Chelyabinsk customs officers filed 3 administrative suits against trademark violators; the first case involves a Kazakh citizen who was trying to smuggle 15,000 undeclared lighters bearing Cricket trademark in his own car. The automobile was stopped by the officers in the village of Letyagino. Then, Chelyabinsk customs received a complaint from the owner of Stolichnaya trademark regarding violation of his trademark by a Russian citizen. The offender in question was detained in the act of relocating 720 bottles of Stolichnaya without any sales or trademark use permits. Finally, a citizen of

According to the report published on Severnaya Kazna’s official website on April 26, 2007, the bank keeps redistributing its shares among the stockholders. There are 40 of them at the moment, with two shareholders missing from the list as of yet: Russian Tax Association headed by Igor Teushchakov (the company’s share in Severnaya Kazna’s capital used to come to 6.447%, was later reduced to 3.438% and now dropped to.105%; Mr. Teushchakov’s share, however, amounts to 1.52%) and Econometrics headed by Alexander Frolov since mid-March (the company’s share amounts to .951%). All in all, the number

Sverdlovsk Region House of Representatives passed a bill on changes in the legislation on land management within the region after it had been adopted by Sverdlovsk Region Duma. The edited legislation aims to create a new system of managing unlocated land allotments that could ensure that Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for State Property Management has more control over decision-making in terms of offering up patches based in Yekaterinburg.

‘There are virtually no places available for sellers in the local malls: out of 16 trade centers we’ve got, 14 malls are totally filled up, and there is a long waiting list of those wishing to get a place into the bargain. As for the remaining two malls, they can offer round about 500 square meters and their management companies are on the lookout for a tenant who could make the place more popular, so they aren’t willing to let the area to just about anyone,’ Deputy Chairperson of Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee Natalia Firstova said to UrBC. ‘On average, there are 200 to 300

‘The introduction of any strict regulations over how grocery retailers must do business with the regional producers is totally unjustified,’ says Nadezhda Buriko, the spokesperson for Kupets supermarket chain. ‘If customers don’t like their produce, demanding that we sell a certain amount of regionally made foods disadvantages the store, the consumer, and the supplier at the same time. The market tends to get a good deal of self-regulation, and, if there is no demand for such items, you can make the stores sell them, but you can’t make the shoppers buy them. On the other hand, some of the

Russian Copper Company is putting up a mine at Vesenne-Aralchinskoye deposit, reports their press officer; the mine is expected to reach the capacity of .5 million tons of copper-zinc ore a year. The project requires $50 million worth of investments and will be launched in 2009. Besides, Russian Copper Company is going to expand a processing shop at 50-letiya Oktyabrya deposit in order to raise its annual output to 5 million tons of ore, 60,000 tons of copper, and 50,000 tons of zinc. The newly renovated shop will be launched at the beginning of 2008. It will be processing ore from Priorskoye

‘The import of the so-called grey (i.e. illegally made) meat to Russia amounted to 200,000 tons in January-March 2007. This cheap, low-quality frozen meat that had no vitamins or anything left in it was transferred to the country through Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, and Kaliningrad,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Anatoly Feoktistov said to UrBC. ‘Rosselkhoznadzor’s ban on meat import from Kazakhstan due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is definitely a good thing. The region’s dwellers won’t risk buying and eating low-quality food; I’m positive

The water level has gone up in most of the local rivers over the last two days, with the highest rise of water level recorded in the River Sosva. 11 bridges have been flooded, 21 settlements with the total population of 2,826 people got isolated from the rest of the world. The water level in the Pyshma now amounts to 509 centimeters against the critical 640 centimeters; the figure comes to 764 centimeters (against the critical 1,140 centimeters) for the Nitsa and to 521 centimeters (against the critical 840 centimeters) in the Tura. Three bridges located in the villages of Zhukovskoye,

Regional statisticians report that the population of Sverdlovsk Region decreased by 10,000 people last year and reached the point of 4,399,700 people on January 1, 2007. Mortality rate went down 27.5% against 2005; the ratio of those dying to those born came to 1/1.4 against 1/1.6 in 2005. 47,300 people were born last year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 3%; 67,200 people died, which is 8.4% fewer than in 2005. In more than half of the cases (55.6%), death was the result of cardiovascular diseases. People coming to settle in Sverdlovsk Region outnumbered those leaving the

UralSeverGaz summed up the results of its performance during this year’s heating season. Most of the housing maintenance and utilities services that buy their gas accumulated large debts in terms of paying for the gas they had already consumed. The total sum of debts reached the point of 1.775 billion RUR on April 25, 2007, which is thrice the amount recorded in October 2006 when the heating season actually began (650 million). The housing maintenance and utilities services make up only 12% of natural gas consumers, whereas their share of delayed payments amounts to 73%. ‘The end of the

