MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. The closing ceremony of the first BRICS Road Rally from Yekaterinburg to Moscow on roads maintained by the Avtodor state-owned company took place at VDNKh in Moscow. A number of agreements were signed during the ceremony, a TASS correspondent reported.

The route was split into two stages. The youth leg from Yekaterinburg to Kazan took place from August 9 to August 12 with a stop in Dyurtyuli, in the Republic of Bashkortostan. And the business leg from Kazan to Moscow with stops in Nizhny Novgorod and Suzdal involved business leaders from BRICS+ countries.

"Over the days spent on the road, [the participants] drove across eight Russian constituent members and had a glimpse of our multifaceted culture and our multiethnic country. That, indeed, was a very good, high-quality, and new event in the field of international cooperation,” Russian First Deputy Transport Minister Valentin Ivanov said, addressing the closing ceremony.

Avtodor Board Chairman Vyacheslav Petushenko, on his part, noted that establishing business contacts between businessmen from BRICS countries who participated in the motor race was a key objective. “We communicated very much as we drove on Avtodor motor roads. <…> We were very well received and presented all our advancements and our major opportunities because one of the ideas was to find common ground in business, and personal communication was, perhaps, what mattered the most,” he said at the closing ceremony.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, Russia’s BRICS Sherpa, too, addressed the participants in the car race, saying that the event will help deepen relations between BRICS member countries. "The motor tour on expressways from Yekaterinburg to Moscow allowed participants to see Russia’s advancements in infrastructure development for themselves, as it gave them an insight into its history and culture, and enabled new friendships,” the senior Russian diplomat said in a message of greetings read out by Russian Ambassador-at-large, Russia’s su-Sherpa in BRICS Pavel Knyazev. “I am confident that the unique international project will make a contribution to increasing multifaceted cooperation in our grouping, help strengthen mutual confidence, expand business, cultural, and humanitarian ties, and facilitate a joint search for growth points,” according to the message.

Signing of agreements

Also, agreements were signed during the closing ceremony, including an agreement on cooperation between the Moscow Tourism Committee, the Avtodor state-owned company, and ANO “Project Office for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality of Moscow." “Today, we are taking part in a very important event that brings regions and nations together. Jointly, we prepared for a long time to receive you here, dear colleagues. In collaboration with Avtodor, we arranged a very good program at VDNKh, too. For Moscow is the central hub in the network of Russian motor roads,” Yevgeny Kozlov, first deputy chief of the mayor’s office and Moscow government, who chairs the city’s tourism committee.

Natalia Mikheikina, Head of RUSSPASS of the Moscow Project Office for Tourism and Hospitality Development, told reporters in an interview that the agreement which was signed at the ceremony will play an important role for tourist service at RUSSPASS.

"Quite an important event for our service at RUSSPASS was held today as a trilateral agreement was signed between Avtodor, the Moscow Tourism Committee and RUSSPASS, a business that currently offers more than 50,000 products for tourists. And, of course, routes lie at the core and represent our heart, and I should say that a third of all routes are motor road routes, <...> because our Motherland is a vast country with lots of cities, and, of course, travelers like traveling from city to city,” she emphasized.

Another agreement, on mutual understanding and strategic cooperation, was signed between Maria Yarmalchuk, director general of the National Association of Infrastructure Companies (NAIC), and Refilwe Buthelezi, President of the Federation of African Engineering Organizations (FAEO).

About motor rally

The car race marked the opening of a major section of the M-12 Vostok highway, stretching from Dyurtyuli to the urban locality of Achit. President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony via video link in July 2025. The new highway is the next section of the M-12 highway to Yekaterinburg. The project provides a 2,400-km seamless express route that connects St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, reducing travel time by more than 22 hours. Now that the new section of the highway was launched, the M-12 Vostok federal motorway will serve the cities of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg.

TASS is the general information partner of the motor rally.