DaimlerChrysler plans to start assembling Mercedes Benz models in Russia this year, the Kremlin has announced.
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The Kremlin statement quoted Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp as telling Russian President Vladimir Putin the cars would be assembled in St Petersburg starting this autumn.
“If I had any doubts — and I don’t have them — regarding Russia’s development process, they would have definitely disappeared after this meeting,” Schrempp told Putin during talks in the Kremlin on Monday, according to a Reuters report.
“By the way … economists are predicting Russia will develop successfully,” he said, adding he had spoken to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder just before meeting Putin.
Reuters said that Germany is widely seen as Russia’s closest European ally and both Putin and Schroeder are keen to push trade links.
In 2005, Mercedes plans to sell some 5,000 Mercedes cars and SUVs in Russia, up from 4,014 units in 2004.
