‘Sverdlovsk Region’s companies owed their gas suppliers 4.862 billion RUR at the beginning of February, while the sum owed by TGK-9 (our greatest debtor) really did exceed 1.5 billion RUR. Nevertheless, this company had only paid 116 million RUR off by February 9, 2009,’ Itera O&G Company’s PR Director Viktor Cheremukhin said to an UrBC reporter. ‘In case TGK-9 fails to pay off the remainder of its natural gas debt, Uralsevergaz will have to gradually introduce gas supply limits starting February 15, 2009. We understand that this is going to badly affect Sverdlovsk Region’s economy, but

‘Our tenants have already got the opportunity to have their offices and shops in KomsoMall Trade & Entertainment Center remodeled and furnished. Nevertheless, the final commissioning of the mall has been postponed until April 2009. I believe that this is a common thing in the building industry,’ says DVI Group’s Press Service Director Oleg Lopatin. The mall was originally expected to have been commissioned in February 2009; the center’s total area comes to about 67,200 square meters.

‘Getting the money owed to them back in time is becoming a matter of survival for many businesses at the moment. However, the currently existing legal instruments cannot provide the legitimate, fast, and efficient ways of getting these sums back. An arbitration court might keep looking into the accounts receivable-related cases for years, and bankruptcy proceedings also take a long time to complete. In fact, this time is long enough for a debtor to close down or remove all of its liquid assets elsewhere. As a result, getting one’s money paid back turns out to be extremely difficult,’ says

The Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development claims in court that Alfa-Bank and Transstroy Engineering Corporation should pay $19m and $9m, respectively, for delay with the commissioning of the dam that protects Saint Petersburg from floods, Kommersant reports. According to the newspaper, Transstroy Engineering Corporation (a member of Oleg Deripaska’s Transstroy) and Rosstroy signed a 4.7-billion-ruble agreement regarding the construction of the dam’s second portion in October 2005. After Rosstroy went into liquidation in May 2008, the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional

Bank Severnaya Kazna (Alfa-Bank’s asset at the moment) is going to close down two more of its additional offices in Sverdlovsk Region. One of the outlets is located at 12a Belorechenskaya St. in Yekaterinburg, another one at 45a Pobeda St. in Nizhniy Tagil. Both offices will last welcome their customers on February 17, 2009. After this, the bank’s private customers based in Nizhniy Tagil can be serviced in the office located at 13 Vagonostroiteli St., while businesses can keep using the bank’s outlet at 45a Pobeda St. in Nizhniy Tagil through April 29, 2009.