The Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region arrested all the property of the German automaker Volkswagen in Russia, with the exception of money, as an interim measure in a lawsuit filed by the GAZ automobile plant. According to the data of the court file, the corresponding petition was granted on March 17, Interfax paid attention to it.
The court, in particular, seized the shares of the German automaker in the Russian representative office of Volkswagen and in three companies controlled by it. In addition, in relation to these legal entities, any actions related to liquidation, reorganization, change in the composition of participants, increase and decrease in the authorized capital are prohibited.
GAZ filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen on March 14. The plant demands to invalidate the termination of the agreement under which Volkswagen carried out contract assembly in Nizhny Novgorod at the facilities of the GAZ group, and also to recover 15.6 billion rubles in damages from the German automaker. The agreement was concluded in 2011 and was to be valid until 2025.
The fact that the Russian representative office of Volkswagen (Volkswagen Group Rus LLC) decided to close the office in Nizhny Novgorod became known in July. A month earlier, Nizhny Novgorod employees of a German company were offered to resign with compensation in the amount of six salaries.
In March 2022, after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Volkswagen stopped delivering cars to Russia and stopped production both at its plant in Kaluga and at the GAZ production site in Nizhny Novgorod.
The main owner of the GAZ group is the Russian Machines holding, which in turn is part of the Basic Element industrial group of Oleg Deripaska. "Basic Element" has been under US sanctions since 2018.