Ural Airlines has come up with new discounts on business class tickets for travelers willing to use Yekaterinburg-Moscow-Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk-Moscow-Chelyabinsk flights. The cheapest tickets can now be bought for 16,000 RUR for Yekaterinburg flight and for 15,000 RUR for Chelyabinsk flight. The price also varies according to the time of the purchase: if one acquires a ticket within a fortnight of Yekaterinburg-Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight, it is only going to cost 16,000 RUR, whereas a passenger buying a ticket a week before the flight will have to pay 19,000 RUR. In addition, there

Koltsovo airport customs officers averted an attempt of smuggling currency to Germany at the airport’s international terminal, where one of the passengers with a ticket for Yekaterinburg-Munich flight chose not to declare a large sum of foreign currency when using the ‘green light’, says the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration. The random check procedure made it clear that the passenger had ?10,870 and 10,000 RUR on him, which is against the existing law. The customs officers filed a criminal suit against the offender, accusing him of smuggling.

‘The results of the public offering launched by Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Industrial Complex appear to be rather controversial. On the one hand, the company did achieve its goal of offering a certain number of shares, but on the other, the shares were offered more cheaply than the in the course of regular transactions, which is why they dropped by almost 5% at MICEX the next day. All in all, this IPO failed our expectations, although the prices could actually be even lower,’ Director of Ural subsidiary of Accord-Invest Investment Company Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. Magnitogorsk

Kurgan customs officers found and withdrew 1,421 counterfeited items in January-March 2007 and eighty two items as recently as last week, reports Ural Customs Administration. There were, among other things, a few scores of phonogram-bearing DVDs arrested at Zverinogolovskiy division; the disks were hidden in an Audi going to Kazakhstan. The offender will have to undergo an administrative suit.

Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) intends to send a group of Russian vets to look into just how effective the performance of their Brazilian counterparts is. Some vets will be sent to specifically check the quality of meat supplied to Russia. The delegation is expected to set off before May 1, 2007. All this is brought about by Rosselkhoznadzor’s (probably grounded) suspicions that 13 Brazilian enterprises have been importing adulterated meat produce to Russia.

Russian Copper Company is currently putting up a mine at Priorskoye deposit, the company’s press officer says. The estimated capacity of the mine will come to .5 million tons of copper-zinc ore a year; the project requires $65 million worth of investments and is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2008. Besides, Russian Copper Company is going to expand a processing shop at 50-letiya Oktyabrya deposit in order to raise its annual output to 5 million tons of ore, 60,000 tons of copper, and 50,000 tons of zinc. The newly renovated shop will be launched at the beginning of 2008 as

West Siberian Metallurgical Industrial Complex (part of Evraz Group) assessed its conservational activity in January-March 2007. 22 of its departments underwent internal environmental audit procedures which proved that the state of events in the field of conservation was much better than a year earlier. Over 115 executives and experts attended professional development workshops devoted to hazardous waste management, environmental management, environmental safety, and rational nature management. The company also renovated a number of facilities in the coal-cleaning plant, one of the coking

Bank Interaction Committee (chaired by Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister of Economics and Labor Galina Kovaleva) met in Yekaterinburg. Their meeting was attended by executives from 40 regional and federal banks and law-enforcement officers. Some of the reports were presented by acting head of the Bank of Russia in Sverdlovsk Region L. Malykh, chairman of Ural Union of Bankers V. Muranova, first deputy chairman of Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia L. Shilchikova, director of Yekaterinburg-based office of URSA Bank M. Krasnikov, director of Bank24.ru B. Dyakonov, and

Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) prevented the import of 27 tons of Turkish lemons found to have unacceptably high chlorpyriphos content to Russia. According to Rosselkhoznadzor’s press officer, even though the Turkish authorities have promised to protect the quality of their produce and to certify every single box meant for Russia, this particular shipment had neither the safety certificate nor the obligatory data on the pesticide content. In addition, Rosselkhoznadzor did not allow 19 tons of dimethoate-treated apples from Lithuania to be imported, since the country’s

The Department of Internal Affairs in Ural Federal District and regional division of the Federal Drug Control Service revealed and prevented nearly 6,000 drug-related crimes in January-March 2007, which is 10% better than a year earlier (the figure comes to 31% in Sverdlovsk Region, to 14.7% in Chelyabinsk Region, and to 7.2% in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region), says the spokesperson for Prosecutor-General's Office in Ural Federal District. So far this year, officers have been able to prevent over 4,000 drug-selling attempts, including those with very large portions of drugs involved.