The copyright protection movements appears to have gained more strength in the Urals lately, the Director of Microsoft Russia’s Ural Macro-Region division Andrei Kinash recently told reporters. We make quite a few efforts to prevent the use of pirated software in the business sector, which is why we introduced an anonymous, free of charge hotline that businesspeople can call and consult our experts on whether they do everything right and how they can go legal,’ Kinash said. ‘We keep getting various requests from different agencies that ask as to confirm this or that piece of information. We

Avianova Airlines is going to raise the fares for nearly all of its flights dramatically; the change involves all the flights to be operated at the end of October 2011. One price of 19,900 RUR is now offered on many flights, the airline’s website states, whereas only a little while ago, prices started from only 250 RUR, Kommersant reports. At the same time, Avianova has been cancelling its scheduled flights lately. Bazel Aero that manages the airports in the south of the country announced the carrier cancelled eight scheduled weekly flights. The airline itself explains the changes have been

Rostelecom informed Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service that it had met the agency’s orders regarding its antimonopoly legislation offence and transferred 631,460 RUR to the federal budget, the FAS’s press service reports. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service announced on July 25, 2011 that Rostelecom (represented by Uralsvyazinform) had violated Article 14 (part 1) of the Competition Protection Act. The offense consisted in Rostelecom changing the terms of the agreement for local phone call services and for access to

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) is going to take part in Pipes 2011, an international conference that will be held in Russian Research Institute of the Tube and Pipe Industries (RosNITI) in Chelyabinsk on September 26-28, 2011. This is actually the 19th time the conference has brought together the leading pipe manufacturers, the representatives of the academic community, and major pipe produce consumers from the oil and gas sector.

The rating service promoted the long-term credit rating of the Russian steel pipes manufacturer Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) from B to B+, with Stable rating outlook. The company’s national scale rating was promoted from ruA- to ruA. ‘The increase in the ratings reflects an improvement in the company’s liquidity status as well as in its operational and financial performance indicators,’ S&P reports. ‘The Stable rating outlook means that we feel TMK will still feel the positive influence of the Russian (and in particular the oil and gas machinery) market conditions that are favorable