Russia Putin says surprised by GM U-turn on Opel

MOSCOW Nov 4 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he was surprised by General Motors' [GM.UL] decision to keep its European arm Opel after months of negotiations to sell it to Canadian-Russian consortium.

Putin, quoted by a spokesman, said Magna MGa.TO and its Russian partner Sberbank SBER03.MM would make a legal analysis of the situation.

Putin said the trust overseeing Opel rather than GM's board should decide any further steps. (Reporting by Gleb Bryanski, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov)