Planting potatoes, not assembling cars: the holding that stopped work in the Russian Federation found an occupation for workers

An economic crisis is felt at the Avtotor plant, where cars of famous foreign brands used to be assembled. The Kaliningrad holding calls it a “difficult economic situation.”

As reported on the website of the Russian company Avtotor, shareholders and management decided to provide social support to employees and distribute 10 acres each (1000 sq.m) land for gardening.

Plant workers in the Russian Federation were given 10 acres of land each, Photo: Avtotor

For this purpose, the holding allocated two plots of land with an area of 300 hectares near the villages of Kholmogorovka and Lyublino. By drawing lots, the gardens were divided between 168 employees plant, another part of the land will be distributed in the second half of May.

The new owners have already visited their gardens. The plots are ready for sowing – the land is plowed and dug up.

“To ensure the future harvest in the gardens of factory workers, Avtotor organized the sale of high-quality seed potatoes of domestic production”the company said.

No foreign cars at the factory

In early March, the German automaker BMW stopped cooperation with the holding in Kaliningrad due to the war in Ukraine. Already on “Avtotor” two months do not collect cars and do not supply products to the Russian market.

The automaker began producing foreign cars back in 1997. It was the first plant where they set up the assembly of cars of foreign brands, in particular BMW, Kia and Hyundai. Since then, more have rolled off the assembly line. 2.5 million cars.

Due to Western sanctions against Russia and the economic crisis, the enterprise cannot operate. Since May 1, some of the employees have been sent 21 days on paid vacation. In total, the Russian concern employs about 3,500 people.

Companies leave the Russian Federation

After the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, dozens of world giants in various fields stopped cooperating with the aggressor. Among others, the German Daimler Truck AG, which was engaged in the manufacture of trucks and components in Russia, left the Russian market.

The Swedish company Volvo announced the stop of production and sales in Russia. Completely out of the market:

• Chevrolet;
• Cadillac
• Ford;
• Jaguar
• Mercedes;
• Porsche;
• Renault;
• Scania;
• Volkswagen and many other brands.

In May, the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) thought about selling its assets. The bank is one of the ten most profitable financial institutions in Russia, but has recently received an offer from the business it is discussing. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the bank’s management has been thinking about exiting the Russian market.

At the same time, the EU presented the sixth package of sanctions against the aggressor. This time, European countries are planning to strike at the oil sector and large banks of the Russian Federation, in particular, they intend to disconnect Sberbank from SWIFT. Russian analysts record a significant reduction in the volume of oil refining every month. The sales market is getting smaller, and the storage facilities are filling up – at such a rate, oil refining in the country may stop altogether.