Central Bank of Russia reports 28,646 bank notes were forged in July-September 2007. Most of these (26,580 bank notes) were 1,000-ruble ones. In addition, some forged 5,000-ruble bank notes have been forged for the first time this year, but since the number of the forged bank notes only came to six, the 5,000-ruble bills are still believed to be the best protected ones. The Bank of Russia’s analysts say the quality of the forged bills is not very good, but the 1,000 -ruble ones are usually forged best. «One’s chances of being given a fake 1,000-ruble banknote are, in fact, minuscule. The only

The Federal Antimonopoly Service started an investigation of the state of affairs at the country’s dairy market. The spokesperson for the Service reports that Russia’s six largest milk and dairy products makers (UNIMILK, Campina, Wimm Bill Dann, DANONE, Ehrmann, and Parmalat), whose joint share of the Russian market comes to more than 60%, were requested to provide the authorities with data on their production and sales volumes, their transfer prices, prime costs and profitability over the last two years. The Federal Antimonopoly Service is going to use these data to decide whether these

«We are only formally starting our Academic construction project today. In fact, things got going as early as two years ago, but this is the time for the project to be transferred from paper to soil», Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy announced in the course of the solemn opening ceremony devoted to the start of construction in Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district. The Mayor said no construction projects exceeding 1 million square meters in scale had ever been implemented in Yekaterinburg or Sverdlovsk (as it was previously called), whereas the new project provided for 9 million

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Interregional Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 41% (from 16.184 million RUR to 9.533 million RUR) in January-September 2007.

«The proposed bill that bans selling of CD and DVD drives as well as of other equipment meant for copying information will be extremely difficult to comply with. Users have already got tons of such drives at home, and the state will have a hard time controlling them all. Besides, this bill, should it be adopted, will make it very difficult for businesses that sell reprographic facilities to operate», the spokesperson for Breeze Ltd said to UrBC. The proposed bill in question suggests that data on every audio or video record and on every software product must be filed into a special database.

Avtostrada Corporation celebrated its seventh anniversary on October 9, 2007. Over these seven years, the company managed to enter the markets of all the Russian regions and is now supplying its customers with nonmetallic stuffs from over 100 mines. «Looking back, I should say that this dynamic development has been brought about by a whole range of factors such as the market’s great potential, our proactive expansion policy, subsidiary network development, and our always being client-friendly. Besides, having truly professional personnel has been our great competitive advantage that has

«Nearly one-third of goods produced in Sverdlovsk Region is meant for export, and our share of exported goods has been going up since 2002. Our export volumes have grown by more than 2.5 times over the last five years. The figures came to $7.5bn last year and are believed to exceed $8bn in 2007. All in all, the region’s foreign trade turnover volume is expected to amount to more than $11bn this year,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Viktor Koksharov announced at a meeting of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economic Development and Trade with Russian Union of Industrialists and

The Bank of Russia and the Eurosystem conducted their fourth seminar in Moscow on October 10-11, 2007. The event was attended by the top managers and executives of the Bank of Russia, the European Central Bank, and thirteen national banks - members of the Eurosystem. Some high-ranking officials from the Russian Federation President Administration, the Russian Federation Government Office, the Federal Assembly, the Russian Federation Ministries, the European Commission, and the Bank for International Settlements took part in the seminar. The seminar was targeted at establishing stronger ties

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for over 3 years went down by 20.56% (from 8 million RUR to 6.355 million RUR) in January-September 2007.

Moody’s Investors Service demoted Russian Standard Bank’s rating outlook from Stable to Negative; the agency reports this has to do with the bank’s liquid benchmark becoming less strong, which has made it more vulnerable to recent credit market fluctuations and resulted in the decrease in the amount of ready assets after the bank paid its current liabilities.

A flight operated by Aviaprad was delayed once again; a plane coming to Yekaterinburg from Norilsk was supposed to have arrived in Yekaterinburg at 2 PM on October 12, 2007, yet the interactive timetable used in Koltsovo airport read that Aviaprad’s flight would only land at 7 PM due to the airplane coming late.

