The Russian government expressed its surprise on 4 November at the decision by US car giant General Motors to hold onto its European subsidiary Opel and not to sell it. Dmitry Peskov, Interfax quoted a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as saying the decision had caused astonishment in Russia and in particular in the Russian government. Putin had previously been keen about the prospect of the Russian company Sberbank buying into Opel
French carmaker Renault will not invest more money in troubled Russian market leader AvtoVAZ, despite a threat by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to dilute Renault's 25% stake in the company should it refuse to do so. Russian media reports on 3 November cited Christian Esteve, a member of Renault's management committee, as well as the board of directors of AvtoVAZ, saying that Renault would supply technology to help modernize the Russian auto giant, but not more money.
