OREANDA-NEWS. March 05, 2010. During Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s state visit to France, Russian Railways, Alstom and Transmashholding signed a protocol on technological and production cooperation, as a continuation of a protocol signed in Paris on Alstom’s entry into the ownership structure of Transmashholding, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

Commenting on the signing, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin said: "The signing of this agreement is an unprecedented event for us, and reflects the foundation that has been laid by our political leaders in the new relations between Russia and France. For us, this is first and foremost an indicator that the real stage of integration has begun – at any rate, in our sector."

The Russian Railways president noted that the company has already been working with Alstom, and mentioned the agreement previously signed between the companies on the acquisition of Pendolino tilting trains to run between Helsinki and St Petersburg. "The first train of this series is already complete, and we hope that by the end of the year it will pass technical and certification tests, and we will be able to present it to the Russian public. We also want to jointly create a prototype of a new EP20 electric locomotive by the end of this year, and I expect that this will also serve as a dynamic continuation of all the documents signed here," Mr Yakunin said.
 
*****
In 2008, Russian Railways bought a stake of 25% minus one share in Transmashholding, Russia’s largest producer of locomotives and rolling stock, from the company Breakers Investments BV (Netherlands) for 9.3 billion rubles.