Sollers General Director Vadim Shvetsov took Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for a tour of the plant. Mr Shvetsov showed the prime minister the Fiat Linea and the Fiat Doblo, both of which are produced at Sollers. The Fiat Doblo is manufactured in passenger, medical and police models.

Mr Putin and Mr Shvetsov also inspected a semi-automatic assembly line and the area of the factory where the cars' frames are painted.

After inspecting the factory, Mr Putin met with Sollers and Fiat top managers.

Vladimir Putin's remarks:

I am happy to be here today at one of the plants operated by Sollers. Sollers is a private Russian company that entered the market not so long ago but has since grown energetically and successfully.

During the most recent visit by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, we discussed opportunities for supporting joint projects between Sollers and the Italian company Fiat, its strategic partner. I remember he [the Italian prime minister] was surprised that this company has achieved so much in five years - Sollers earned 34.5 billion roubles in 2009.

The government supported Sollers in 2009 by allocating 5.7 billion roubles for the purchase of vehicles to meet federal and municipal government needs.

Another 2,100 cars were sold to individuals who were granted loans on favourable terms. And still another 1,200 cars were transported for sale in the Russian Far East at discounted railway tariffs.

In this regard, I would like to say that this year we are planning to continue government support programmes for the car industry. In particular, we are going to support your project, using funds from the biggest banks in which the government has a stake.

You will have to build a new production line virtually from scratch, and for this reason we plan to allocate more than one billion Euros for the purchase of the equipment. About 600 million Euros must be spent to buy equipment made in Italy. This is significant support for our partners during the crisis that will lead to tangible results of our cooperation.

We will do this based on the results of this meeting.

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Representatives from Sollers and Fiat signed a memorandum in the presence of the prime minister establishing a joint venture to produce saloon cars and SUVs in Russia.

Vladimir Putin's remarks at the memorandum signing ceremony:

I would like to congratulate all those who took part in establishing this joint venture.

During our discussion, we have agreed on the contribution from each side - both the Russians and Italians - to this venture. The Russian government will consider granting a loan worth 2.1 billion Euros to support this project. Let me repeat that this issue should be thoroughly studied by the banks. We are working on the premise that this project will involve a whole number of regions with competent personnel. This fully applies to the city of Togliatti.

I wish you every success!