The All-Russian Consumer Rights Protection Society coordinated a number of Quality Contests on the food market. The contests are aimed at checking the food manufacturers’ compliance with the governmental standards and selecting a winner, the so-called quality leader, in every market segment. The fist such contest has been held among vodka brands. ‘The contest is targeted at encouraging producers to compete for brand leadership and improve on quality. Strong drinks are one of the food market’s most challenging products, this is why we started with them,’ says the Society Chairman Mikhail

One of Yekaterinburg’s major developers started selling apartments in the seventh building of Sozvezdiye apartment block on April 21, 2008. Sozvezdiye is one the best places to buy a home in as far as the western end of the city is concerned. The total area of all the eight buildings within a block comes to over 80,000 square meters; the place is conveniently located along Fuchik St., Belinskiy St, and Tchaikovsky St. next to Dirigible mall, some kindergartens, a school, and an amusement park. Besides, the block is architecturally appealing and can boast nice apartment layouts, a spacious

ALNAS (known as ALNZ at RTS exchange and part of ChTPZ Group) set up a new maintenance shop for electric-centrifugal pump units in Buguruslan, Orenburg Region. This shop is to become a part of the company’s maintenance center, originally established in 2005 and servicing 1,200 oil wells (belonging to Orenburgneft, Saratovneftegas, SANEKO, and some others) at the moment, ChTPZ Group’s press officer reports. ‘ALNAS is planning to expand the range of services it offers to oil companies through introducing a full range of oil well services such as supervising of wells, maintaining the producing

‘A fire broke out on fifty square meters of one of the rooms at INEXPO exhibition center on April 19, 2008. The case is now being investigated by the authorities and it’s hard to say when the inquest is going to be over; however, the first preliminary data on what caused the fire and on the damage done might be available tomorrow afternoon,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Ministry of Emergencies reports. On the night of the accident, a drum’n’bass festival was taking place on the premises of the center; after the fire broke out, some 5,000 people had to be evacuated; the fire is reported

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 94.01% (from 1.036 billion RUR to 62.121 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development keeps implementing its strategy of making financial services available within a stone’s throw of any customer through expanding its subsidiary network. This means the number of customers, offices, and hi-tech products used keeps growing as well. Therefore the bank is increasingly focused on improving its IT resources. At the same time, the company is intent on providing its customers with the best service, making it as speedy as the customers would like it to be, and this is where reliable and advanced technology is a must. This is why the Ural

URSA Bank was able to win the 6th IT Leader National Prize in the Commercial Bank category. The bank’s Managing Director Sergey Shuvalov received the diploma commemorating the company’s significant contribution to IT development in Russia and a special badge of merit in the course of a solemn awarding ceremony in Moscow. The annual IT Leader Prize is given to companies and their IT directors in order to bring their IT achievements into the limelight. To win the prize, a company has to come up with really innovational IT solutions, show particular progress in IT development, and prove its IT

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 12.04% (from 16.3 million RUR to 14.337 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Ural Turbine Plant presented a first-ever film about the company and a number of new products at Russia Power exhibition. The film acquaints the viewers with all the main production shops, the company’s engineering center, and the steam turbines that are currently employed at Novo-Sverdlovskaya power station, the companys press officer informed UrBC. According to the plant’s press officer, the company also exhibited the new makes of steam turbines for combined-cycle plants. One such turbine is meant for combined-cycle plant 410 located at the power station in Krasnodar; it will be connected

Pipe Metallurgical Company’s PR Department came up with the results of the company’s activity in the first quarter of 2008. The enterprise shipped 207,000 tons of tubes and pipes with varying diameters to consumers in January-March 2008; this falls short of the figures for the first quarter of 2007 by 8%, while the amount of oil country tubular goods shipped and the Russian market’s demand for the tubes decreased by 6% and 8.5%, respectively. The spokesperson for the company reports the transactions on the domestic market are on the decrease due to the need for large-diameter pipes becoming