According to the report published on Severnaya Kazna’s official website on April 26, 2007, the bank keeps redistributing its shares among the stockholders. There are 40 of them at the moment, with two shareholders missing from the list as of yet: Russian Tax Association headed by Igor Teushchakov (the company’s share in Severnaya Kazna’s capital used to come to 6.447%, was later reduced to 3.438% and now dropped to.105%; Mr. Teushchakov’s share, however, amounts to 1.52%) and Econometrics headed by Alexander Frolov since mid-March (the company’s share amounts to .951%). All in all, the number

Sverdlovsk Region House of Representatives passed a bill on changes in the legislation on land management within the region after it had been adopted by Sverdlovsk Region Duma. The edited legislation aims to create a new system of managing unlocated land allotments that could ensure that Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for State Property Management has more control over decision-making in terms of offering up patches based in Yekaterinburg.

‘There are virtually no places available for sellers in the local malls: out of 16 trade centers we’ve got, 14 malls are totally filled up, and there is a long waiting list of those wishing to get a place into the bargain. As for the remaining two malls, they can offer round about 500 square meters and their management companies are on the lookout for a tenant who could make the place more popular, so they aren’t willing to let the area to just about anyone,’ Deputy Chairperson of Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee Natalia Firstova said to UrBC. ‘On average, there are 200 to 300

‘The introduction of any strict regulations over how grocery retailers must do business with the regional producers is totally unjustified,’ says Nadezhda Buriko, the spokesperson for Kupets supermarket chain. ‘If customers don’t like their produce, demanding that we sell a certain amount of regionally made foods disadvantages the store, the consumer, and the supplier at the same time. The market tends to get a good deal of self-regulation, and, if there is no demand for such items, you can make the stores sell them, but you can’t make the shoppers buy them. On the other hand, some of the

Russian Copper Company is putting up a mine at Vesenne-Aralchinskoye deposit, reports their press officer; the mine is expected to reach the capacity of .5 million tons of copper-zinc ore a year. The project requires $50 million worth of investments and will be launched in 2009. Besides, Russian Copper Company is going to expand a processing shop at 50-letiya Oktyabrya deposit in order to raise its annual output to 5 million tons of ore, 60,000 tons of copper, and 50,000 tons of zinc. The newly renovated shop will be launched at the beginning of 2008. It will be processing ore from Priorskoye

‘The import of the so-called grey (i.e. illegally made) meat to Russia amounted to 200,000 tons in January-March 2007. This cheap, low-quality frozen meat that had no vitamins or anything left in it was transferred to the country through Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, and Kaliningrad,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Anatoly Feoktistov said to UrBC. ‘Rosselkhoznadzor’s ban on meat import from Kazakhstan due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is definitely a good thing. The region’s dwellers won’t risk buying and eating low-quality food; I’m positive

The water level has gone up in most of the local rivers over the last two days, with the highest rise of water level recorded in the River Sosva. 11 bridges have been flooded, 21 settlements with the total population of 2,826 people got isolated from the rest of the world. The water level in the Pyshma now amounts to 509 centimeters against the critical 640 centimeters; the figure comes to 764 centimeters (against the critical 1,140 centimeters) for the Nitsa and to 521 centimeters (against the critical 840 centimeters) in the Tura. Three bridges located in the villages of Zhukovskoye,

Regional statisticians report that the population of Sverdlovsk Region decreased by 10,000 people last year and reached the point of 4,399,700 people on January 1, 2007. Mortality rate went down 27.5% against 2005; the ratio of those dying to those born came to 1/1.4 against 1/1.6 in 2005. 47,300 people were born last year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 3%; 67,200 people died, which is 8.4% fewer than in 2005. In more than half of the cases (55.6%), death was the result of cardiovascular diseases. People coming to settle in Sverdlovsk Region outnumbered those leaving the

UralSeverGaz summed up the results of its performance during this year’s heating season. Most of the housing maintenance and utilities services that buy their gas accumulated large debts in terms of paying for the gas they had already consumed. The total sum of debts reached the point of 1.775 billion RUR on April 25, 2007, which is thrice the amount recorded in October 2006 when the heating season actually began (650 million). The housing maintenance and utilities services make up only 12% of natural gas consumers, whereas their share of delayed payments amounts to 73%. ‘The end of the

Ural Airlines has come up with new discounts on business class tickets for travelers willing to use Yekaterinburg-Moscow-Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk-Moscow-Chelyabinsk flights. The cheapest tickets can now be bought for 16,000 RUR for Yekaterinburg flight and for 15,000 RUR for Chelyabinsk flight. The price also varies according to the time of the purchase: if one acquires a ticket within a fortnight of Yekaterinburg-Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight, it is only going to cost 16,000 RUR, whereas a passenger buying a ticket a week before the flight will have to pay 19,000 RUR. In addition, there