Russia
The President of Russia is usually seen in an armoured Mercedes S-Class stretched limousine. The first such model, a W140 variant, was purchased by Boris Yeltsin and has recently been superseded by a W221 model. The presidential motorcade will usually be escorted by police motorcycle outriders and a series of support vehicles including, but not limited to, the Mercedes G-Class, Mercedes E-Class, standard S-Class models, Mercedes SLK-Class, BMW 5-Series and Volkswagen Caravelle. Generals and officials of the armed forces drive Volgas which mostly have other engines from better cars and other technical modifications.
Under the USSR, the General Secretary of the Communist Party was always driven in a Soviet-built ZIL-41047, escorted by Chaika models. Two of the Zil limousines are still maintained in the Kremlin garage and occasionally seen in use by the military parades on the Day of Victory.
Read more about this topic: Official State Car
Famous quotes containing the word russia:
“Today’s difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“... from Russia I didn’t bring out a single happy memory, only sad, tragic ones. The nightmare of pogroms, the brutality of Cossacks charging young Socialists, fear, shrieks of terror ...”
—Golda Meir (1898–1978)
“A fool may be a dangerous customer, but the fact of his having such a vulnerable top-end turns danger into a first-rate sport; and whatever defects the old administration in Russia had, it must be conceded that it possessed one outstanding virtue—a lack of brains.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)