An autonomous non-profit organization is to be set up in Sverdlovsk Region to deal with the organization and submission of Yekaterinburg’s EXPO 2020 application. The organization will also work on setting up a coordination committee for the World Universal Exhibition. The company’s assets will probably comprise a voluntary donation of 10,000 RUR deducted from the region’s budget. Consequently, Yekaterinburg will be competing for EXPO 2020 through a company with only a token authorized capital. On the other hand, even the very first draft budgets for the application process strike one’s

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state-run consumer rights watchdog) have examined 1,705,400 tons of meat products since the beginning of the year, and 6.6 tons, or 0.4% had to be discarded, the agency’s press service reports. The situation looked particularly unsatisfactory as far as poultry was concerned. Thirty-one samples of chicken meat (whole chickens and their parts) have been examined, and nine of these samples (29%) were declared not to meet the GOST Р52702-2006 standards for technical conditions of chicken meat (chickens, hens, broilers, and their

The net loss of Ufaleynickel (based in Chelyabinsk Region), calculated in accordance with the Russian accounting standards, reached 199.2m RUR in the first half of 2011 compared with 84.2m RUR in the first half of 2010, the company’s report states. The company’s gross profit decreased by 4.55 times and came to 65.86m RUR, its pre-tax loss came to 64.49m RUR. The enterprise explains its performance indicators stem from the dropping disposal price of nickel and growing prime cost.

Standard & Poor's Corporate Governance Rating Service reports that GAMMA (Governance, Accountability, Management, Metrics, and Analysis) rating of Enel OGK-5 was promoted from GAMMA-6 to GAMMA-6+ and called off at the same time. The company runs Sredneuralskaya and Reftinskaya heat and power stations in Sverdlovsk Region. Standard & Poor's says the company’s strong points in corporate governance are the vast international experience of the controlling shareholder Enel S.p.A. in the field of managing energy resources, and its support of Enel OGK-5 investment program. At the

Ural Airlines announces the start of domestic flights sale. Between August 15, 2011 and September 15, 2011, all the passengers can buy tickets for a whole range of destinations at the cheapest prices imaginable, the company’s press service reports. Special rates are offered on the following flights: Moscow-Irkutsk (6,700 RUR one way) Moscow-Krasnodar (2,700 RUR one way) Moscow-Sochi (2,500 RUR one way) Moscow-Simferopol (? RUR one way) Moscow-Novokuznetsk (6,800 RUR one way) Moscow-Novosibirsk (4,300 RUR one way) Moscow-Saint Petersburg (2,000 RUR one way) Moscow-Chita (8,000 RUR one way)

VSMPO-Avisma Corporation might give up on its plans to build a plant for the mechanical processing of stampings for the aviation industry in Titanium Valley, a special economic zone, in case the infrastructure in the area fails to appear quickly enough. The corporation’s Director-General Mikhail Voyevodin said in an interview to company newspaper Novator that so far, the company had only got the Titanium Valley Supervisory Board’s approval of a business plan for setting up a daughter enterprise (VSMPO-New Technologies) there. The enterprise would have a resident status. Given that the

Tyumen Region Property Fund is going to put up to auction 118 natural gas pipelines belonging to the region; the auction will take place on September 15, 2011, the Fund reports. The opening bid has been set at 545.8m RUR, and every next bid has to be at least 5.46m RUR bigger, MFD-InfoCenter says. Bidders can submit their applications until September 9.

Sverdlovsk Region Railways (the subsidiary of Russian Railways) claims that Gazpromneft-Ural has been unloading oil at its oil storage facilities in an unsatisfactory way, the portal RZhD-Partner reports. Now some shortage of AI-92 gasoline was observed at Yekaterinburg filling stations run by Gazpromneft-Ural and Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt this summer. Sverdlovsk Region Railways announced then that the problem was the poor logistics of the oil supplying companies. As the organization of the unloading process at the storage depots is unsatisfactory, cisterns are sitting there unloaded for hours

The power supplier TGK-9 announced its Yekaterinburg subsidiary would go into liquidation. This decision was made by the company’s Board of Directors. The company will still run its Sverdlovsk subsidiary, a Yekaterinburg-based subsidiary responsible for priority investment projects, and Academic subsidiary for priority investment projects in Sverdlovsk Region. Sverdlovsk Heat-Supplying Company informed UrBC that the liquidated subsidiary had actually been a non-functioning, deadweight structure for a while before it closed.

