The Republic of Azerbaijan’s Consulate-General is to open in Yekaterinburg in the course of a solemn ceremony on May 13, 2010. The consulate is located at 5 Karl Liebknecht St. The opening ceremony is to be attended by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Byul Byul ogly, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. The Republic of Azerbaijan’s Consul-General in Yekaterinburg Sultan Magomed ogly Gasymov assumed office in September 2009.

The heads of General Motors, Toyota, and Nissan Russia-based factories placed their official petition with the Head of the Russian Federation Customs Service Andrei Yemelyanov in order to explain that their businesses run a risk of assembly line stoppages due to the recent changes in the customs clearance regulations for car parts, says Kommersant. The car manufacturers say in the petition that several customs posts have already been closed down in Saint Petersburg, which made the factories ‘adopt new logistics schemes urgently and incur additional losses related to the car parts delivery.’

UMMC Holding expects to pay 3.7 billion RUR worth of taxes to Sverdlovsk Region’s budget in 2010. The figure might even be greater after all, the company’s General Director Andrei Kositsyn announced when this year’s socioeconomic agreement between UMMS Holding and Sverdlovsk Region Government was signed. ‘Considering the current non-ferrous metal prices, our payments will probably be even greater than declared in the agreement,’ he said. ‘Given the non-ferrous and precious metal prices shaped at London Metal Exchange, our company has gone back to its ante-recession levels. In some respects we

President of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Non-State Retirement Fund Maxim Filatov is about to resign, an informed source told Kommersant. The newspaper reports Mr. Filatov’s resignation has not been officially announced because the fund’s Board has not accepted it yet. In the meantime, Governor of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region’s Counselor for Economics Sergey Shubin was appointed acting President of the fund. Sergey Shubin refused to provide any comments on this appointment, saying he was too busy, whereas Maxim Filatov did not answer the phone. Kommersant believes Filatov’s resignation has to do

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed its multi-faceted inspection of Sverdlovenergo, (the subsidiary of MRSK Urala, a power distribution company). The inspection was conducted in accordance with Rostechnadzor’s Provision on scheduled inspections aimed at checking MRSK Urala and its daughter enterprises’ compliance with the existing regulations, the spokesperson for the watchdog reports. For one, the inspectors looked into the way Sverdlovenergo complied with the legislative electric power industry requirements and

‘In addition to the obvious negative impact the recent explosion in Raspadskaya mine will have on its owner’s business, this accident might also badly affect the company’s key coal consumers, that is, Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) and Evraz Group. These companies buy 14% and 13%, respectively, of all the coal produced at Raspadskaya mine. We do not think it improbable that these enterprises might be faced with some steel production stoppages because of the shrinking coal supplies. This is why their stock might experience some pressure,’ Kapital Investment & Finance Company’s

ZAO Ural Turbine Plant failed to meet the environmental authorities’ demands in full, Rospotrebnadzor announced recently. The experts from the state consumer rights watchdog carried out an unscheduled inspection of the enterprise in order to check how well the company complies with order 01-20-11/6665 issued by Yekaterinburg’s chief health officer on October 18, 2009. The lab tests of waste water the plant keeps on dumping in the Osnovinka, a nearby river, showed that the company exceeded its maximum permissible discharge limits in December 2009-January 2010. To make matters worse, the

IES-Holding reduced its shareholding in OAO TGK-9, a power supplier, down to 43.9%. Prior to this action, the company used to own a 50.45% shareholding in the energy enterprise. At the same time, Semafer Holdings Limited raised its portion of the power supplier’s shares from 1.34% to 7.88%.

LSR Group might consider not declaring the dividends for the year 2009, the company’s BOD suggested to the Group’s shareholders. The shareholders’ annual general meeting is expected to take place in Saint Petersburg on June 30, 2010.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch held a meeting with his deputies and ministers on a number of industrial and economic issues. In the course of this meeting, the Governor asked the officials to try and make the region more appealing to the potential investors. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, the region’s ministers and mayors will have to come up with a list of sites and areas that are located close to railways, motorways, and other important infrastructure objects. Each site has to be provided with a land use map and all the other necessary documents so that

