As indicated by earlier reports it has been confirmed at a board meeting held earlier this week that that Bo Andersson will become the new CEO of Russia vehicle maker AvtoVAZ, replacing Igor Komarov, who resigned from the company in October.

Andersson takes up the post at the end of December, and will be the first non-Russian to head the company. He has served as chief executive of Gaz, the Russian bus and truck maker, for the past four years.

Oleg Lobanov, who has been AvtoVAZ's executive vice president in charge of finance and corporate development, will run the company on an interim basis until Andersson takes over.

AvtoVAZ, which makes the Lada, became majority-owned by the Renault Nissan alliance in December of last year, when the carmakers and the Russian Technologies State Corporation became shareholders and owners of the Lada brand.  The alliance has said that it intends to take full control of the Russian OEM by mid-2014.