Prior to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the breakup of the Soviet Union, passenger locomotives used in Russia had been sourced from Czechoslovakia.

[4] Afterwards these sources were considered too expensive and the Russian state sought to develop indigenous production of passenger rolling stock.

Instead he announced that Transmashholding would be seeking a foreign company to create a joint venture to manufacture a new design - the EP20 (Russian: ЭП20), with an expected order of 230 units or more.

Meanwhile, the electrical components (semiconductor converters, control system, transformer, etc[11]) was based on designs by Adtranz, including the Swiss 460 series and the DB Class 145 and 146 in Germany.

[15] EP10 locomotives have also been used to pull the Capitals Express (Russian: Столичний експрес, romanized: Stolychnyy ekspress) night train between Moscow and Kyiv.