OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2009. Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin believes that Russian auto giant AvtoVAZ is on the brink of bankruptcy. “Any audit is not the issue now, it’s the company’s future which is at stake. The auto maker is on the verge of bankruptcy even though huge funds were provide (by the government), so it is necessary to decide what will happen to AvtoVAZ in the future,” Mr. Stepashin said in an interview with Reuters.

The Audit Chamber is examining financial records of the auto giant that received RUB 25 bn from the budget this spring as an interest-free loan from its shareholder, state-run corporation Rostekhnologia. According to Stepashin, the results of the audit conducted at AvtoVAZ will be prepared in December and will be officially released by the Audit Chamber.