A verdict of guilty was recently returned upon a Yekaterinburg-based pirated videos trader; the public prosecutor, who insisted upon the sentence, explained the offender had done large-scale damage to the copyright holders, the district division of the Russian Federation General Prosecutor’s Office reports. In the course of the court sessions, the prosecution provided exhaustive evidence of how the thirty-one-year-old Alexander Okunev had been selling pirated audio and video discs in a store in Griboyedov St. in Yekaterinburg since the fall of 2007. He used to buy the fake goods by wholesale

Despite the recent claims as to the restored air connection in Europe, two flights were called off in Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport on April 23, 2010. These were Yekaterinburg-Helsinki and Yekaterinburg-Frankfurt flights, the airport’s online announcement board states. All in all, eight flights were cancelled in Koltsovo in one week due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano located within 200 km of Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs declared the results of its Best Russian Enterprises contest for 2009. The winners and the nominees received their awards during the Russian Business Week (which is the Union’s key event in the field of state-private cooperation). OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the competition in the Best Innovational Project category, the company’s PR Department reports. Last year, MMK completed a major investment project on putting up a hi-tech plate iron production facility on its premises. This plate iron is popular with the O&G

On April 8, 2010, the interest rate for Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) BO-05 bonds was determined in the course of a tender. The bonds total to 8 billion RUR and are to be in circulation for 1,092 days (three years). Under the conditions of the bond issue, no en-route offers are provided; the coupon period comes to 182 days. The potential investors placed over 14.5 billion RUR worth of bids for the tender, which meant the issue was oversubscribed by 1.8 times. According to the results of the tender, the interest rate for the first coupon of MMK’s bonds was set at 7.65% a year,

A continuous hot galvanizing unit produced by the Italian Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA was launched at MMK- Atakaş in Iskenderun, Turkey recently. The new unit’s estimated capacity comes to 450,000 tons of zinc-coated rolled products a year. These goods are to be both sold and used at some further manufacturing stages on a polymeric coating unit. Now this unit, launched on January 15, 2010, has a capacity of 200,000 tons of goods a year. According to MMK’s PR Department, their MMK-Atakaş project is being implemented in accordance with the schedule. At the final stage, MMK-Atakaş’s

A verdict of guilty was recently returned upon a Yekaterinburg-based pirated videos trader; the public prosecutor, who insisted upon the sentence, explained the offender had done large-scale damage to the copyright holders, the district division of the Russian Federation General Prosecutor’s Office reports. In the course of the court sessions, the prosecution provided exhaustive evidence of how the thirty-one-year-old Alexander Okunev had been selling pirated audio and video discs in a store in Griboyedov St. in Yekaterinburg since the fall of 2007. He used to buy the fake goods by wholesale

Despite the recent claims as to the restored air connection in Europe, two flights were called off in Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport on April 23, 2010. These were Yekaterinburg-Helsinki and Yekaterinburg-Frankfurt flights, the airport’s online announcement board states. All in all, eight flights were cancelled in Koltsovo in one week due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano located within 200 km of Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs declared the results of its Best Russian Enterprises contest for 2009. The winners and the nominees received their awards during the Russian Business Week (which is the Union’s key event in the field of state-private cooperation). OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the competition in the Best Innovational Project category, the company’s PR Department reports. Last year, MMK completed a major investment project on putting up a hi-tech plate iron production facility on its premises. This plate iron is popular with the O&G

On April 8, 2010, the interest rate for Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) BO-05 bonds was determined in the course of a tender. The bonds total to 8 billion RUR and are to be in circulation for 1,092 days (three years). Under the conditions of the bond issue, no en-route offers are provided; the coupon period comes to 182 days. The potential investors placed over 14.5 billion RUR worth of bids for the tender, which meant the issue was oversubscribed by 1.8 times. According to the results of the tender, the interest rate for the first coupon of MMK’s bonds was set at 7.65% a year,

A continuous hot galvanizing unit produced by the Italian Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA was launched at MMK- Atakaş in Iskenderun, Turkey recently. The new unit’s estimated capacity comes to 450,000 tons of zinc-coated rolled products a year. These goods are to be both sold and used at some further manufacturing stages on a polymeric coating unit. Now this unit, launched on January 15, 2010, has a capacity of 200,000 tons of goods a year. According to MMK’s PR Department, their MMK-Atakaş project is being implemented in accordance with the schedule. At the final stage, MMK-Atakaş’s

Uralfinprombank’s Board of Directors decided not to distribute the better part of the company’s profits for 2009 prior to the general shareholder meeting. These profits amount to 34.15 million RUR, with another 1.79 million already transferred to the bank’s reserve fund. The annual general meeting is to take place in Yekaterinburg on May 14, 2010, the bank says.

