Wolfsburg, GERMANY (dpa-AFX) - A Russian court has ordered the German car
manufacturer Volkswagen to pay millions in damages to its former
Russian partner GAZ.

The court in Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga partially upheld a lawsuit
filed by GAZ on Tuesday and ordered VW to pay 16.9 billion roubles
(about $194 million), Europe's largest car manufacturer confirmed in
response to an enquiry from dpa.

'The judgment is not yet final and the reasons for the judgment are
not yet available,' explained a Volkswagen spokesman. 'We will
examine and evaluate the reasons for the judgement in order to decide
what further legal steps we will take.'

GAZ sued VW for damages at the beginning of 2023 after the German
company withdrew from Russia and cancelled its cooperation with GAZ.
Several models of the VW core brand and the Czech subsidiary ?koda
had been assembled at the GAZ factory in Nizhny Novgorod.

Volkswagen withdrew from the co-production and offered the employees
severance pay after US-imposed sanctions against GAZ due to the
Russian war in Ukraine came into force in May 2022.

By that time production had already been stopped. VW suspended
production at its two factories in Russia in March 2022 shortly after
the attack on Ukraine. The export of vehicles to Russia had also been
stopped for all VW Group brands.

VW then sold its plant in Kaluga to the Avilon trading group in May
2023. According to Volkswagen, GAZ subsequently withdrew one of its
two claims for damages.

The court in Nizhny Novgorod has now partially upheld the remaining
claim. Of the 28.5 billion roubles that GAZ had demanded, the company
was awarded 16.9 billion. The court has rejected all of GAZ's other
claims.


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