The Expert magazine carried a rating of Russia’s 400 largest enterprises recently. The rating is mainly aimed at identifying the largest businesses in the Russian economy and at using their performance indicators to analyze the part big business plays in the country’s economic development as well as its structure and main development trends. This is actually the oldest big business rating in Russia, compiled for the 17th time this year, and it does not have any limitations as to the nature of business. As a result, the rating comprised enterprises involved in all the major economic fields.

Bayer is going to share its new pharmaceutical technologies with Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises. The agreement to this extent was signed by the pharmaceutical concern and the region recently, member of Russia’s Soviet of the Federation and Chairman of Ural Pharmaceutical Cluster Non-Profit Partnership Supervisory Board Eduard Rossel announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. We have long been on the lookout for a strong partner to develop our pharmaceutical industry, since our problems are hard to solve on our own. Bayer was also interested in finding a business partner that would

Ural Airlines is launching a new Chelyabinsk-Vienna flight. This is actually the first scheduled international flight the air carrier is to operate from Chelyabinsk Airport. The presentation of this event will begin on the airport premises at 9 o’clock on October 5, 2011. Passengers on the very first such flight will be offered some memorable gifts. The solemn presentation ceremony will probably be attended by First Vice Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Sergey Komyakov, Chelyabinsk Airport management team, and Ural Airlines top executives.

Ural Airlines is now the official air carrier at Expotravel-2011, an international tourist fair that will take place in Yekaterinburg World Trade Center on October 7-8, 2011. The airline prepared a surprise for the participants of and the visitors to the fair: Ural Airlines will be offering special prices on flight certificates for flights from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Beijing during the fair. The latter offer should quite interest the tourists, as the certificate for Yekaterinburg-Beijing and Beijing-Yekaterinburg flights will only come to 8,000 RUR for one-way ticket,

Sverdlovsk Region Government held a meeting of the committee responsible for assisting the local businesses. The meeting was coordinated by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin. The attendees considered the prospective tax payments to be made by a number of the Mid-Urals’ large enterprises next year. It was announced that the revenues of VIZ-Stal, one of Russia and the world’s major cold-rolled electric transformer steel manufacturers, rose considerably in the first half of the year, but the company neither paid its income tax nor intends to do so. Things look the same at

Ural Airlines is launching a ticket sale on flights from Yekaterinburg to Europe and Israel in winter 2011/12, the company’s press service reports. The cheapest round trip tickets to Prague, Rome, Barcelona, Munich, and Tel Aviv are now available for ?299 (plus the fees). Tickets can be booked between October 1 and November 15, with flights scheduled for the period of November 15 - December 18, 2011 or January 16 - February 29, 2012. The special price flights will be operated using A320 airbuses in accordance with the following timetable: Yekaterinburg-Prague: Thursdays and Sundays;

Vladimir Yakhlakov won in the tender for the position of head of Gas Networks Sverdlovsk Region State Unitary Enterprise. Vladimir Yakhlakov is a former co-owner of Ural Civil Aviation Plant; following the sale of the said enterprise, he was reported to have left Russia and to have resided in the United Arab Emirates for a while.

OOO Avto-Plus was declared a dishonest supplier; the decision to this extent was made by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. The decision is reported to have been caused by the fact that Avto-Plus won in the tender for a contract with Sverdlovsk Region Military Commissariat but later backed out of signing the agreement. The contract was related to transfer of newly drafted citizens and was worth 35,000 RUR.

Yekaterinburg Oktyabrsky District Court ruled in favor of a local citizen who got injured during her stay in India. The court ruled that over 80,000 RUR must be paid by Ergo-Rus Insurance Company that originally refused to pay for their client’s medical expenses occasioned by an accident, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports. Yulia Filippova went on holiday to India this February. On February 16, the traveler and her friend were hit by a bus. The woman was seriously injured: her shin-bones were broken; she also got several concussions and wounds on her face, arms, and legs. The injured was taken to

