The number of poor people in Russia went up by 4.8m, or 26.5% compared with the end of 2010. The population’s actual monetary income decreased by 5% in May 2011 against May 2011 as well, Rosstat reports. The number of people whose income amounts to less than the living wage rose by 2.3m, or 11.2% in comparison with January-March 2010. The total figure now comes to 22.9m people. Remarkably, things are deteriorating particularly fast in the year 2011: the number of poor people rose by 4.8m, or 26.5% against last December. At the same time, the living wage has been going up as well. This figure

Russian industrial enterprises came up with their requests for the innovation developers, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s press service reports. The agenda of the upcoming industrial exhibition INNOPROM 2011 covers an innovations contest where the developers are expected to present their projects and services aimed at meeting the industry’s current needs. The contest will proceed in two stages. First, the industrial enterprises are to come up with their request, and next, the developers are to present their innovational solutions. The best projects selected by experts will be offered to

The international financial group Société Générale completed the consolidation of its Russian assets, with the Bank of Russia providing Rosbank with the documents which confirm Rosbank’s reorganization through its merger with Bank Société Générale Vostok (BSGV). According to Société Générale Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Bernardo Sanchez Incera, the consolidation of the group’s Russia-based assets is going through in compliance with the earlier plan.

The Bank of Russia’s BOD approved of the plan for Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation’s involvement in the prevention of bankruptcy for the Bank of Moscow. The plan provides for a number of measures aimed at eliminating the circumstances that cause the bank’s financial instability and at making sure the bank can operate healthily. For one, the Bank of Moscow’s authorized capital will be raised by 100 billion RUR with the help of VTB Group’s investor organizations. Deposit Insurance Agency will also provide the Bank of Moscow with a collateral-secured loan worth 295 billion RUR for a

Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation took BSGV off the list of the deposit insurance system members because, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the bank stopped operating as an individual organization and merged with AKB Rosbank. The same is true of Bank Neftyanoy, which was liquidated by the court’s decision. This means 906 banks are involved in the deposit insurance system at the moment.

The stockholders of The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation decided not to declare any share dividend for the year 2010. The decision was taken in the course of the annual general meeting on June 30, 2011. The AGM also included approval of the annual report and of the annual accounting report and electing the Supervisory Board.

Rosaviation reports it is going to look into the activity of Orenburg Airlines (Orenair) because of the alleged legal violations. Avianova has already been inspected, and it was detected that the company had violated its passengers’ rights and did not provide for the necessary flight security,’ the Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. Due to some grave violations of the existing legislation by the company, Orenburg Airlines will be inspected for compliance with the licensing and certification requirements. The violations consist, among other things, in blackmailing the aviation

Betfor Concrete Goods Plant’s only shareholder LSR Group decided not to declare any share dividend for the year 2010. In fact, no dividends were paid for the year 2009 as well, because the company had suffered some losses, Interfax reports.

Starting July 1, 2011, the Hungarian Consulate General in Yekaterinburg is going to issue Schengen visas to Slovakia for those who need them. Now the consulate can also issue Schengen visas to Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, and Slovenia.

Sverdlovsk Region prosecution authorities for transportation are going to look into the way air carriers comply with the existing air legislation and the consumer rights laws due to recent flights delays at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. For one, on June 27, 2011 alone as many as seven flights were delayed and four flights were called off at Koltsovo. Orenburg Airlines Yekaterinburg-Antalya flight was delayed by nine hours, Avianova Yekaterinburg-Mineralniye Vody flight was delayed by sixteen hours. In case the federal laws have actually been violated, the prosecutor intends to take steps

Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for the environment looked into the way the large metallurgical enterprises in Kamensk-Uralsky comply with the existing laws on the atmospheric air protection, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. It was detected that Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant, SUAL-Kremnij-Ural, and Kamensk-Uralsky Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Plant do not have any permissions that clearly state the amount of maximum permissible discharge of pollutants the companies are allowed to emit into the air.

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural safety watchdog) inspected the milk-processing plant UMMC Agro in Verkhnyaya Pyshma and detected that on May 1-8, 2011 the company bought 429,120 kg of raw milk without any accompanying veterinary certificates that could prove that the produce was safe in veterinary respect. It was also revealed that the milk was delivered in tank containers without the obligatory sealing, which means that this milk could get infected while in transit from the suppliers’ premises to the destination point. Now it is only

On July 4, 2011, an Innovations Day will be held at Ludinovsky Locomotive Plant based in Ludinovo, Kaluga Region. The agenda of the event covers the launch of Russia’s first gathering locomotive with a hybrid power unit called TEM9N SinaraHybrid. This locomotive has been developed by the engineering company Sinara Transport Vehicles with the support of Skolkovo Foundation and the President’s Committee for Modernization and Russia’s Technological Development. Governor of Kaluga Region A. Artamonov, director of Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry’s Basic Industrial Branches Department V.

Dmitri Pumpyansky was elected the BOD Chairman of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK); besides, the BOD Secretary and the members and chairs of the appointments and remunerations committees as well as the members of the BOD audit and strategic development committees were elected. The authority of TMK Director-General was confirmed and the following members of the Supervisory Board were appointed: A. G. Shiryayev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, A. Yu. Kaplunov, A. A. Klachkov. A. G. Lyalkov, B.V. Oborsky, T. I. Petrosyan, K. A. Semerikov, and V. V. Shmatovitch. In addition, the budget for BOD

Delegations from thirty-three different countries are going to visit Yekaterinburg in mid-July, at the time when the international exhibition and forum on industrial innovations INNOPROM 2011 will be held here, Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov announced at a meeting with the representatives of the Mid-Urals Corps diplomatique. The capital of the Urals will receive guests from Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) reports an annual general meeting was held in Moscow on June 28, 2011. The shareholders voted for declaring the dividend of 0.85 RUR per one ordinary share with face value of 10 RUR for the year 2010; the dividends thus total to 796,948,179.90 RUR. In addition, the following BOD members were elected by the stockholders: Mikhail Alekseyev, Mukhadin Eskindarov, Andrei Kaplunov, Igor Khmelevsky, Sergey Papin, Thomas Pickering, Dmitri Pumpyansky, Geoffrey Townsend, Alexander Shiryayev, and Alexander Shokhin. Five out of ten BOD members are independent directors.

RENOVA Group intends to get involved in the construction of electric power-generating facilities. For one, the company plans to launch Novobogoslovskaya power station in Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Region, in 2014, to launch another power station in Nizhnyaya Tura, Sverdlovsk Region, in 2015, and to launch yet another station in Yekaterinburg’s Academic district in 2017. The implementation of the project will require about 43bn RUR, the company’s BOD Chairman Viktor Vekselberg announced during a business trip to Yekaterinburg. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin and Viktor

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant’s Vysota 239 department has been certified in accordance with the international standard DNV recently. The certification procedures were first started by Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant in the fall of 2010 and were completed in less than a year. In fact, no other Russian company has managed to get the DNV certificate over such a short period before. The representatives of Det Norske Veritas certified the pipe production at Vysota 239, that is, the production of pipes with the diameter of 1,020 mm and wall thickness of 21.3 mm (strength 485 FD). The certificate

Magnum 8, a strong drinks supermarket based in Yekaterinbrug, was placed on the list of companies which owe over 1 million RUR to the Russian Federation budget. These data are available via Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service. The list of debtors is valid as of June 15, 2011.

The stockholders of Kyshtym Ore Mining & Processing Plant decided not to declare any dividends for the year 2010. This decision was taken at the annual general meeting in Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk Region. Last year’s profits, which amounted to 214,000 RUR, will be directed to increasing the joint stock company’s own funds.