Vladimir Putin and Abdel Fattah El Sisi Tests New Aurus Cars

Vladimir Putin and President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visited the Sochi Autodrom race track. The Russian President showed his Egyptian counterpart the new car manufactured under the Russian Aurus brand, October 17, 2018.

The two presidents arrived at the Olympic Park in the new Aurus Senat limousine. They were shown the Aurus Arsenal minivan and the Aurus Senat short-baseline sedan, in which they later took a ride on the track. Sergei Gaisin, General Director of the Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute (NAMI), described the cars to the presidents.

Later, Mr Putin and Mr el-Sisi attended a presentation where the Egyptian President was shown the capabilities of the Russian defence industry.

The Aurus is Russia's new luxury car brand. It was developed as part of the Unified Modular Platform project (Cortege project) by the NAMI Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute, by order of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The models were named after the Moscow Kremlin's Senatskaya, Komendantskaya and Arsenalnaya towers. The limousine and the standard length sedan are both named Senat; the SUV is the Komendant, and the minivan is the Arsenal.

The Senat and the Arsenal will be used in the Presidential cortege. The SUV prototype will be finished by the end of the year, while the Komendant model, including testing and certification, will be completed in 2019–2020. The Aurus Senat limousine was first used at the presidential inauguration ceremony on May 7, 2018.