Yekaterinburg subsidiary of one of Russia’s largest insurance companies signed an insurance agreement with Sverdlovsk State Academic Philharmonic. Under the terms of the agreement, the insurer’s services will cover a violin made by the Italian professional Pietro Guarneri in 1968 for a period of three years. The instrument was insured against catching fire (including the cases when this might happen due to a domestic gas explosion), accidental submersion, and third-party offenses. The agreement also provides for compensation of expenses related to examination by a body of experts aimed at

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is now offering its business customers a new option: their transactions can now be handled using the Chinese national currency. ‘The opportunity to open and administer one’s RMB accounts and purchase or sell the currency via UTS will allow our customers to improve their financial relations with their Chinese suppliers. Remarkably, the potential of doing business internationally has virtually no limits now: thanks to the UBRD Internet Bank system, you can now perform currency transactions without setting foot outside your home or office,’ the

Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC) will probably introduce a single executive body through the position of a director-general. This proposal is to be considered by the company’s Board of Directors on October 3, 2011.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) successfully went through an environmental management system audit aimed at checking the system’s compliance with the ISO 14001-2004 standards, the enterprise’s PR Department reports. For three days, a committee of experts from Germany-based TUV NORD, an international certifying body, headed by Chief Auditor Vladimir Tzvetichanin, examined MMK’s environmental management system. Seventeen production divisions, administrations, and departments were subject to audit, including the leading rolling shops, steel-smelting processing shops, and the energy

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came fourth in the annual rating of the Urals and Western Siberia’s leading exporters carried by the Expert-Ural magazine. The rating was compiled on the basis of the regional companies’ activity in 2010, so it only covers the enterprises whose production activity is mainly concentrated in the Greater Urals (Ural Federal District, Perm Territory, Orenburg Region, the Republic of Udmurtia, and Bashkortostan). This is why many major oil and gas concerns are not featured in the rating, as their business activity spreads far beyond the Urals and Siberia.

Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) in Oktyabrsky and Kirovsky districts of Yekaterinburg carried out scheduled and unscheduled inspections of ten enterprises dealing in maintenance and repair of vehicles in the eight months of 2011, the agency’s press service reports. The local customers complained about the following car mechanics: Firma ERES, UzDaewoo Service, Avtoland Shvetziya, Gamma, Nezavisimost Yekaterinburg F, STO Vostok, and some others. The legal entities and the executives behind the offenses had to face administrative liability and

Energomash (Yekaterinburg)-Uralelectrotyazhmash was placed on the list of companies that owe large sums of money to the Russian Federation budget. The list was compiled and published by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service. The list comprises companies whose debt amounts to more than 1m RUR. The data are valid as of September 15, 2011.

The installation of filtering presses manufactured by the Italian company Diefenbach is now in progress at Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. The new filtering equipment supplied by Diefenbach will replace the old filter presses at one of the copper electrolysis departments, which will ensure the maximum purification of the plant’s industrial wastewater. Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant signed the delivery contract with Diefenbach in December 2010. The machinery is expected to be launched on September 30, 2011.

First Freight Company, the Commonwealth of Independent States’ largest railway carrier belonging to Russian Railways is losing its potential investors. According to Kommersant, the leading Russian railway operator Globaltrans backed out of an auction where a 75% shareholding of First Freight Company was open to bids. The auction is to take place on October 28, 2011. The opening bid has been set at 125.37bn RUR. Bidders can submit their applications until October 14, 2011, the newspaper notes. Now two of Globaltrans divisions actually asked the Federal Antimonopoly Service for a permission to

China’s national air carrier Air China might leave Yekaterinburg market. Starting October 1, 2011, the company will no longer operate any direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Beijing, Kommersant reports. The news of Air China giving up on direct Yekaterinburg-Beijing flights was announced to the newspaper by a number of travel agents. ‘The thing is, the carrier will stop offering Beijing flights on October 1, 2011, and this situation will hold until next March at least; however, no news of the flights being canceled for goods has been announced so far. It is not quite clear at the moment what

DHL Express is about to reconsider the standard shipping rates quoted for Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The courier’s Russian division told SeaNews that the increase in rates will vary from 4.9% to 15%. The change in the shipping rates will affect all of DHL Express customers except for companies whose agreements with the courier provide for special terms. The exact rates for each particular country will be settled before the end of the year. The new rates will come into effect in January 2012.