UrBC, Moscow, September 27, 2012. Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov informed the senators of the budgetary performance in 2011. According to Siluanov, the year was finished off with the budget surplus for the first time since 2008. He stressed that this trend was expected to continue in the coming years, the Soviet of the Federation’s press service reports. The Minister also said the regions’ investment spending increased by 20% last year. ‘The budgets of the federal constituencies were administered stably, this stability being greater than in 2010,’ he noted.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, September 27, 2012. In 2012, Krasnodar Territory Administration held its yearly contest of joint stock companies’ annual reports for the 9th time. This was done within the framework of the International Investment Forum Sochi-2012. The annual reports were evaluated by an independent board of experts chaired by Deputy Governor of Krasnodar Territory Ivan Peronko. In this contest, the annual report of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was given the 1st prize in the Best Electronic Annual Report category, the company reports. The report’s printed version was given the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, September 27, 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) produced 600m tons of hot-rolled goods. This is a record-setting figure in the company’s history as well as the highest one among all the Russian ferrous metallurgical enterprises. ‘It is symbolic that the plant’s rolling department workers set this record in the year when MMK celebrates a special anniversary: the enterprise turned 80 on February 1, 2012. There are many glorious pages in the book of MMK’s forming history. July 27, 1933, when the first ingot was made at blooming mill 2, is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2012. The share of office space available for rent in Yekaterinburg might drop back to the pre-recession figures by 2014, Director-General of OOO Ural-Hermes Alexander Zasukhin told UrBC. The amount of good quality office space in Yekaterinburg has more than tripled since 2007. According to the city council’s forecasts, the total area of office realty is to rise to 1.65m sq m by 2020, while the number of up-to-date business centers will come to 91. ‘This has to do with the fact that the buildings being commissioned at the moment are primarily the ones that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2012. The Municipal Unitary Enterprise YekaterinburgEnergo took out a 100m RUR bank loan to pay its energy resource suppliers; the loan was secured by the city budget, Yekaterinburg Council’s press service reports. 80m RUR was used to pay the debt to Uralsevergaz and 20m RUR was transferred to Khimmash. This means the natural gas network operators were able to resume supplying gas to the local boiler houses.

The Ural Parent Committee appealed to the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation Pavel Astakhov, asking him to look into the actions of Talk Fusion that appears to look like a pyramid scheme. The organization actually involves minors into its activity, President of Ural Parent Committee Evgeny Zhabreyev told UrBC. According to Zhabreyev, Astakhov has already decided to investigate the issue. Talk Fusion has been very active in Yekaterinburg recently; experts believe this organization has all the characteristics of a pyramid scheme and has

Diplomatic mechanisms will be used to promote Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region, and Yekaterinburg’s application for hosting World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020. The possibility of using these mechanisms was discussed at Governor Evgeny Kuivashev’s meeting with heads of Yekaterinburg-based diplomatic missions on September 25. This proved a very lively discussion. It was decided to hold such meetings on a regular basis and to have the next one as soon as January to exchange the latest news on how the city’s EXPO 2020 application is progressing, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s PR Department

Russian Copper Company (RMK) was given the 46th position in the traditional rating of non-public companies carried by the Forbes magazine, RMK’s PR Department reports. For the purposes of the rating, companies are ranked according to their revenues in 2011. Russian Copper Company’s key financial performance indicators have been growing steadily for the last few years due to the ongoing upgrades projects (which are part of the company’s long-term development program), proactive policy on securing the group’s raw materials base, and clever management. The company’s production capacity currently

In the first half of 2012, the agricultural insurance market in Ural Federal District rose by 133.5% and came to 332m RUR (against 142.2m RUR a year earlier). At the same time, the Russian market volume dropped by 22% on the first half of 2011 and amounted to 7.04bn RUR, AlfaStrakhovaniye’s press service reports. In Ural Federal District, the amount of insurance payments went up by 11.5% and reached 23.9m RUR, while on the Russian market on the whole, the amount of payments declined by 24.8% and came to 2.64bn RUR.

