‘Following the inspection of Mega Trade Center, its management was supposed to have eliminated forty-six fire safety violations. They have only dealt with twenty-three cases so far,’ Viktor Shangin, Deputy Head of the regional division of Russia’s fire surveillance agency under the Department of Emergencies, announced at a recent press conference. ‘The schedule for dealing with the offenses must be approved of by the proprietor, but the deadlines are set by an inspector. Mega is obliged to bring everything in compliance with the fire safety regulations by the end of January,’ Mr Shangin said.

McPeak, a fast food restaurant located at 44 Malyshev St., was closed down three days ago. As Natalia Avvakumova, the personnel manager of Malachite (the chain that owns the restaurant) said to UrBC representative, the management and the letters were unable to agree on the amount of rent. According to Ms Avvakumova, the restaurant is going to move to another building, although it is not yet clear where and when it will start operating again.

SKB-Bank is ready to offer its clients 170m RUR worth of customs guarantees. This is the sum determined for the bank by the local customs. A customs guarantee is a way of securing the payment of import and export fees, import-related VAT, excise duties, and customs duties. The use of the customs guarantees helps a business make its money management more effective as the corporate funds are left intact. SKB-Bank has been the authorized dealer acting within the framework of the Russian Federation Customs Code since 2004. The upper limit of a single customs guarantee comes to 35m RUR at the

‘The company is hoping to increase the number of flights by 10% to 15% in 2007. I believe we will be able to reach the target figures, especially since we’ve recently bought some new Airbus planes that will be delivered this spring. These planes will most likely be used for summer flights,’ Commercial Director of Ural Airlines Kirill Skuratov said to UrBC representative. ‘We upgraded our frequent flier program at the end of 2006, and its main benefit now consists in switching from points to rubles; besides, a client gets a 10% refund on the price of the ticket. The system has become very

UralmashSpetsstal Ltd. (part of United Machine Building Works (aka OMZ (Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery)) and Shanghai Electric E&A Industrial Development Co. Ltd. signed a contract providing for the delivery of $4m worth of backup rolls with 4% chromium content in 2007, reports the spokesperson for UralmashSpetsstal. Shanghai Electric E&A Industrial Development Co. Ltd. deals in metallurgical equipment production; this is why it is interested in the rolls and other pieces of equipment produced by UralmashSpetsstal. UralmashSpetsstal Ltd. has

According to the report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population, enterprises located in Kirovgrad, Sverdlovsk Region, produced 765,800 tons of production waste. Polymetallic Production, the subsidiary of UralElectroMed (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company), became the top waste producer, as its share in the total amount of waste comes to 765,500 tons (with around half of this constituted by slag, dross, and dust). The local environmental authorities identified 19 disposal dumps in the town; their total area

‘According to our analytical data (available online), the bad reputation of Russian Standard Bank does not coincide with its financial records, which is a negative factor,’ report the experts of Rus-Rating agency. They also say that if the bank keeps up with its current consumer lending policies, it will have a hard time retaining its share of the market. ‘One might think the bank’s financial records look good at first, but a closer examination would reveal that that it will soon find it difficult to stay successful. The company’s activity record indicates that its loan portfolio growth is

Eight people were killed and seven people were injured in the fire accident that took place at Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Magnitogorsk on November 28, 2006. The Interdepartmental committee looked into the causes of the fire, but Chelyabinsk Region State Fire Surveillance disagreed with the committee’s report on quite a few points. According to the experts of State Fire Surveillance, some grave violations of the fire safety regulations could be observed at the Complex; the company’s executives were actually administratively prosecuted for failing to meet these requirements. Besides,

Metalline Ltd. did not put up any dwellings meant for allotment in 2006, the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative. They did commission 17,625 square meters of buildings, though, including 7,500 square meters of business class dwellings, 4,425 square meters of class B offices, 1,200 square meters of trade areas, and 4,500 square meters of hotels. Thus, the shares of these types of real estate came to 42%, 25%, 7%, and 26% of the total amount of real estate produced by Metalline in 2006.

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service instituted legal proceedings against UralKaliy, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, Apatite JSC, and, accusing them of violating the federal legislation on protection of competition, reports the spokesperson for Federal Antimonopoly Service. Sylvinite JSC and UralKaliy are charged with setting monopolistically firm prices for their potassium chloride. Nizhnekamskneftekhim is accused of discriminating against its rivals in terms of transferring ethylene with the help of an ethylene pipeline. Apatite JSC has allegedly discriminated against its competitors