«I feel that spam mail is both an inefficient and unethical way of advertising», Maria Sutorikhina, the brand manager of Yekaterinburg branch of Sovintel Ltd (part of Golden Telecom), said to UrBC. She noted this blanket mailing that couldn’t account for the target audience’s tastes was inappropriate regardless of whether the message was an ad or something else. «Unlike other ways of advertising, spam mail is totally unpredictable in terms of results and consequences. People who do engage in such activities usually refer to advantages of spam like cheapness and wide audience, yet these ads

Research on the contents of people’s trash bins was one of the highlights of the National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (coordinated by a number of state bodies for the third time this year). As it happens, people throw away bank information, data on their social security numbers, their mortgage papers, and even copies of their passports. In addition, every one in ten garbage bins contained data on credit card numbers and their expiry dates. Experts believe this information can be as valuable to experienced fraudsters as cash. These data can be used for illegal credit card applications or

Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) reports that 1,503 heating and electricity-providing facilities still didn’t have enough skilled workers or qualified employees on October 1, 2007. Rostechnadzor’s press officer says 634 such companies can’t provide proper control over the production processes. The agency has to inspect 21,946 enterprises altogether to make sure all of them are ready to face the winter. 21,359 enterprises claimed they were ready to be certified for readiness in 2007, but only 7,744 of them have actually been certified so far.

«A deposit interest rate can serve as one of the Russian banks’ competitive advantages that will help them get some resources within Russia as well as diversify their liquidity risks», Unicom Partner Universal Investment Company’s Asset Management Director Vitaliy Kalugin said to UrBC. The global liquidity crisis keeps affecting the Russian economy, as Russian banks are having a hard time accessing foreign finances. «A developed subsidiary network can become another advantage, but these subsidiaries must be able to make up for the operation costs through the results they produce», Mr. Kalugin

«Kirovgrad poultry farm will probably become the core of a large future holding that will engage both local and other investors. We are also planning to support poultry farm development in the north of Sverdlovsk Region to make sure we can one day have the annual poultry output of 160,000 tons», Sverdlovsk Region Duma Deputy Vladimir Mashkov says. «The holding will have already started operating before the end of this year», he added. The prospective regional holding is going to comprise most of the current poultry farms. It has been unofficially reported that the state is not planning on

«The current limitations on the chances of getting foreign resources has made Russian banks turn to domestic sources of financing once again», Management Company’s Investment Director Alexander Metzger said to UrBC. «These are mainly classical bank deposits, and banks will have to compete fiercely here», he added. Analysts say the global liquidity crisis keeps affecting the Russian economy, as Russian banks are having a hard time accessing foreign finances. «This means interest rates on deposits are likely to go up somewhat, yet other non-interest-bearing advantages are going to play an

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 44.53% (from 59.1 million RUR to 32.78 million RUR) in January-September 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration sustained a claim laid by the region’s public prosecutor for the environment, who demanded that Russian Chrome 1915 be faced with administrative liability for unauthorized entrepreneurial activity (that is, with no public registration or a special permit) (Article 14.1 of Russian Administrative Code). A special investigation revealed that Russian Chrome 1915 had a license allowing the company to dump certain kinds of manufacturing waste. At the same time, the enterprise violated the license regulations in that it collected and disposed of other

Severnaya Kazna stopped handling Rostelecom’s ATM payments and Internet bank transactions for the time being, following a special notification from Uralsvyazinform (one of the region’s leading telecommunication providers), the bank’s website says. Until quite recently, Uralsvyazinform used to handle all the payments made by Rostelecom’s subscribers, but now that the terms of the two companies’ agreement have changed, Uralsvyazinform can no longer process any payments made by private individuals for using Rostelecom’s long-distance and international connection. Severnaya Kazna will inform its