The air pollution rates declined in Yekaterinburg when compared with the year 2010, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service Administration reports. Sverdlovsk Region Government adopted a decree on the state report On the Condition of & Protection of Sverdlovsk Region Environment in 2011. According to this paper, the amount of harmful emissions decreased in 2011 in comparison with 2010, and Yekaterinburg is no longer on the list of highly polluted cities. ‘The air pollution rates in Yekaterinburg dropped from Very High in 2010 to High in 2011 (the atmospheric impurity index went down

Great Britain and Russia (and Sverdlovsk Region in particular) are ready to increase their mutual goods turnover and to expand their multilateral cooperation. This was discussed at the regional First Vice Premier Vladimir Vlasov’s meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to Russia Tim Barrow today, Sverdlovsk Region’s Press Service Department reports. The economic cooperation between Sverdlovsk Region and Great Britain has a long history behind it and is now on the rise. The region and Great Britain’s trade turnover came to more than $475m in 2011,

No deceived private investors who lost their money in housing schemes will be left in Sverdlovsk Region by the start of 2013, the region’s Construction & Infrastructure Development Minister Dmitri Niskovskikh said today, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s PR Department reports. Today, the region’s Governor Evgeny Kuivashev and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Security & Anti-Corruption Committee Alexander Khinshtein visited a construction site in Uktus, where as many as four new apartment buildings are being put up. The building jobs are not being done fast enough, as an examination by

Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation are going to look into the activity of UTair Aviation Company in terms of flights safety, the authorities’ press service reports. ‘Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation coordinated an inspection of how UTair Airlines officials comply with the legislation on the safety of flights when they coordinate the pilots and other workers’ performance and when they make sure the aircraft are fit for use,’ the agency reports. The checks have to do with the fact that on September 8, a part of a wing (the aerodynamic shroud of the

Sverdlovsk Region Government is planning to set up a technical innovations launch center for metallurgy and heavy engineering on the basis of a number of scientific research institutes. The agreements to this extent have been reached with Russia’s Economic Development Minister Andrei Beloussov, the Government’s PR Administration reports. ‘Today, metallurgical enterprises working on modernization are opting for multi-faceted, multi-purpose projects that range from design, production and assembly of equipment to after-sales services to personnel training. Such projects are mainly offered by

Sverdlovsk and Orenburg Regions’ business ties have acquired an official status now. Governor Evgeny Kuivashev and Governor of Orenburg Region Yuri Berg signed a five-year trade, economic, scientific, technological, social, and cultural cooperation agreement at the International Investment Forum in Sochi on September 21, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s PR Department reports. The two parties are going to work on the emerging innovations infrastructure, on the two regions’ socioeconomic development, on improving environmental conditions, and on expanding interaction within SMEs together.

Over 40 administrative lawsuits have been instituted in Sverdlovsk Region in relation to legal offenses at gas- and fuel-filling stations, the public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region report. Following an explosion that occurred at a filling station in Yekaterinburg on August 16, 2012 and a request placed by Russia’s Deputy General Prosecutor Yuri Ponomarev, the region’s prosecution authorities and experts from the monitoring agencies looked into the local filling stations’ compliance with the existing legislation in terms of location and maintenance. These inspecting procedures

Since the beginning of the year, court bailiffs have had 133 illegal immigrants deported from the country; 17 more people are now awaiting the court’s decision. Plane tickets for the deported cost 495,000 RUR to the region’s budget, with rates varying from 6,000 RUR for a flight to Kyrgyzstan to 32,000 RUR for a flight to Iran, Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Court Bailiffs Service Sergey Schebekin announced at a press conference today. Out of these 133 illegal immigrants, 72 arrived from Tajikistan, 42 from Uzbekistan, 21 from Kyrgyzstan, 5 from China, 4 from Armenia,

The Association of Russian Managers and Kommersant Publishing House came up with their 13th annual rating of Russia’s leading managers. This year, the traditional list of Top1000 Russian Managers (the overwhelming majority of whom are businesspeople residing in the two capitals) was complemented by the Top1000 Regional Company Heads list featuring the most efficient heads of companies located in different parts of the country. Heads of 81 federal constituencies and heads of regional business organizations were invited to join as experts and to evaluate the performance of top managers in their

Deputy Director-General of Uralvagonzavod Corporation for Road-Building and Agricultural Vehicles Semyen Mlodik was featured in the 13th annual rating of Russia’s Best Managers, the corporation’s press service reports. Top List 2012 was compiled by the Association of Russian Managers and Kommersant Publishing House. The rating was based on the principle of ‘the best selecting the best’: Russian business leaders themselves acted as experts. The factors that mattered were the candidates’ compliance with the international standards and ethical norms in what they did, the extent to which this

On September17, 2012, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service declared Russian Railways and RoszheldorProject guilty of violating Article 10 (part 1) of the Competition Protection Act, the agency’s press service reports. Legal action was taken on November 24, 2011 following an appeal by SNT Parus regarding Russian Railways and RoszheldorProject violating the Competition Protection Act. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service detected that on November 10, 2011 RoszheldorProject, acting on behalf of Russian Railways, and SNT Parus signed