OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2009. General Motors Co. negotiators urged the German government to pressure Magna International Inc. into making an offer for GM’s Opel unit without Russian backing, Spiegel reported, without saying where it got the information.

GM told German officials a sale of Opel to Magna would stand a better chance getting approval from its owner, the U.S. government, if there was no Russian involvement, the weekly newspaper said in a pre-released story from its next edition.

Germany rejected the request, saying it had made promises to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Magna’s investment partner is Moscow-based OAO Sberbank.