General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, sealed a deal with Avtovaz, Russia’s largest domestic car manufacturer, to build cars in Russia. The two automobile companies will build a new assembly line 400 miles east of Moscow and plan to release a sports utility vehicle in September 2002. While GM’s move may be a signal that Western firms are ready to invest in Russia just three years after its financial crisis, skeptics warn that similar global ventures in the past had failed because of the lack of demand for the type of car at the expected price.
See "GM to Build Plant in Russia", Peter Baker, The Washington Post, June 26, 2001