The black-and-white photo featured in the
TELEGRAPH article starting off this thread is actually a ZIL 114 of circa 1966-67 vintage. The shape of the body hasn't changed all that much with subsquent models except where contemporary armoring dictated smaller windows, but the front end became much bolder in ensuing decades by incorporating a higher-profile, Rolls-like radiator in place of the full-width, Imperial-inspired design seen in this photo.
The severely-angular ZIL with vertical headlights that accompanies the
GLOBALPOST story also strikes me as a purely-fanciful concept of what they'd like to do next. Scroll down, however, and we all get a BIG BIG payoff in the form of a 5 minute, 42 second
www.1tv.ru clip where a woman reporter is getting a complete inside, out and underhood tour of Putin's new 4112P at the ZIL factory with a rear seat test ride thrown in for further sweetening. Though I only understand a few words of Russian, I found this footage absolutely captivating in light of how tightly the U.S. Secret Service controls access to and info about the current generation White House Cadillacs. While the wider-diameter wheels and supposedly American-sourced powertrain (can anyone ID from that TV clip?) were the first things PCS people commented on, the change that really caught my attention from previous ZILs was the change from a Fleetwood 75-style "formal" limo body to a center stretch layout with rear-hinged rear doors like the 1961-69 Lincoln Continentals.
Do I like what I see personally? I actually do, if for no other reason than I think it rather nifty to see ZIL reassert itself as the Supreme Post-Soviet Automaker. Given how many years Putin has been in power, I'm actually quite surprised the Kremlin's switch from S-Class Mercedes-Benzes and Audi A8s didn't take place years ago.