Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel checked out all the sites meant for transportation and logistics centers in Yekaterinburg, Verknyaya Pyshma, and Berezovskiy on April 11, 2007, reports the spokesperson for the Governor. These centers are crucial to Yekaterinburg since the city is located at the intersection of Russia’s major transportation routes. The Governor believes if the number of modern storehouses went up dramatically in the next two or three years, all of the country’s freight flows would go through Sverdlovsk Region; this is why the region needs several terminals. Eurasia

X5 Retail Group N.V. decided to set up a joint venture with Pyaterochka owner in Chelyabinsk; the new company is supposed to merge assets of Pyaterochka supermarket chains in Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. X5 Retail Group N.V. is going to own 51% of assets, Pyaterochka owner will get 49% which the former will eventually buy out in two installments: 24% will be acquired in 2008 and 25% in 2009. X5 Retail Group N.V. will contribute 26% of Pyaterochka’s assets in Chelyabinsk and 100% of Pyaterochka’s assets in Yekaterinburg to the new company. Chelyabinsk-based Pyaterochka owner will contribute

Regional deputies met to discuss the problems and developmental prospects of transport infrastructure in Sverdlovsk Region at the request of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Industrial, Agricultural, and Environmental Management Policies. One of the reports was presented by Director of GAZ United Engineering Center Enrico Damiano, who spoke about the performance of GAZ, Russia’s largest producer of commercial transport whose share of the market comes to 70% or 75%. Mr. Damiano said GAZ-made buses fit for 8 and 13 people had been produced since 1996, with some changes introduced to the

‘So far, the employees of Zdravnik Pharmaceutical Chain haven’t been told that the company is going to be acquired by 36.6, a large federal player,’ the company’s Marketing Director Olga Pushkarskaya said to UrBC. ‘Even if the chain owners reached any business-selling agreements, there has been no official address to employees to that extent, though it may appear at the end of the week,’ Ms Pushkarskaya observed. In the meantime, RBC daily reported on April 11, 2007 that 36.6 was about to acquire Yekaterinburg-based Zdravnik Pharmaceutical Chain.

The auction aimed at selling a share holding of SverdlovEnergoSbyt currently owned by RAO UES of Russia will take place on May 22, 2007, reports the company’s press officer. The opening bid has been set at 1.15 billion RUR by the Assessment Committee under RAO UES of Russia’s Board of Directors. The share holding consists of 341,718,216 ordinary registered uncertified shares with face value of .0086 RUR each (the serial number is 1-01-55080-Е). This holding amounts to 49% of SverdlovEnergoSbyt’s authorized capital and has to be sold in a single package. Applicants are to submit their forms to

Regional deputies met to discuss the problems and developmental prospects of transport infrastructure in Sverdlovsk Region at the request of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Industrial, Agricultural, and Environmental Management Policies. One of the reports was presented by Duma deputy and Committee member Rinat Sadriev, who spoke on the issues related to all kinds of transport, including cars, airplanes, steamers, railway carriages, and the underground. Firstly, most vehicles (55% to 70%) are obsolete, which is particularly true of buses. About 70% of the region’s buses, trolley-buses,

‘Our experts rated the most popular low-rise buildings like this (in order of preference): suburban cottages under construction (26%), houses put up in the already existing suburbs (19%), town houses in low-rise building districts currently under construction (16%), new cottages located in a village or a place with different types of buildings (15%),’ reports Yarmarka Real Estate. The last type of dwellings is still quite popular, but people are already beginning to look for places in homogenously low-rise areas. ‘Apartments in small blocks of flats and town houses in low-rise building

Last year, Yekaterinburg-based retail enterprises and catering companies’ turnover came to 36 billion RUR and 1.5 billion RUR, respectively, reports the Commodities Market Committee under the city council. 60% of local retail enterprises are small businesses, with retail trade turnover per city dweller amounting to 12,545 RUR. The average pay figures in the field reached the point of 14,067 RUR in the first quarter of 2007. There are 14 international, 13 federal, and 26 regional chains in Yekaterinburg at the moment; in fact, chains make up 28% of all stores in the city. The two most popular

According to Expert Ural analytical center, SKB-Bank was the Urals and Western Siberia’s No. 1 in terms of loan portfolio growth in 2006 (given loans to natural persons only): the increase reached the point of 352%, or 4.5 times, which secured SKB-Bank a strong position among the area’s five largest banks. What’s more, the bank can boast a very low amount of bad debt or delayed payments – only 2% of all loans. SKB-Bank provided its retail clients with 4,920,500,000 RUR worth of loans in 2006, reports their press officer.

