MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Moscow's Renault plant has been transferred to the city's balance sheet and will produce passenger cars under the historic brand Moskvich, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on his personal blog.

"The foreign owner decided to close the Moscow Renault plant. This is his right, but we can not allow the many thousands of workers to be left jobless. So I decided to take the plant on the city’s balance and to resume the production of passenger cars under the historic brand Moskvich," the mayor wrote.

He added that he will try to keep most of the staff directly working at the plant and its allied workers.

"The main technological partner of the revived Moscow Automobile Plant Moskvich will be Kamaz. At the first stage, we plan on producing classic cars with internal combustion engine, and in the future [there will be] electric cars. In addition, together with Kamaz and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade we are working on localization of the maximum number of auto parts production in Russia," Sobyanin specified.

According to him, the automobile plant on Volgogradsky prospect has a long and glorious history. Almost a hundred years ago it started with Ford cars production. For decades the legendary domestic Moskvich cars were produced here. Since 1998, the plant has been cooperating with Renault, with Logans, Dusters and Sanderos coming off its assembly line.

"In 2022 we will open a new page in the history of Moskvich," the mayor added.