Chelyabinsk Region’s additional budget revenues amounted to 7.536 billion RUR in January-July 2007, Governor Petr Sumin announced at a meeting on August 9, 2007; he said the money would be spent on social welfare programs. ‘All the daycare and nursery school teachers are going to get 1,000 RUR more in terms of salary beginning from September 1, 2007; their assistants are going to get a 500-ruble pay rise. This year, we’ll need 120 million RUR to make this happen. Then, the operating personnel employed by the executive authorities will be getting 15% more starting September 2007, and that

There are 97 retail markets operating in Chelyabinsk Region at the moment, with 73 of them pertaining to the so-called universal market category. Eleven cities and towns have no markets whatsoever, and local farmers have only been provided with 1,817 trade stalls, which only comes to 2% of the total number of stalls. Only five cities offer preferential terms to local farmers, these are Chelyabinsk, Yuzhnouralsk, Ust-Katav, Karabash, and Satkinksiy district, Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Economic Development Yuri Klepov says. ‘An inspection conducted on August 1-7, 2007 revealed that only 31

The spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company reports the company has already sustained over 1 million RUR worth of losses owing to cable ruptures. Twenty instances have been recorded since the beginning of the year, with the last one occurring on August 4, 2007 and creating a major power cut in Kirovskiy district of Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company lays the blame upon the builders who do various construction jobs in places with large amount of cables without bothering to get an agreement from Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company’s experts, or

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel appointed Alexander Kharlov Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Mr. Kharlov was born in 1967; he graduated from the regional Suvorov Military High School, then from Kiev Higher Combined Arms Command School, and from Ural State Technical University. After leaving military office, he was employed at the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs representation in Yekaterinburg in 2001-2004 and was head of the International Department of the Ministry for

‘We’ve been working literally with our last bit of strength, we’re unable to meet our contract liabilities, and the company has already suffered a lot of losses,’ Director of West Granite (a management company of Asbest Macadam Plant) Valery Padmrin said to UrBC. He says Sverdlovsk Region Railways stopped transporting their macadam on July 1, 2007, nearly bringing the company to a total standstill. The plant’s Sales Department reports the company has suffered about 75 million RUR worth of losses since July 2007. ‘Sverdlovsk Region Railways says this is happening because they cancelled 50

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 1,138,200 tons of tubular goods in the first seven months of 2007, which is 23% better than in January-July 2006 when the figure only came to 925,600 tons. ChTPZ Group sold 632,100 tons of tubes and pipes in the first seven months of the year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier (that is, 505,500 tons) by 25%. These figures include a 35% increase in the amount of large-diameter pipes: it came to 356,000 tons compared with only 263,700 tons of

RENOVA Stroy Group is taking part in Russia’s Construction Sector 2007 Exhibition held in Crocus Expo Center in Moscow. Among the highlights of the exhibition are some multi-faceted area development projects, with one of them (the Academic Multi-Faceted Area Development Project) presented by RENOVA. This project provides for a construction of a new residential area in the south-west of Yekaterinburg fit for 325,000 people. The construction of the future Academic district of Yekaterinburg is now in full swing, with builders getting the area ready for installation of engineering facilities and

Hospitals of Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region, are currently taking care of 38 people diagnosed with pneumonia; three of the patients turned out not to have been infected with legionella, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Healthcare Konstantin Shestakov said to UrBC. ‘People might be getting ill for as long as mid-August, since the incubation period for the infection lasts between 5 and 19 days. The city dwellers might have got it a few weeks ago and fall ill only now,’ he added. This outbreak of legionellosis is reported to have been caused by the water remaining in the

Another instance of cars getting derailed occurred at Sverdlovsk Region railways at 5 PM on August 8, 2007. ‘Three cars that were being transported to a depot in order to be repaired were derailed due to a technical faultiness of one of them. No people suffered; the incident poses no threat to the environment, either,’ Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ press officer Andrei Ivanov said to UrBC. As recently as a month ago (on July 11, 2007), a passenger train 354 going from Perm to Priobie was derailed. The accident occurred at the 491st kilometer of Sverdlovsk Region Railways. Nine cars were

Ural Airlines has come up with a new service again: the company’s customers are now able to get acquainted with the flight menu and order a particular meal when booking online, the carrier’s press officer reports. The e-menu is available via The site features the standard menus offered to business and economy class passengers as well as special vegetarian meals or meals for people observing different kinds of Lents. You can book a meal alongside with booking a ticket online; alternatively, you can do that in any of the booking offices or contact the airline’s Help and Information Center (tel.

