‘The Russian piracy is actually not as bad as it used to be, with its level going down even during the recession. However, the general situation is still alarming. We have to look up to Europe in this respect,’ Microsoft’s President for Russia Nikolai Pryanishnikov said at a press briefing in Yekaterinburg. ‘This is an important point for the Sverdlovsk Region’s IT cluster that is currently under construction. It’s obvious that if the Urals-generated software gets copied illegally, no profits will result and no cluster development will follow,’ he noted.

Microsoft Corporation is ready to support the creation of an IT cluster in Sverdlovsk Region, IT & Communications Minister Irina Bogdanovitch announced at a a press briefing in Yekaterinburg. ‘We met Microsoft representatives today to speak about a number of issues. First of all, we talked about the IT cluster development and looked into the possible ways of supporting this project. This could be some financial aid offered to the startups, or software support,’ Ms Bogdanovitch said. ‘The second point under discussion was our cooperation within the framework of the Accessible Information

It was decided in the course of OAO Bank VTB’s extraordinary general meeting that OAO Bank VTB Severo-Zapad should be reorganized through a merger with VTB, the former bank’s reports say. VTB has already confirmed the merging agreement and stated that the company’s creditors should be informed of the news.

OAO Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) placed an application for the insolvency of OAO Maxi Group with the court. The application is to be considered by Moscow Arbitration Court, the company reports. On February 18, 2011, the court has to decide whether the application is well-grounded.

Ural Federal University is now busy elaborating its basic brand concept in cooperation with OOO Brandflight and Thomas Gad. ‘Thomas Gad is an outstanding, world-known brand design and development expert. He is the man behind the contemporary non-academic thinking framework based on the globally recognized four-dimensional branding philosophy. The 4D branding has a thousand uses outside the marketing field, for example, in any other components of business development. For one, the famous line, Nokia — Connecting People, took root in his mind. Thomas Gad has also done things for Volvo, Ikea,