ALTHOUGH conquering the Chinese market is the achievement every car manufacturer secretly coverts, some would do well to keep their eye on another former Cold War enemy turned ally.

Russia, the country dismissed as the hopeless home of Lada and Moskvich, is experiencing the kind of sales growth never seen before. Even better, the market - for so long closed to Western companies - has opened up to foreign competition. Of the 1.5 million cars sold there last year, about 500,000 were imports.

Russia is now the ninth largest car market in the world and one of the fastest expanding.

Greater buying power, better wages and the terminally old existing car market (the average Moscow-vite's motor dates from around 1985) are all accounting for the sudden urge to buy a new set of wheels.

And it's all set to keep growing. According to analysts, the Russian demand for new cars is due to increase by about seven per cent every year between now and the end of the decade. That's a lot of new car sales.

The surge in demand for Russian oil and gas has seen average wages rise by 12 per cent in 12 months.

With no sign of the West's need of fossil fuels slowing down, those wage packets will continue to grow.

Not that Russian car manufacturers are poised to cash in. According to research by the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, output among domestic car producers is due to fall from just under a million in 2004 to 800,000 by 2010.

The reason? Increased competition.

Why would you want to buy a Lada when a VW Golf is within reach?

There are signs that this has already happened. Russia's best-selling car isn't a Lada or a Moskvich, it's a Hyundai because the South Korean company is knocking out nearly 50,000 models a year in co-operation with local producer TagAZ.

Renault, Toyota, Ford and VW are all clamouring for a piece of the action. They already have local partners or are in the process of establishing them.

It's surely a sign of changing times when even BMW - that shining symbol of capitalist aspiration - is scouting around for a partner with which to start building its cars for Russian enthusiasts.

So far it's been pretty much a one-way street. Only Russian billionaire's son Nikolay Smolensky has shown any interest in Western car manufacturing, and even then he got no further than Blackpool.

Smolensky's millions are currently bank-rolling the limited production line at TVR, the eclectic sportscar manufacturer.