We don't know if being the President of Russia is an easy job, but it's one that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is more than happy to do, as the former KGB officer has served President from 2000 to 2008, as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012, while he was also re-elected President again in May of 2012. What can we say; the man loves being a head of state…
The job comes with many benefits, including the ability to choose the kind of wheels you roll around in. However, Putin wasn't satisfied with simp ly picking out an existing car to base a presidential limousine; no, he wanted one created from scratch from a Russian company, so he asked local automakers to present their proposals.
A less luxurious version of the same car will be used by government officials to run red lights and scare Russians replace upscale German cars, such as Mercedes and BMW.
ZiL, which used to produce luxury vehicles for leaders of the Soviet Union was the first to present its proposal for a presentational limousine with a prototype named ZIL-4112P powered by a 7.7-liter engine coupled to a six-sp eed automatic transmission, in September of 2012.
Citing a Kremlin source, Russia's , Izvestia reported that Putin was "unhappy" with the result, though, ZiL's acting CEO, Sergei Sokolov, denied the report, saying the president has not seen the car yet. Russian officials neither denied or confirmed the report.
The other two Russian carmakers vying for the prestigious contract are Marussia Motors and GAZ.
According to the Moscow Times, GAZ is developing a luxury model based on the Volkswagen Phaeton and Audi A8, with the car to be ready in 2014.
Marussia has just completed a competition in cooperation with our creative Russian friends over at Cardesign, who notified us about the concepts that made it to the final round, with the winner (or winners), to be announced on May 1. You can check them out for yourself in the gallery below and tell us which one you like the best.
Marussia Concept Photos via Cardesign
Thanks to for the heads up Mikhail!
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