MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Withdrawal of Opel models from the Russian market may stimulate growth of Avtovaz production, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin said Wednesday.

"Avtovaz should be happy that it may substitute this segment as GM has it [Opel - TASS] as a budget segment so Lada may well substitute it," he said.

"No doubt there are negative implications as a shutdown of any enterprise and layoffs are not good. Another point is that we should not see some big politics here," Shokhin said, adding that the decision to phase down production may be explained by commercial reasons amid the current drop in demand. At the same time, in case the car market recovers producers may substitute the demand by supplying finished products, he said.

The US-based car producer General Motors said Wednesday it withdraws its Opel brand from the Russian market and minimizes presence of the Chevrolet brand to focus on the premium segment.