The outdoor advertisements used by Calligaris, the Italian furniture boutique, were recently called in question by Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The billboards with the Calligaris ad carry a picture of a man and a woman kissing each other by a table. The accompanying slogan reads, ‘Love-table… It happens.’ ‘Article 5 (part 6) of the Advertising Act states that no advertisement can use obscene or offensive images, comparisons, or expressions,’ the Service explains. To find out what the locals think of this advertisement, the Federal Antimonopoly Service

A protest picket took place in front of Kyshtym copper electrolysis plant (part of Russian Copper Company) administration building in Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk Region on April 30, 2010. The picketers expressed their dissatisfaction with the employer’s pay policy and with the way the plant’s management exerted pressure on the trade union members, says the spokesperson for Russia’s Ore Mining & Metallurgy Trade Union. The picket was attended by about 350 people. ‘Not all of the plant’s workers were able to come to the protest picket because the working day on Friday, April 30 was one hour shorter

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin organized yet another meeting of the region’s recession-fighting committee in order to consider the situation at TGK-9, the local power supplier. ZAO KES’s subsidiary Generatsiya Urala’s Legal and Corporate Issues Director Vladimir Kanov made a report on the clashes between the workers and the management regarding the collective labor agreement. According to the local trade unions, the employees of OAO TGK-9 (the company comprising the energy facilities of Sverdlovsk Region, Perm Territory, and the Republic of Komi) have been receiving wages

This year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has designed and launched a number of new high duty rolled metal manufacturing technologies. This was done within the framework of a special program on adjusting the company’s automobile body sheets for the demands of foreign automobile and car parts manufacturers. The new technologies have been applied to the production of pilot batches of hot-rolled S355MC, cold-rolled HC340LA, and galvanized HX300LAD and HX340LAD high-duty rolled metal products that meet the Western standards DIN EN 10149-2:1995, DIN EN 10268:2006, and DIN EN 10292:2007,

The Economic News Agency compiled a political influence rating for the Russian entrepreneurs and investors valid for the first quarter of 2010. The agency was asked to create this rating by Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The ranking method for creating a list of Russia’s Top 50 Most Influential Entrepreneurs & Investors has remained the same as before. Thirty-seven experts looked into the degree of 104 candidates’ political influence using a scale of 0 to 5, with 0-1 signifying minimal influence, 1-2 standing for weak influence, 2-3 standing for average influence, 3-4 standing for strong influence,

The net profit of OAO Urals’ Interregional network distribution company (MRSK Urala) plunged by 393.834 million RUR, or 87.72% over three months. The figures declined from 448.968 million RUR in the last quarter of 2009 to 55.134 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The company explains they had to set up 673 million RUR worth of doubtful receivables reserve in order to make up for the writing off of doubtful debt that had not been paid in due time and had not been provided with any collateral, guarantee, or bank security.

The net profit of OAO TGK-9, the power generating company, dropped by 54.15% in the first quarter of 2010. The company’s net profit reached 1.48 billion RUR in the last three months of 2009 but only amounted to 681.17 million RUR in January-March 2010. According to TGK-9, the drop in profits was caused by the cost amortization that followed the re-assessment of the company’s key assets on January 1, 2010. In addition, the power generating enterprise had to create assessment reserves to make up for the heating bills not paid by their customers.

The net profit of OAO Sverdlovenergosbyt went down by 47.718 million RUR, or 23.52% in January-March 2010. The figures dropped from 202.917 million RUR in the fourth quarter of 2009 down to 155.199 million RUR in the first quarter of 2010. The main reason the profits declined was uneven distribution of payments on the energy-purchasing agreements signed for the year 2010, the company reports. Under these agreements, the average price for the first three months of the year is generally higher than the year’s average price.

The Russian Federation Industry &Trade Ministry recently added more car makes to the list of automobiles that will be sold with a 50,000 RUR discount under the government’s car recycling program. The list now comprises seventy-nine instead of sixty-six models. The Ministry’s order to this extent was carried in Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Among the new car makes available under the program are Volkswagen Group Rus’s Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Yeti, and Skoda Superb as well as Peugeot 308 and Citroen C4 that will be manufactured by the new joint venture PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi. There are

Integra Group, the O&G machinery manufacturing and maintenance company, saw a 42.2% drop in revenues in 2009; the figures plummeted down to $836.2m due to sagging demand for O&G maintenance services, the group’s report states. The enterprise’s net loss reached $118.9m last year. At the same time, the company’s EBITDA margin rose to 13.1% as a result of the company’s cost-cutting efforts throughout the year. Also, Integra’s free cash flow was on the rise, which made it possible for the company to reduce the amount of borrowed funds to $175.4m.

Central Yekaterinburg Department of Rospotrebnadzor’s (the state consumer rights watchdog) Sverdlovsk Region division looked into the activity of ZAO Space Motors based at 77 Zavodskaya St. in Yekaterinburg. The activity of the dealer selling Ssang Yong automobiles had to be investigated due to a number of customer complaints. It was detected in the course of the inspection that the dealer actually violated the existing consumer rights legislation in that a 3% commission was withheld by the seller if a customer wished to take the car back to the shop and get a refund. Upon revealing this

OAO Uralmashzavod’s debt to creditors reached 1.7 billion RUR at the end of 2009; this figures included 79.9 million RUR to be paid to the budget. The machine-building plant’s pre-tax book loss amounted to 1.2 billion RUR in January-December 2009. These data were provided by Sverdlovsk Region Union of Machine-Building Enterprises, of which OAO Uralmashzavod is a member. At the same time, the plant had nothing in terms of accounts receivable in January-December 2009.

ZAO StarBank is leaving Sverdlovsk Region’s market and is going to close down its Yekaterinburg representation in the nearest future, the bank informed UrBC. All of the bank’s local employees will have to be made redundant. The bank’s office in Yekaterinburg is currently located at 44 Kraul St. The representation is run by Svetlana Vaganova.

The net profit of OAO Surgutneftegaz decreased by 15,057,652,000 RUR, or 64.27% in three months; the figures dropped from 23,428,033,000 RUR in the last quarter of 2009 down to 8,370,381,000 RUR in the first quarter of 2010. Surgutneftegaz is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas enterprises and produces 13% of all the oil and 25% of all the natural gas extracted within the country.

OAO Pnevmostroymashina’s debt to creditors reached 847.1 million RUR in January-December 2009; this figures included 34 million RUR to be paid to the budget. The company’s pre-tax book loss amounted to 339.4 million RUR in January-December 2009. These data were provided by Sverdlovsk Region Union of Machine-Building Enterprises, of which OAO Pnevmostroymashina is a member. Also, the enterprise is to get 212.9 million RUR in terms of accounts receivable for January-December 2009.