Uralmashzavod has recently signed two agreements with Limos–M, a leasing company; the agreements provide for the supply of 310 tons of equipment to Lebedinskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (Russia’s leading iron ore producer). The shipment is supposed to include a 7.5-meter pelletizer and about 46 calcining trolleys (to be made from steel with extra-high alloying species content to ensure extended life time) and must be delivered to the enterprise within 2007, reports the spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. This is going to be the second pelletizer to be supplied to

Odessa Cognac Factory and Hortiza Distillery decided to merge to become a single holding. According to Hortiza’s Russian representation, the two companies have already cooperated successfully in the past: they merged their brand portfolio in October 2006. Odessa Cognac Factory is one of Ukraine’s few enterprises with a full production cycle; it owns 1,000 hectares worth of vineyards, Europe’s largest distillation shop, 15,000 casks, and a blending and bottling shop. The company produces 23 kinds of ordinary and vintage cognacs, two kinds of vodka, and 4 kinds of champagne. Its share of the

‘A new rise in wholesale oil prices is going to make agricultural produce more expensive,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Anatoly Feoktistov said to UrBC. ‘All the fuel is bought at market prices, although the regional farms do have a little reserve meant for the sowing season,’ he said. ‘What is more, they have received 92 million RUR from the federal budget this year against only 48 million in 2006.’ According to Vedomosti newspaper, wholesale fuel prices have gone up 8% to 20% within three weeks of April.

‘All the regulating authority over the unlocated land has been transferred to municipalities when the corresponding law came into force on July 1, 2006. Yet if this land happens to be part of a regional capital, it has to be managed by the regional government. I would also like to emphasize that the older legislation says all the unlocated land is supposed to be managed by the regional government,’ Sverdlovsk Region Minister for State Property Management Alexei Molotkov announced at a press conference on April 23, 2007. ‘We have agreed with nearly all the city mayors that we’ll be given two

Nikolai Krupinin was appointed acting Head of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) in Ural Federal District after the corresponding order 60/TK had been signed by Konstantin Pulikovskiy on April 18, 2007, reports Rostechnadzor’s press officer. Nikolai Ya. Krupinin is the Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, and first-rank Counselor of State Civil Service. He was born in Sovna, Mogilev Region (Byelorussia) in 1951 and graduated from Bryansk Institute of Technology with a major in Forestry Engineering in 1973. He

The State Land Control Department in Sverdlovsk Region (part of Rosnedvizhimost) and Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District summed up the results of inspections related to land allotments in January-March 2007. The Department conducted 1,966 inspections aimed at checking the compliance with the existing legislations; 772 offenses were identified within the area of 592.9 hectares; this amounts to 39% of all the inspections conducted. The Department imposed 1,772 RUR worth of fines on the offenders, with 572 perpetrators to be brought to account.

Federal Antimonopoly Service committee met on April 23, 2007 to declare Uralkaliy and Sylvinite guilty of a breach of competition protection law; the companies in question used their dominant position on the market to set sky-high potassium chloride prices. The committee now intends to draw up a report and a provision to the companies within the legally defined period of time.

A conference devoted to scrap metal recycling at ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises was held in Sverdlovsk Region. According to acting Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Industry, Power Engineering, and Science Nikolai Tikhonov, the Ural plants have been developing quite rapidly and therefore need more and more raw materials, including scrap metal, whereas things don’t look so good in terms of collecting and recycling. Mr. Tikhonov believes that law-enforcement agencies should try harder to find the metal stealers and prevent such crimes from happening: at the moment, only one in

‘If a company owns five or more retail grocery stores, it is considered to be a chain; of all Yekaterinburg’s grocery shops, 169 supermarkets belong to federal chains and 257 stores and catering units belong to regional chains (there are 26 of them operating in the city), besides, there are nine local retail chains in Yekaterinburg,’ Chairperson of Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee Elena Chernysheva announced at a press conference on April 23, 2007. According to Ms Chernysheva, these chains are mainly made up of hypermarkets, supermarkets, and shops-next-door, with the latter