then plows into a line of parked vehicles, even flipping one of them! And because this is Russia, the first car to suffer the destruction of Godzilla is a Lada.

[Source: RUSdtp.ru]

Watch the video after the jump:

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First it was Putin, now Medvedev with the zany America’s Funniest Videos-inspired automotive shenanigans: at an event on Saturday, Russian president Dimitry Medvedev steps out of a Mercedes-Benz SUV, which then rolls forward towards a large crowd.

It took him and the efforts of two burly bodyguards to prevent a disaster, holding the SUV back while the crowd shouts and moves. After they successfully stop it, the crowd breaks into cheers. Nobody was injured in the incident, but it certainly gave the Soviet equivalent of Jay Leno something to snicker about on late-night TV.

Of course, these two events revealing the speak of suspicion: is it actually a CIA plot to undermine the Russian regime? Does Jimmy Hoffa have anything to do with this? Or are the stereotypes of Russian drivers so pervasive that not even its leaders can escape? Aspiring conspiracy theorists can click the jump to watch and overanalyze the video of the incident.

[Source: Reuters]

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Russians and world leaders alike know not to mess with shirtless, crossbow-wielding, bear-hunting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. But when a Lada Granta crosses the Wrath of Putin, there’s nothing to do but to make cheesy “in Soviet Russia” jokes. And run.

Putin, promoting the glory of Mother Russia and the trappings of the proletariat, paraded a brand-new Lada in front of the nation’s media at Lada’s factory recently – in part to help promote the brand after the Russian government bailed out the automaker during the economic downturn. But when he tried to start the engine, it wouldn’t start, even after five tries. Awkward.

As 60 years of Russian reliability came flooding back, Putin also needed the help of two others in order to open the trunk. Determined to save face, however, Putin—casually dressed in a sport jacket and secret SVR laser-equipped aviator sunglasses, his whale-hunting outfit—humbly blamed himself, claiming that he had pressed the drive-by-wire accelerator too sharply, a feature that his snorkelized Lada Niva (shown above) lacks.

Putin still claimed that the Granta (not to be confused with the Ford Granada, another car that helped bring an end to the Red Menace) was still “a good car.” The Granta, which will retail for around $8,000, is being touted as “the people’s car” for millions of eagerly awaiting Russian motorists who haven’t bribed their way into a higher tax bracket and an armored G-Class.

[Source: The Telegraph]

Saab’s attempt at selling off assets to a Russian financial magnate Vladimir Antonov has stalled after the European Investment Bank told the Swedish auto maker to essentially find a new partner within a set time frame.

The EIB and other parties have expressed concerns regarding Antonov’s reported Russian mafia connections. All parties involved are understandably reluctant to elaborate on specifics, but Saab parent company Spyker said in a statement that “Saab Automobile is working with all parties involved on a solution to complete the sale of the property and will have further talks with the EIB today,” Spyker said.

Saab has borrowed $400 million from the EIB, but a cash crunch has also seen the company owe its supplier $49 million, leading to parts supply disruptions and a mere trickle of cars built due to the disputes. Saab has also been courting Chinese auto makers for a variety of deals, but said that it has nothing to do with Volvo, Saab’s fellow Swedish auto maker, currently owned by a Chinese corporation.