MOSCOW, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- General Motors Corp.'s venture with Russia's biggest carmaker, OAO Avtovaz, has suspended production in a dispute about what Avtovaz gets paid.
The dispute comes two months after the Kremlin took over Atovaz and its chief executive said he wanted to reassess terms of the $340 million joint venture.
On Feb. 9 Avtovaz's new chief executive, Igor Yesipovsky, stopped shipping parts to the plant, which makes Chevrolet Niva sport utility vehicles, saying it wasn't being paid enough for the parts.
If negotiations over parts prices are not successful, observers expect Atovaz to buy out GM's 41.5 percent stake in the project.
When the factory began in 2002 it was projected to make 75,000 vehicles per year; this year it is expected to make about 47,000.
