Sergey Dubinkin, Head of the regional division of the Russian Federation Retirement Fund, reported that 193 applications for maternal money certificates had been submitted by February 26, 2007. These must be considered within a month; then, notifications will be sent back to the applicants. The Retirement Fund is now trying to put into practice the provisions of the new law on the additional state support of families with children, reports their press officer.

Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region Viktor Koksharov took part in a press conference that was hosted by TASS Ural and devoted to the preparations the region has been making for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. According to Mr. Koksharov, an ad hoc working team consisting of the Putin administration executives and representatives of a number of federal authorities has recently visited Yekaterinburg and found the city quite suitable for holding such a high-profile event. The summit has been scheduled for 2009, and by this time, the city’s

SKB-Bank set up its northernmost and easternmost offices at 68 Neftyanikov St. in Nizhnevartovsk and at 95b Sovetskaya St. in Noyabrsk. Both offices offer full range of banking services for both businesses and private individuals and welcome visitors from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends (natural persons) and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays (businesses). With two new additions, the number of the bank’s offices has reached the point of 61; they are located in Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Rostov, and Volgograd Regions and in Moscow, reports the bank’s press

Prices keep collapsing on the Russian stock market. As regards MICEX stock exchange, blue chips dropped in price by an average of 3% in the very first minutes of business today. The RTS index decreased by more than 1%, dropping below 1,900. Shares of LUKOIL and Surgutneftegaz decreased by over 3%, those of UralSvyazInform and Rostelecom by nearly 4%, reports RosBusinessConsulting.

Medialogia, a mass media analysis and monitoring system, published its Top 30 Most Attractively Advertised Russian Banks rating. The rating covers thirty Russian companies that got the best publicity in February 2007. Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprombank (three major players on the Russian banking market) occupy the three top positions. According to experts of Medialogia, SKB-Bank gets the 21st position, based on how much positive publicity they got and how attractive they looked, and is the only Sverdlovsk Region-based bank that hit the rating at all. The position is better than that obtained in

200 legal entities and sole traders’ businesses were suspended in 2006, Chief Justice of Sverdlovsk Region Ivan Ovcharuk announced at a press conference. Their activity had to be stopped due to violations in the field of sanitation requirements and fire safety.

A recent meeting of Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region was devoted to evaluating the performance of the region’s international activity in 2006. Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover went up 27.1% compared to a year earlier and amounted to $9.494 billion. The regional enterprises and organizations cooperated with 136 countries, which covers export to 114 countries and import from 110 countries. The export structure remained quite traditional: metal and metal-based goods, chemical produce, machine-building products. As regards import, these are

‘The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was scheduled for 2009, and by this time, a lot of projects are to have been completed, for example, new highways and road junctions as well as the first line of underground. We have allotted 1.6 billion RUR for the underground construction this year, which makes it possible to work three shifts a day,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced at the press conference today. ‘The second runway at Koltsovo airport is to have been done by October 1, 2007. In addition, we have to focus on the construction of the City Center, Hyatt Hotel,

Large-scale construction projects can’t do without highly qualified professionals, says RENOVA Stroy Group that is trying to use the best people for the job when dealing with the Academic construction project. For one thing, the company has recently employed Fedor Seleznev, who has been the head of UralNIIAS Institute for over 6 years, in the capacity of Design Work Manager. UralNIIAS is a multi-disciplinary research center for design and construction that specializes in both industrial and civil buildings as well as acts as the general contractor. ‘I am attracted to RENOVA Stroy Group by the

‘No panic due to possible ban on the import of Indian rice to Russia is to be expected in our stores,’ reports Kirovskiy supermarket chain. ‘We have a good assortment of different kinds of rice, and besides, Indian rice, with its 10% share in the turnover, has never been our leading product. This is why even if it is actually banned, we shall experience no shortage. There are other good suppliers such as China (the most popular producer) and Krasnodar’, Kirovskiy’s press officer Olga Nagibina said to UrBC. Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) has asked India to deal with its