MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti)-The Volga car, a symbol of on-road comfort for Russians in the past 50 years, will no longer be produced in the country, an official with the Federal Agency for Industry said Wednesday.

Vladislav Kapustin said carmaker GAZ would concentrate on producing minivans in a bid to ward off intensifying competition from foreign automakers that have set up shop in Russia.

"If we do not occupy the minivan niche now," he said, "then our competitors, primarily [American giant] Ford, will take it."

Ford opened a plant near St. Petersburg in 2002 for the Focus small family car and has since been followed by a host of other overseas producers, including Renault and Nissan. Russian-made cars, which are not generally seen as being as comfortable or prestigious as their foreign counterparts, have been struggling to maintain sales, although market leader AvtoVAZ did announce a 3% increase in domestic sales on Tuesday.

The head of PR at GAZ, Sergei Lygovoi, said production would gradually end in the next two years after Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia's richest men and GAZ owner, announced Tuesday that the company would switch its focus to commercial vehicles.

"The car conveyor belt will not stop soon," Lugovoi said. "The plant is currently making cars fitted with DaimlerChrysler engines. In this month alone 500 will be manufactured and a Volga with a new interior will be released next June."

According to the Lugovoi, 48,000 Volgas were made last year and the figure should reach 50,000 next year. He said that there would be no layoffs in the workforce of the plant, which is based in Nizhny Novgorod, as employees would work on other projects.

For many, the passing of the Volga, a favorite with taxi drivers as far afield as Iraq, will mark the end of the era, as it was first produced in the Soviet Union in 1956 and is entrenched as a symbol of success in that era. Defense Ministry officials can still be seen being chauffeured around in traditional black Volgas, although some people remember its associations with the KGB.