Chelyabinsk Region’s additional budget revenues amounted to 7.536 billion RUR in January-July 2007, Governor Petr Sumin announced at a meeting on August 9, 2007; he said the money would be spent on social welfare programs. ‘All the daycare and nursery school teachers are going to get 1,000 RUR more in terms of salary beginning from September 1, 2007; their assistants are going to get a 500-ruble pay rise. This year, we’ll need 120 million RUR to make this happen. Then, the operating personnel employed by the executive authorities will be getting 15% more starting September 2007, and that

There are 97 retail markets operating in Chelyabinsk Region at the moment, with 73 of them pertaining to the so-called universal market category. Eleven cities and towns have no markets whatsoever, and local farmers have only been provided with 1,817 trade stalls, which only comes to 2% of the total number of stalls. Only five cities offer preferential terms to local farmers, these are Chelyabinsk, Yuzhnouralsk, Ust-Katav, Karabash, and Satkinksiy district, Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Economic Development Yuri Klepov says. ‘An inspection conducted on August 1-7, 2007 revealed that only 31

Most users who peruse Russian web-pages were sent out a letter that stated a new domain name uralsvyazinform.com (an almost identical copy of uralsvyazinform.ru, the name of the Urals’ major telecommunication provider) had been registered recently. Uralsvyazinform.com is currently hosting a dating site and a link offering to buy this domain name. Experts believe Uralsvyazinform must have been attacked by cybersquatters – people who register popular domain names in order to sell them later at a much more significant price. Cybersquatters might be trying to make the mobile operator buy this

An inspection conducted by the public prosecution authorities of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region revealed grave violations of Articles 137, 138, and 140 of Russian Labor Code by UTair Airlines; the carrier is believed to have withheld the entire salary of a pilot upon his resignation. The airline’s General Director A. Martirosyan was requested to eliminate these violations on May 16, 2007, but he appears to have ignored the request issued by the public prosecution authorities, which is why he had an administrative suit filed against him. Mr. Martirosyan is charged with failing to meet the

‘If the Federal Antimonopoly Service abandons the claims it has in terms of Russian Standard Bank’s actions and stops inspecting it, the profitability of Russian Standard Bank’s stock might go down by 30 to 40 basis points,’ Stanislav Ponomarenko of ING said to UrBC. Mr. Ponomarenko also says that the inspection of the bank seems to be far from being complete: the upcoming parliamentary elections this December induce the federal authorities to carry out a public relations campaign, and something that could be presented as protection of consumers’ rights would be a good idea. At the end of

The examination of witnesses regarding the case of Pavel Fedulev (a local entrepreneur) that was supposed to have taken place at 10 AM on August 8, 2007 was never actually carried out. The spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Court reports the trial of Mr. Fedulev was postponed indefinitely due to the judge’s illness. Mr. Fedulev is accused of attempted fraud, falsification of evidence, forgery, and mass riots (Articles 30 (part 1), 159 (part 4), 33 (part 3), 303 (part 3), 327 (part 2), and 212 (part 1) of Russian Criminal Code).

It was announced at the meeting of Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region executives with some representatives of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam who arrived in Yekaterinburg that a Vietnamese Consulate-General would start operating in Yekaterinburg in September 2007. This diplomatic meeting was attended by the Vietnamese Consul-General in Yekaterinburg and two other consuls. The spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports the Vietnamese diplomats are now waiting to get their exequaturs from the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign

Uralmashzavod, one of Russia’s major industrial giants, underwent the usual annual insurance procedure, the company’s press officer reports. All the property was insured against a whole range or risks such as fire, explosion, natural disasters, and third party offense. The liability of Rossgosstrakh (the insurer) amounts to 1.515 billion RUR.

BrokerCreditService Consulting Ltd. reports Olips has gone through with the offering of promissory notes successfully. 27,307,165 RUR worth of notes will be in circulation for three months; they are to be retired by Accept Commercial Bank in Novosibirsk, by SKB-Bank in Yekaterinburg, and by Probusinessbank in Moscow. Olips’s promissory notes program began last April; to date, the total volume of circulated notes has come to 100,233,030 RUR, with 308,596,590 RUR paid already. This program is part of the company’s external financing project and is primarily seen as a pre-marketing tool meant to

The public prosecution bodies of Ordzhonikidzevskiy district of Magnitogorsk initiated a criminal suit related to violations of labor safety regulations resulting in lethal outcomes (Article 143 (part 2) or Russian Criminal Code), their press office reports. On August 6, 2007, an oil pipe operating under pressure at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works continuous casting unit got torn and broken. The oil spilt onto the red-hot metal and caught fire, giving massive burns to two casters, aged 34 and 32. One of them was killed immediately, the other one, with burns over 80% his body, was taken to