The explosive Volga offer from a Porsche manager to Vladimir Putin

The Austrian entrepreneur and
Porsche

According to a media report, Supervisory Board member Siegfried Wolf offered Russia’s President Vladimir Putin help for the reconstruction of the Russian auto industry in January. In a letter to the Kremlin boss, Wolf suggested reviving “the legendary Russian Volga brand”, the “Spiegel” reported on Friday. For the implementation, Wolf brought shut down factories from
Volkswagen

in play in Russia.

As early as the second half of 2023, cars of the VW brand Skoda could be produced again in Russia, the Austrian wrote to Putin according to “Spiegel”. However, the vehicles were to be “ fundamentally redesigned on the outside” in order to bring out “the characteristic features” of the legendary Volga and Pobeda models. This will “meet the needs of Russian consumers for high-quality and reliable vehicles” and create more than 12,000 jobs.

Wolf also offered to take on the project management himself as the owner of the Russian company PromAvtoKonsalt. The industrial partner would be the Russian carmaker GAZ, which is affected by western sanctions. There is already a “fundamental agreement with Volkswagen’s top management,” he added.

Volkswagen denied: “No knowledge” of Wolf’s letter

The Wolfsburg group disagreed. The board has “no knowledge” of Wolf’s letter “and its irritating content,” said the group when asked by “Spiegel”. Although PromAvtoKonsalt was one of the prospective buyers for VW systems in Russia, no commitments were made to individual interested parties before the sale process was completed. “It is therefore not comprehensible for us how third parties could be referred to it.”

As the magazine further reported, Wolf’s company was not awarded the contract by VW. The car supplier
Schaeffler

from Herzogenaurach has sold its Russian business to PromAvtoKonsalt.