A solemn opening ceremony will take place at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium at 6 o’clock today; this event is part of the City Day celebrations. The agenda of the celebrations covers an official ceremony, Ural-Khimki football match, some track-and-field competitions with Central Stadium trophies as prizes (male and female relay races, an 800-meter race, and a Generation Relay Race with Olympic prize winners participating), and an entertainment program with games and surprises, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. For the first time in history, the FIFA anthem will be performed on the arena of the

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the claim laid by Microsoft against Introtest; the plaintiff insists that the defendant pay 4.64m RUR, the court proceedings state. The plaintiff’s claim is mainly based on the alleged violation of the plaintiff’s author’s rights by Introtest. In fact, companies such as Autodesk Inc, Corel Corporation, Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc, and Dasso Systems SolidWorks are involved as co-defendants in the case. The defendant reports they are sure to win the case. Microsoft’s position is very weak. I believe the court will not

Ural Electrochemical Complex will make three thousand people redundant in 2011, President of Small & Medium Enterprises Union Anatoly Filippenkov announced at the union’s supervisory board meeting today. The electrochemical plant in Novouralsk will soon lay off three thousand people. This decision was made by the Moscow management. We can probably expect that a lot of them will turn to small business,’ Filippenkov said. The plant informed us of the upcoming three thousand redundancies as early as the beginning of this year. The reason for this is the restructuring of the business. For

Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry came up with the first figures regarding the cost of Sverdlovsk Region applying for hosting the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020. A candidate city has to get ready for an examination by inspection committees and prepare a detailed plan with all kinds of projects ranging from the architectural ones (a master plan of EXPO premises and the suggestions for its further use) to the transportation concept to the city’s sustainable development project for 2011-2020,’ the Ministry announced today. To elaborate such a grand application, one needs to use the

An extraordinary meeting of Sverdlovsk Region division of the All-Russian NGO Russian Red Cross took place in Yekaterinburg. The organization’s press service reports the meeting resulted in the decision to improve the performance of this regional division, for one, to switch from handling citizens’ applications twice a week to doing so five days a week. Starting August 22, 2011, every person in need of help and support can apply to Russian Red Cross at 16 Komintern St (off 718) on any weekday. One can get professional legal advice and help here, inquire about migration issues, and the

The new Chinese Consul General started work in Yekaterinburg. The first official meeting of Consul Yuan Hengge and Head of Yekaterinburg and Chairman of Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma Evgeny Porunov took place yesterday, the Duma’s press service reports. The two parties started with greetings, and Evgeny Porunov said he was sure the traditions supported by the previous consul would be kept up. The official invited the consul to take part in the City Day celebrations at the coming weekend. A group of officials headed by Head of Yekaterinburg Administration Alexander Yakob is expected to visit

Ural Airlines keeps expanding its flights network and offers flights departing from increasingly more cities. Starting October 4, 2011, the air carrier will operate scheduled flights from Nizhniy Novgorod to Dubai, the East’s most popular city, the airline’s press service reports. The Nizhniy Novgorod-Dubai flight will be offered every Tuesday. The cheapest tickets are available for ?476, with both economy and business class tickets offered for sale.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) proved its readiness to produce highly durable cold-resistant rolled products for the Russian pipeline manufacturers. Following the hydraulic and field pneumatic testing of some pilot batches of pipes in Chelyabinsk and Kopeisk, experts from Gazrpom, Gazprom VNIIGAZ, and other enterprises representing the certification committee declared that the pipes made by MMK of rolled sheets with strength class K65 meet the technical requirements set for the main pipeline Bovanenko-Ukhta. This means that MMK is currently the exclusive supplier of К65(Х80) rolled

The customer of Fenster AG Trading House managed to get his 60,000 RUR back through a court hearing, the press office of Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) reports. Fenster AG and a Yekaterinburg dweller signed an agreement on September 30, 2010 for the manufacturing and assembling of wooden window frames with two double panes, worth over 90,000 RUR. Under the terms of the agreement, the customer had to pre-pay 70% of the total sum two weeks prior to the installation, which the customer complied with. 60,000 RUR was paid to Fenster AG. However,

Central Military District’s military brass band will perform in the course of the solemn opening ceremony at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium on August 19, 2011. For the first time in history this arena will witness the singing of the FIFA’s anthem by the record-breaking number of people for Russia’s Book of Records, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. Representatives of fifty-one orchestras will take part in the show, and the number of musicians playing in Central Military District’s military brass band will come to 700. In addition, orchestras from forty-six Russian cities, including Samara,

Tyumen Region Arbitration Court declared a non-profit organization called Strategic Research & Investment Support Fund bankrupt, the court’s proceedings state. The company placed its insolvency application with the court of its own accord, asking for a simplified procedure for a liquidated debtor. The application stated that the total amount of debts to creditors that the debtor agreed with came to 18.18m RUR, whereas the organization’s assets and monetary funds were insufficient: the fund only had 242,370 RUR altogether. Now in 2006, Strategic Research & Investment Support Fund was