Microsoft looked into the results of its software piracy monitoring program and came up with a comparative report on a number of Russian regions. According to this report, about 70% out of 3,000 retail outlets inspected by the company representatives in fifty-three Russian cities only sell licenses software products, whereas 14% of stores might offer their customers pre-installed counterfeited software, the company’s press service says. As for Ural Federal District, the scale of software piracy was the greatest in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, with 30% to 50% of computer shops openly

Ural Federal District’s division of the Federal Financial Market Service coordinated a scheduled inspection of Uralvagonzavodskiy Retirement Fund. Following the inspection, a letter ordering the fund’s management to eliminate the existing violations of the law and to take measures aimed at preventing these violations in the future was sent to the company.

The premises of a Yekaterinburg-based food depot (namely, the land allotment and some office buildings) worth 19 million RUR have recently been arrested by the officers of the court, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Service of Court Officers reports. ‘Our district division is now handling the enforcement proceedings based on a warrant issued by Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. The warrant states that the debtor must pay 16,317,000 RUR to Express Market Plus. Besides, another warrant issued by this court states that the food depot must pay 20,002,000 RUR to

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is to resume the hearing of the case involving Yekaterinburg subsidiaries of ROSBANK and Standard-Reserve, the insurance company, on November 24, 2009. The two companies might be charged with violating the Federal Competition Protection Act 135 FZ (Article 11, part 1). The final decision should be taken by the next day. The bank and the insurer are suspected of colluding in a manner that could impose disadvantageous contract terms upon their customers. The thing is, the insurer agreed to pay the insurance compensation to the

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service is currently handling the case of Gazpromneft-Ural and Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt; the two oil companies have allegedly introduced monopolistically high gasoline prices As far as Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt is concerned, the company is suspected of setting and maintaining sky-high prices for AI-80, AI-92, and AI-95 gasoline and for diesel fuel in Yekaterinburg since November 1, 2008. Gazpromneft-Ural is suspected of doing the same in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil, Rezh, and Kamensk-Uralskiy.