December 5, 2014. A resident of Chelyabinsk Region stands accused of eleven instances of housing fraud in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities report. ‘The inquest team claims the man rented apartments in different parts of Yekaterinburg for a few days in February and March 2012. He allegedly advertised these apartments online and in the newspapers’ To Let’ classified sections on the same day. The interested tenants were shown a fake ID and fictitious title papers; after the rent was paid to him, the ‘owner’ would disappear,’ they say. The man is now involved in

December 5, 2014. Some 500m RUR will be allocated from Sverdlovsk Region’s budget to relocate Yekaterinburg Maternity Care Clinic from Central Stadium to Academic District. The money will be spent on design and construction of the new building; the land allotment has already been provided for the purpose. The clinic is being transferred as part of Yekaterinburg Central Stadium reconstruction; besides, there are plans to set up a medical cluster in Academic: the cluster will comprise the maternity clinic, Ural State Medical University campus, Institute for Injury Treatment & Orthopedics,

December 5, 2014. Damage resulting from corruption-related crimes now under investigation by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Investigative Committee amounted to 41.059m RUR in nine months of 2014, head of the Second Department for Investigation of Priority Cases Alexei Shmakov said at a press conference. ‘Our job is not only to detect a crime and make sure the culprits get punished, but also to ensure repair of damage caused by this crime. This is why we are working to find out about and seize the criminals’ assets: 27m RUR worth of property was seized over the given period in

December 5, 2014. Some of construction projects in Yekaterinburg might get ‘frozen’ next year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s President Tatiana Demenok said at a press conference. ‘Primarily, this will be the type of housing that offers the worst value for money ratio, which actually depends on quite a few factors such as location, apartment layout, and others. In my opinion, no large-scale stoppages are to be expected, only some of the projects will be affected,’ she said. According to Demenok, all of the local small-size developers are at risk.

December 5, 2014. Vitaly Galkin, the former Director-General of MMK Metalurji (MMK’s Turkey-based asset), was appointed Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Key Customer Sales Director. Yuri Chaikovsky is now MMK Metalurji’s new DG, the company’s press service reports. MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyaev says the company is extremely interested in making its cooperation with the key customers even more efficient and points out that ‘Vitaly Galkin’s professionalism and many years’ experience in the international business environment on the Eurasian border are the formula for success’.

December 5, 2014. Residents of Yekaterinburg and nearby towns were invited to consider merging together as a conurbation, Yekaterinburg Council’s press service reports. The proposal was put forth by Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma’s Local Government, Culture & Information Policy & PR Committee. Acting head of Yekaterinburg Council Legal Department Dmitri Stenin explained the project was about bringing the normative acts on remote areas in compliance with the existing legislation. At the initial stage, eleven small settlements were chosen out of twenty-nine towns within the potential

December 5, 2014. Vitaly Galkin, the former Director-General of MMK Metalurji (MMK’s Turkey-based asset), was appointed Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Key Customer Sales Director. Yuri Chaikovsky is now MMK Metalurji’s new DG, the company’s press service reports. MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyaev says the company is extremely interested in making its cooperation with the key customers even more efficient and points out that ‘Vitaly Galkin’s professionalism and many years’ experience in the international business environment on the Eurasian border are the formula for success’.