Volkswagen suspends talks to buy stake in GAZ over sanctions

GENEVA, Mar 6 (PRIME) – U. S. sanctions have forced German car producer Volkswagen to suspend negotiations on acquisition of a stake in Russian car producer GAZ Group of tycoon Oleg Deripaska, Volkswagen Group Rus CEO Marcus Osegowitsch told PRIME on Wednesday.

“It is impossible to implement for us at the moment due to the sanctions, as we don’t want to be involved into the situation. The negotiations were suspended. Negotiations on Volkswagen’s supplies of diesel engines for Gazelle cars were also suspended,” he said.

Cooperation with GAZ Group is important for the company, and Volkswagen is in contact with the government of Russia and the U.S. on the matter, but the issue is political, he said.

“Let’s wait for the situation with the sanctions to resolve, and let’s see how it will be solved. I mean exclusion of GAZ Group from the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list, and then we will be able to return to the issue. Such a deal could have sense for our truck brands, but we should not speculate about it, we should wait for the sanctions to be lifted,” he said.

GAZ remains under the U.S. sanctions, which prohibits possible cooperation with Volkswagen. However, the U.S. Treasury Department lifted sanctions from other Deripaska’s companies, like aluminum giant UC RUSAL and multi-industry holding En+ Group, after he surrendered control over the companies.

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