Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin signed a decree regarding the temporary halt on the scheduled checks of small businesses and sole traders. The spokesperson for the Governor reports that now all the controlling executive authorities (regional and federal alike) should stop inspecting the local businesses until July 1, 2009. The Governor explains the decision was taken in order to support and protect the small businesses at the time of a financial crisis. Sumin feels the region’s government has been putting a lot of effort into making the local economy more diverse over the last

‘The lack of transparency characteristic of a number of Maxi Group-related entities has lead to a clash between two of the business’s stockholders, namely, Nikolai Maximov and Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK). When the management is handed over from one proprietor to another, the process is normally associated with risks; for instance, the new owners might find themselves left with no more than the seals on the papers and the furniture in the office after all the documents have been signed. This is why one needs more documentation, like the loan and pawning agreements. Otherwise the

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch handled over $145m worth of foreign currency purchase and sale transactions in January 2009; this exceeded the figures for January 2008 by 2.5 times. ‘The foreign currency in cash is enjoying enormous demand right now; still, our customers can sell or buy a lot of dollars or euros in our seven Yekaterinburg-based offices with absolutely no hassle. What is more, we can offer them the so-called individualized (and more attractive) exchange rates,’ says Sberbank’s Ural branch’s Currency Transactions Director Sergey Bobryashov. In fact, Sberbank’s Ural branch can

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ investigative authorities initiated a preliminary criminal lawsuit against one of Oreolcombank’s BOD members. The charge is based on Article 210 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (setting up an organized crime group). The executive is suspected of embezzling 2 billion RUR from the business’s proprietors and is on the international wanted file at the moment, a representative of the regional law-enforcement agencies explained to Novosti Information Agency. In the meantime, Oreolcombank had its name officially changed to

Bank24.ru (which is no longer operating as an independent entity) keeps proclaiming itself a reliable business. ‘Bank24.ru has one of Sverdlovsk Region’s strongest durability potentials at the moment,’ the bank reports. Nevertheless, the bank was faced with a severe challenge in October 2008: its customers started leaving with their money en masse, so the bank just stopped meeting its liabilities by freezing both the private individuals’ and legal entities’ deposit accounts. As a result, the bank was only able to survive thanks to the state-run Deposit Insurance Agency’s help. What is more,

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Koltso Urala Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year had dropped by 100% (from 2 million RUR to zero) by January 1, 2009.