'State Secret' – President Putin's new limo

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01:27

‍After much media hype, the new car for the Russian president was paraded behind the Kremlin walls on May 7.

It made a brief appearance at May 7 inauguration of President Vladimir Putin, who was riding in it for several hundreds of meters. It’ll be officially unveiled to the public in late August at the Moscow Auto Show.

But on the inauguration day, it took a lot of media spotlight, and the hype is still on.

Wherever the Russian president goes, attention follows, but lately his new ride presents a serious challenge to him.

Dozens of YouTube videos emerge regularly about the Kortezh line of vehicles. Most of them using official footage about the car released recently or footage of the car from the inauguration. Other sources about the car come from the accidental spotters who ran into Russian President new motorcade and later posted their footage online. One of those gained millions of views in just one day.

The new limo for President Putin. /VCG Photo‍

KORTEZH - AURUS

It was right behind the Kremlin walls that the idea of Russian leaders riding in domestic cars was born almost a decade ago.

According to various sources, it took not just years, but also up to 200 million US dollars to design and produce the new limo, which will represent the Russian Federation around the world.

The project developed under the name of KORTEZH, just recently got its official name AURUS. The word that combined the chemical symbol for - AU, coming from the latin AURUM, and international abbreviation for Russia (RUS).

The car used as the Presidents car is the top one from AURUS’s line of exclusive vehicles. It will include SUVs, sedans, vans and motorcycles, with the idea to introduce them to serial production and sell them as one of the world’s leading top of the range automobile brands.

Denis Manturov, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade (centre). /CGTN Photo

“We all understand that the limousines would not be produced in their thousands, but in tens or hundreds of units. Sedans will be produced in hundreds. SUVs will be the mass product, that’s what our experience tells us. Those models are in high demand in Russia.”

As Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said, this line of cars is not intended for mass production.

State secret

Although AURUS cars are seen here and there in Moscow in the presidential motorcade, it still remains somewhat of a state secret. It hasn’t been presented to the world officially and the media will have to wait for the end of August and Moscow Car Show to get access to it.

On the road.

But that doesn’t stop the Russians from being proud of what they say is, by the vast majority of its parts, developed and made in Russia. And only because of this project, a number of Russian automotive engineers who were working abroad returned back home to work on this new line of cars.

With President Putin as its impromptu promoter, AURUS already has gained much media attention, making its market entrance so much easier.

Just imagine how many people would love to drive the same car that Putin rides.