Russia's new ultra-luxury vehicles, branded Aurus, received an unexpected test at the Sochi F1 track by none other than the main customer of the brand. Russian president Vladimir Putin, hosting Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, went for a spin in the sedan version of the Aurus, several of which normally follow his own Aurus limousine.

Developed with the help of Porsche and styled with the help of pictures of Rolls-Royces, the Aurus debuted earlier this year shortly before Putin's latest inauguration ceremony. The product of several years of development by automotive industry institute NAMI, the Aurus lineup is a spiritual successor to the now-extinct ZiL lineup that served Soviet leaders from the 1950s onward.

The Aurus Senat sedan is powered by a hybrid 4.4-liter V8 paired with a nine-speed automatic transmission, good for 598 hp, sending power to all four wheels. The sedan received its formal debut at the Moscow international motor show earlier this fall and will appear in Geneva in the spring, as Russia hopes to sell these to customers other than its own government ministers and governors.

Western journalists, us included, have yet to try to the Aurus, so its handling attributes are still a bit of a mystery. But one thing we have noticed in multiple photos and videos of these cars is that the tail tends to tuck pretty noticeably under acceleration.

The Aurus lineup was developed with the country's own presidential protective service in mind but its developers, including industry minister Denis Manturov, hope that the luxury cars will appeal to a broader audience once production of the hand-built sedans gets going. The unarmored version of the Aurus Senat sedan is expected to retail for just under $200,000, which will make it a bit of a bargain when compared to the Rolls-Royce Ghost or Phantom, but it will compete (at least in price) with the four-seat Mercedes-Maybach S560 sedan that's become quite popular in the country.

The Aurus lineup uses a common platform, dubbed EMP for Edinaya Modul'naya Platforma (Unified Modular Platform), and consists of a four-door limo, a four-door limousine, a large minivan and an SUV. The SUV is the only version that hasn't been seen yet, but it's expected to debut early next year. It remains to be seen which version of the Aurus lineup ultimately becomes the most popular one inside the country -- our money is on the SUV, which should be a more affordable alternative to the Cullinan in Moscow.

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