‘Autonom specializes in selling Russian cars; I’d say the best-selling Russian automobile is probably VAZ 2114,’ Rishat Migamatov of Autonom car show said to UrBC. ‘As for foreign cars, I think Toyota (which can be bought for $15,000 to $20,000) is the most popular car in Yekaterinburg at the moment. Actually, Kommersant newspaper published its report on the three leaders on the Russian market, and, in my opinion, these three brands enjoy the greatest demand in this city, too,’ Mr. Migamatov observed. The official report on foreign cars sales on the Russian market in January-March 2007

Verdict was returned on 7 people accused of seizing OboronSnabSbyt market on December 15, 2003 in Oktyabrskiy court of Yekaterinburg on April 10, 2007. The takeover and accompanying large-scale civil disorders (over 200 people took part) resulted in 11 million RUR worth of damage and a criminal suit, with about 100 participants held in detention. The case was investigated by a group of public prosecution officers and was supervised by the Main public prosecution department. Seven accomplices were sentenced to between 3 and 4.5 years in prison; two of them, lawyers M. Mirgorodskiy and M.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met Vasily Prudnikov, head of Byelorussian consulate in Yekaterinburg, on April 10, 2007. Mr. Prudnikov said Chelyabinsk Region and Byelorussia kept building up their economic ties. The two parties’ trade turnover, for example, rose by 29% in 2006 and amounted to $236m. Chelyabinsk Region-based companies have been supplying rolled metal to Byelorussia, whereas Byelorussian enterprises export their machine-building produce and instruments to Chelyabinsk Region. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Mr. Sumin and Mr. Prudnikov tried to

The 18th congress of the Association of Russian Banks took place in Moscow on April 6, 2007. The items on the agenda included the success of Russia’s Bankization Program, improvements in the country’s monetary policies, development of the Russian banking market, and banking supervision (and its importance to the banks’ development and competitiveness). Reports were presented by President of the Association G. Tosunyan, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia S. Ignatiev, head of Federal Financial Markets Service O. Vyugin, Bank 24.ru Chairman Boris Dyakonov, and a number of Bank of Moscow,

‘Ford Focus, whose price varies between $17,000 and $19,000, is probably the best-selling car in Yekaterinburg at the moment. 1,500 Ford cars have been sold in the city since the beginning of the year,’ reports Sales Manager of AutoLand’s Ford show room Ilya Tolshin. ‘In terms of sales, Ford was last year’s No.1 in Russia, and I believe it will keep the position in 2007 as well. It largely competes with Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai,’ he says.

The recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Budget, Finance, and Taxes was devoted to the legislation on the inter-budgetary transfers regarding subsidizing municipalities’ social welfare expenses. The law was adopted in July 2005 and resulted in setting up a municipal development fund worth 1.28 billion RUR and a regional co-financing fund worth 303.7 million RUR in 2006. However, only 44 out of 72 regional municipalities received subsidies last year; 28 of them failed to get on the list due to budgetary lack of money needed for investment projects or due to failed deadlines.

‘A large-scale fight occurred at a construction site in the center of Yekaterinburg at 5 AM on Monday,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs said to UrBC. ‘Upon receiving a report to that extent, militia men arrived at 11 Kranovshchikov St. to find out that eight young men, armed with a gun-like object and some bludgeons attacked twelve people, stripping them off everything they had. One of the offenders, a 27-year-old builder, was captured. He said that the attack was actually a fight between the local workers and the guest ones because of the money owed by

‘Following the arrival of favorable statistical data on the American labor market last Friday, Asian stock markets went up 1% on average. Investors had been waiting for more trading pits in the U.S.; internal factors contributed to this growth as well,’ says Alexander Pimenov of BrokerCreditService. ‘RTS reached its highest point ever (1,973.83) in the middle of the trading session. The 2,000-point record is also quite likely to be set due to oil shares growth (and this, in its turn, is probable enough thanks to possible increase in oil prices),’ Mr. Pimenov said.

An Industrial Design Center will be set up in Yekaterinburg, says Rector of Ural State Architectural Academy Alexander Starikov. He reports that three such centers will be introduced in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg in 2007-2009, with the center in Yekaterinburg becoming the pilot one – it was chosen since the local school of design is believed to be one of Russia’s best. The project will be financed by the federal and regional budgets. The centers are meant for supporting home producers in their attempts to compete globally. ‘Our entrepreneurs have finally had it brought home

‘One of the regional builders used my name and the name of our NGO to send a blackening letter to the local authorities. I believe this was done at the order of Noviy Grad’s management,’ Chairman of Right to a Dwelling Vasiliy Ganzhin said to UrBC. ‘The letter contains dubious data on Ural Alliance; the company is accused of low-quality performance and unauthorized construction. What I would like to particularly emphasize is that Ural Alliance is an honest and law-abiding developer, so any criticism leveled against them is false and ungrounded. I have never said anything to that extent,’ he

2,756 claims and applications were sent to Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District in January-March 2007. 67%, 15%, 7%, 5%, 3%, and 2% of them were filed by the citizens of Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region, Ugra, Kurgan Region, Tyumen Region, and Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region, respectively. 21.7% of claims concerned issues related to availability of dwellings and the quality of housing maintenance; 12.5% had to do with the performance of the regional departments of internal affairs, 10.3% dwelled