‘One of the serious threats faced by Russia’s economy at the moment is the business growing less legitimate on the one hand and money-laundering on the other. In this country, the lending crisis might become one of the stimulants for illegal practices’ trickling into business structures,’ Europe-Asia Information and Consulting Center’s GD Oleg Borisov said to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, experts get increasingly alarmed by the fact that most companies’ systemic risks keep rising. Apart from economic problems, businesses are also struggling with economic security-related issues. ‘Our

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met up with Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) BOD Chairman Vladimir Lisin and Maxi Group’s General Director Valeriy Shevelev to discuss their businesses’ performance. A little over a year ago, NLMK group (headed by Vladimir Lisin) acquired Maxi Group’s controlling shareholding. As it happens, Maxi Group actually comprises a number of Sverdlovsk Region-based metallurgical plants; in addition, NLMK owns the local VIZ Stal. Vladimir Lisin informed the Governor that all of the holding’s enterprises kept on operating. He explained that about 60%

‘Two medical insurance companies are leaving Chelyabinsk Region’s market at the moment. These are Ural-AIL-Med and Medincom that used to insure slightly over 70,000 locally employed people,’ Chelyabinsk Region Obligatory Medical Insurance Fund explained to an UrBC reporter. ‘Some companies are leaving the regional insurance market and some new ones are coming to replace them, and this is all perfectly normal. Insurers are private enterprises that can set up or close down a business in this or that part of Russia. The thing is, the employers whose workers have been insured with a leaving

Standard & Poor's, the international rating agency, affirmed MDM Bank’s corporate governance rating at 6+ and promoted its rating on the Russian scale up to 6,9, Independent Information Agency reports. MDM Bank’s ratings have thus been signed off the GovernanceWatch list, with Developing Rating Outlook. As a matter of fact, the bank’s ratings had to be reconsidered on December 4, 2008 because of its merging with URSA Bank. In the meantime, URSA Bank’s ratings were also promoted in December 2008. Fitch affirmed the bank’s short-term Issuer Default Rating at B+ and put it on Rating

‘We’ve lived through several difficult months, but the coming winter and spring ones are going to be even harder. I believe the first signs of the market recovery can only be expected next fall,’ Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s General Director Nazim Efendiev said in his interview to Za Tyazheloye Mashinostroyeniye ‘It is quite probable that we might not get any new contracts in 2009, so we’ll just keep finishing up with the old ones; also, we might be offered some smaller orders that will take three to six months to fulfill,’ he added.