‘As it happens, the mass rioting taking place in Athens, Greece at the moment cannot be classified as act of God. Officially, this is only some military action that is recognized as the act of God and thus enables a customer to refuse to travel to a particular country without pecuniary loss. The customers are always informed of all these conditions when the agreement for a holiday is signed at a travel agent’s. When this agreement with the tour operator gets signed, the clerks usually suggest that some refusal insurance should be obtained as well, but this insurance policy is paid for

The number of Internet users is rising fast in Ural Federal District as well as in the rest of Russia and has actually doubled in the last three years. Last year, 3.5 million people, or 36% of Ural Federal District’s dwellers, were reported to use the Net, RBC Market Research says. Most of the local e-audience are young people aged 18-34 with higher or specialized secondary education, with the number of male and female users being more or less the same. Despite the growing number of Internet users, however, Ural Federal District’s e-market is still a bit underdeveloped. Most of the local

OAO Uralcryomash’s Board of Directors suggested that the plant’s shareholders decide not to pay the dividend for the year 2009. The annual general meeting has been scheduled for June 18, 2010.

OAO Sverdlovsk Energy Service Company’s Board of Directors suggested that the plant’s shareholders decide not to pay the dividend for the year 2009 on Type A common or registered stock. The agenda of the AGM, scheduled for June 11, 2010, also covers issues related to the early dismissal of ZAO IrkutskEnergoStroy from the position of Sverdlovsk Energy Service’s management company.

Kati Klaime, a fur boutique located in Mytniy Dvor Mall in Yekaterinburg, will stop operating at the end of May 2010. The shop managers have said off the record that the store is closing down due to bad-looking rent the mall charges them. The shop assistants also explain that the sales turnover leaves a lot to be desired, so the shop is currently operating at a loss. Kati Klaime boutiques can also be found in Park House and Carnival Malls. Kati Klaime first hit the market in August 2003 as a fur hat shop. Now the company deals in retail trade of fur and leather coats, fur hats, and leather

‘We have a long waiting list for Ford Focus cars manufactured in Russia, with the wait coming to two or three months. Customers wishing to buy Ford Focus Limited Edition will have to wait until September before the available cars arrive; those who are interested in Ford Fiesta or Ford Fusion will have to wait for two to four months. People also have to queue for up to six months for Mazda CX-7 and wait until September to buy Mazda BT-50. There is also some shortage of Mazda6 makes. Besides, anyone who wants to get a Mitsubishi Outlander XL make has to be put on the waiting list and come back

OOO VIZ-Stal’s revenues decreased by 38.15% in January-March 2010. The figures dropped from 3 billion RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 1.9 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The company’s gross profit went down by 52.13%, or down to 775.2 million RUR. In addition, the sales revenues plunged by 56.58% and the net profit declined by 48.44%. The enterprise explains these less-than-impressive financial achievements have to do with the 31% drop in sales. This, in its turn, was brought about by the increase in FOB shipments, which resulted in major delays in the registration and sales of

The revenues of OAO Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) decreased by 10.87% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009 and thus amounted to 35.2 billion RUR. The company reports this was because of the seasonal drop in demand and therefore in sales. On top of that, the growing raw materials prices and the increased fees charged by the natural monopolies for their services exerted additional pressure on the company’s gross profit. The gross profit actually went down by 26.62%, from 13.59 billion RUR in the last quarter of 2009 to 9.97 billion RUR in the first

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed an all-round inspection of OAO Vanadium (Kachkanar-based ore mining and processing enterprise and member of OOO Evraz Holding). The inspection was carried out in accordance with Rostechnadzor’s decree on scheduled inspections of Evraz Holding enterprises; the inspections were targeted at checking the company’s compliance with the industrial safety requirements. As a result of the checks carried out at Vanadium, eighty-five industrial safety violations were detected, most of which

‘The company is planning to set up another dealership in the Urals, which will definitely improve the speed and the quality of customer service. We are currently interviewing the potential candidate firms,’ Jaguar Land Rover Russia’s PR Manager Yulia Malyina informed UrBC. After Avtoland Holding’s dealership license had not been renewed, Krasnolesye car center remained Land Rover and Jaguar’s only representative in Sverdlovsk Region. As a result, the customers wishing to get some maintenance service were faced with enormous queues. ‘The after-sales services can only be provided to Jaguar and