United Russia’s People’s Control group members keep inspecting the food stores of Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Region. The activists focused on eleven shops, including three retail outlets of the national chain store Pyaterochka. The first thing that strikes one upon entering a Pyaterochka supermarket is the lack of information regarding the phone numbers of Rospotrebnadzor experts that customers could call to complain about their rights, or the those of the Business Activity Promotion Department. Then, eggs were placed right on the floor instead of getting displayed on a refrigerated shelf,’

Head of the Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Service (Rospotrebnadzor) Gennady Onischenko imposed a ban on importing to or selling in Russia any fresh or root vegetables (except for this year’s potatoes), tuber crops, or fresh berries that were produced within the EU. The ban will hold until a special provision on the official’s part. Sverdlovsk Region’s divisions of Rospotrebnadzor, as well as the customs bodies and the regional Ministry for Trade, Food, and Services have been notified of the limitations; so have the food manufacturers, supermarkets, and catering

Ural Airlines and Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch are perhaps the first two companies in Russia to make bank cards acceptable on board, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines’ passengers can now pay for their on-board purchase, tickets the Air Express train to Moscow airports, and flight certificates right in the air using their bankcard. Starting June 7, 2011, all of the airline’s flights operated from Yekaterinburg will have electronic Visa (Infinite, Platinum, Gold, Business, Classic, and Electron) and Master Card (World Signia, Platinum, Gold, Business, Standard, Electronic)

The shortage of castings is now keenly felt by both the manufacturers of new railway carriages and the carriage-repairing companies that handle the carriages of our company or of our daughter enterprises. Russian Railways Trading House was, in fact, set up to provide supplies for our daughter enterprises on the one hand and to sell what we have on offer on the other. So, this comes naturally to us in this respect. When we realized we were faced with some enormous shortage, I insisted on our people finding out where the castings could be bought. But we did not want the last year’s scenario

A month before the start of the exhibition INNOPROM 2011, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations came up with the lists of the international participants in the event. So far, over twenty countries’ representatives have expressed their interest in taking part in the exhibition. For one, the companies and enterprises based in Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the USA have applied as exponents. In addition, delegations from Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Moldova, South African countries, and Switzerland are