Sanctions bring Russian car industry screeching to a halt

The Volkswagen plant in Moscow which has now shut down

Nataliya Vasilyeva
© Telegraph Media Group Limited

Ilya, a manager at a Volkswagen factory in western Russia, was busy discussing plans for a company-supported family event in the spring when the war in Ukraine broke out.

Just a few months later, the plant, the jewel in the crown of Russia’s car industry, and Ilya’s workplace for nearly a decade, had shut down.