According to the European Business Association, the sales of light-duty vehicles rose by 6% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the first quarter of 2009: 21,062 automobiles were sold in January-March 2010 against 19,962 cars sold in January-March 2009. Nevertheless, the sales of certain brands have gone down. For one, the sales of both Volkswagen NFZ and Nissan cars decreased by 40%, those of Ford cars dropped by 64%, those of Mercedes-Benz Vans automobiles declined by 85%, and those of Toyota cars plunged by 90% compared with the first quarter of 2009.

Rosalcohol (the federal strong drinks market watchdog) decided to cancel the licenses of some Sverdlovsk Region-based strong drinks producers and traders for the time being. Among these companies are OOO Omega Spirits Group, whose license was halted on January 14, 2010, OOO Lux-Alco Trade Company, whose license was halted on January 14, 2010, OOO Invina-Opt, whose license was halted on March 22, 2010, OOO Beauty Therapy Center, whose license was halted on February 3, 2010, OOO Prometheus, whose license was halted on March 22, 2010, OOO Prodtechsnab, whose license was halted on March 22, 2010,

‘Due to last year’s recession, our Pyshma logistics park’s occupancy rate dropped from 100% to 40%, or 80,000 sq m in 2009. We have only recently been able to raise this figure to 75%,’ Eurasia Logistic’s Commercial Director Sergey Vereschagin announced at this year’s Urals Logistics Conference. ‘As for our tenants, things have changed here as well. We used to let 50% of the available space to logistics operators in 2008; a year later, they only rented 35% of our space. In 2009, some of them had to reduce the amount of space rented, and some of them had to leave the market altogether.

The workers of Alexandrinskaya ore mining company (which is a member of Russian Copper Company Holding) organized an official picket aimed at protesting against their employer’s unfair trade union policies. The picket took place in front of Russian Copper Company’s office in Chelyabinsk on April 19, 2010, the Russian Federation Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union reports. ‘The company’s trade union has felt strong administrative pressure for many months now. When the management have to make somebody redundant, they mostly pick the trade union’s most active representatives. The trade

In the first quarter of 2010, OOO NLMK-Sort that now comprises all of Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works’ section iron divisions raised its home market sales to 277,000 tons of metal goods, which was 28% better than in the first quarter of 2009, the company’s press officer reports. The company’s domestic customers bought 225,000 tons of reinforcing bars, which was 26% more than in January-March 2009. Also, they bought about 8,000 tons of wire rods, which exceeded the figures for the first quarter of 2009 by 27%, and over 40,000 tons of metal goods, which exceeded the figures for the first

Severouralsk Investigative Division of Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities completed its pre-inquest investigation of the accident that occurred at OAO Sevuralboksitruda’s Krasnaya Shapochka mine on March 10, 2010. The accident left the company’s twenty-eight-year-old shaft man badly injured, allegedly because the safety regulations were not complied with during his shift. Following the investigation, Severouralsk Investigative Division of Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities instituted a criminal lawsuit, with charges based on Article 216 (part 1) of the Russian

The representatives of the European airlines that operate flights to or from Yekaterinburg refused to attend a press conference on Wednesday. The press conference on who should be responsible for solving the problems of local and foreign tourists stuck in different places due to the Iceland volcano’s eruption took place in Yekaterinburg on April 21, 2010. The event was attended by the representatives of the Federal Migration Service and of the local travel agents. However, the announced airlines executives never showed up. According to Vice President of the Ural Tourist Association Sergey

Finnair’s Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flight was not operated on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, the spokesperson for Koltsovo Airport informed UrBC. The airline had actually warned its customers in advance that this could be the case. The carrier operates its Yekaterinburg-Helsinki flight three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So far, Finnair has had to cancel the flights that were to have been operated on April 19, 2010 and April 21, 2010. The company has not provided any comments on whether the Friday flight will be operated yet.

Sverdlovsk Region Duma agreed to accept the region’s share of one commercial estate in its public treasury. The share in question comes to 16.38% of Uspenskiy Mall, located in the center of Yekaterinburg and run by Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the State Property Ministry State Unitary Enterprise up to now. This share’s balance-sheet value has been estimated at 145.05 million RUR, while the shopping areas rented by various tenants yield about 2.2 million RUR worth of profits every month. At the moment, the above-mentioned State Unitary Enterprise only transfers 20% of its net profits to the