‘The number of claims returned by the Court of Arbitration went down .7% against 2005 (and the number of all applications decreased by 4.9%). So, 1,811 applications were returned in 2006 altogether,’ Irina Reshetnikova, Chief Justice of Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration announced at the press conference.

‘The number of cases solved dropped as well; the figure fell short of the data for 2005 by 7.2%, which means that there 36,700 cases adjudicated in 2006 altogether. The Russian average, however, declined by 40%,’ Ms Reshetnikova said.

‘This has to do with the fact that quite a few claims related to the activity of the Russian Retirement Fund were settled out of the court. As regards Sverdlovsk Region, we have got over 90,000 such suits.’