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.