KALININGRAD, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian automaker Avtotor Holding announced on Monday it had launched the assembly of Opel cars in the country's exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

Avtotor, which rolls out 27 models of seven different brands, including BMW, Kia and Chevrolet, will produce Opel Zafira and Opel Astra cars at its Kaliningrad facility.

In the initial stage, Avtotor will assemble Opel cars by the semi-knockdown method, meaning the supply of almost manufactured cars from the German producer. It intends to start wielding and painting vehicle bodies from 2010-2011.

Avtotor intends to invest about $50 million in the production of Opel cars.

Avtotor-Holding CEO Valery Gorbunov told journalists that representatives of Canada's auto parts supplier Magna, which is acting in consortium with Russia's Sberbank to assume control of German auto giant Opel, visited the Kaliningrad facility and assured its management that if the Opel deal went through successfully, the Opel new owner would not close Opel car output at the facility.

In the first nine months of 2009, Avtotor produced about 48,200 cars. Last year, the company rolled out about 110,000 vehicles.