Restarting the preferential car loan program is generally not a problem. After all, it was announced last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to allocate 20.7 billion rubles to support the auto industry, of which just under half will go to rebates for impoverished citizens.

Another question is that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has to work out the details of the program practically from scratch, because the previous conditions cannot work in the current reality. Firstly, there are almost no cars left on the market with a value of less than 1.5 million rubles. Second, most domestic factories have been frozen and Russian production was also a requirement.

It turns out that the models that fall under the old rules can be counted on one’s fingers. But even for them it is difficult to stimulate demand: citizens might have bought them anyway, but due to the lack of components there are simply no machines. And if the rules are changed – especially by significantly increasing the maximum costs – the budget will be exhausted before everyone knows about this program.

In general, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has a huge and difficult task ahead of it – it is unlikely to be ready in a few weeks. Therefore, it is not worth taking seriously Mr. Manturov’s promises.

Restarting the preferential car loan program is generally not a problem. After all, it was announced last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to allocate 20.7 billion rubles to support the auto industry, of which just under half will go to rebates for impoverished citizens.

Another question is that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has to work out the details of the program practically from scratch, because the previous conditions cannot work in the current reality. Firstly, there are almost no cars left on the market with a value of less than 1.5 million rubles. Second, most domestic factories have been frozen and Russian production was also a requirement.

It turns out that the models that fall under the old rules can be counted on one’s fingers. But even for them it is difficult to stimulate demand: citizens might have bought them anyway, but due to the lack of components there are simply no machines. And if the rules are changed – especially by significantly increasing the maximum costs – the budget will be exhausted before everyone knows about this program.

In general, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has a huge and difficult task ahead of it – it is unlikely to be ready in a few weeks. Therefore, it is not worth taking seriously Mr. Manturov’s promises.