Lada, the iconic Soviet-era car, was common in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and can still be spotted around the city. Its heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s when the country was ruled by the Derg, a Marxist-inspired military regime with close ties to Moscow. The recent ban on the import of petrol-powered vehicles and the rising cost of imported parts, however, means that the its days may be numbered. "If the engine malfunctions, you can’t afford to fix it," says Tesfahun Assefa, a taxi driver who has been driving a Lada for nine years. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES