‘Given the increasing competition among its airlines, Russia does not really need to introduce more hub airports,’ Russia’s Deputy Transport Minister Valeriy Okulov said at the 7th International Russian Wings conference. Okulov explained some of the Russian airports simply failed to work, while others managed to keep up with the quality and could therefore hope to outlive the recession, ITAR-TASS quoted the executive as saying. ‘We just don’t need all these impressive-looking projects providing for numerous hubs, this isn’t going to happen.’ he observed. ‘A hub airport in the west of Russia

The net losses of Life Group’s VUZ-Bank rose from 19.722 million RUR in the second quarter of the year to 37.61 million RUR in the third quarter. The bank explains this had to do with the need to build up on the bad debt reserves, that is, to raise them up to 51.251 million RUR.

‘Excessively high employee turnover has always been Concern Kalina’s major problem. The company does not comply with the Labor Code regulations, and the firing process is way too easy there,’ says Alexei Slyazin of Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions. ‘The picket aimed at protesting against the company’s policy went through okay. It had actually been authorized by the mayor. We were standing opposite Kalina’s building with posters that read, ‘Concern Kalina is a workforce grinder,’ ‘If you are afraid of control, you’ve got something to hide,’ ‘Goryaev claims to be proud of Labor Code

The value of Bank Severnaya Kazna’s assets went down by 3,228,189,000 RUR, or 10.31% (from 31303,971,000 RUR on July 1, 2009 down to 28,075,782,000 RUR on October 1, 2009). The reasons for the decline were the bank’s shrinking lending portfolio and outflow of money from the bank’s correspondent accounts.

The Russian Federation State Labor Inspectorate received an official request to prosecute METRO Cash & Carry’s management for Labor Code violations, Sverdlovsk Region’s trade unions news bulletin says. The labor inspectors from Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions examined the working conditions in this multinational corporations’ Yekaterinburg subsidiary in April 2009. They detected numerous labor code offenses such as lack of compensation or longer holidays for people involved in hazardous activities, no attempts to improve on the microclimate of refrigerator departments, and no