June 26, 2022

Automotive Industry Out of Gear


Automotive Industry Out of Gear
Are there red and blue lights behind me?  Pexels, Pixabay. 

The Russian automotive industry is experiencing a major decrease in demand amid the invasion of Ukraine, prompting China to slow its car exports to Russia.

Russia was sanctioned by Western car and part manufacturers when the invasion began and has since been purchasing cars from China. Russia imported R10.3 billion ($190.7 million) worth of Chinese cars in March, R4.6 billion ($84.6 million) in April, and just R1.7 billion ($32 million) in May.  

The value of car parts imported from China has seen a similar downward slope.  In May, Russian companies purchased only R4.4 billion ($81.3 million) in automotive parts, a big drop from the R6.3 billion ($117.1 million) spent in February.

It is likely that the automotive slowdown is a result of economic shocks from the sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered that a plan of action for the flagging Russian auto industry be drafted by September 1, 2022.

You Might Also Like

Forbidden Fruit
  • June 27, 2022

Forbidden Fruit

Russian combatants occupying Melitopol, Ukraine, have fallen ill after eating poisoned cherries.
Of Grain and Ukraine
  • June 10, 2022

Of Grain and Ukraine

The chairman of the African Union has announced a trip to Kyiv to discuss the world food crisis caused by the invasion.
A Most Important Import
  • June 06, 2022

A Most Important Import

Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase oil production as demand for Russian oil takes a hit.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955