Great Wall Motor, one of China's largest automakers, said it planned to build a plant in Russia to take a bite of its vast neighbor's booming auto market.
The full-cycle car plant, with an annual capacity of 50,000 units per year, would be built in a free economic zone in the town of Yelabuga in Tatarstan, an oil-rich autonomous region on the Volga river.

"We have already won the backing of the government of Tatarstan, as well as that of Russia's federal government," Liang Henian, director of Great Wall China, said in Moscow on Friday.

"We expect an official reply from the Russian Government fairly soon," he told reporters. "We have made a business offer, and we expect to be granted most advantageous terms."