A new underground station is now under construction in Botanicheskiy district of Yekaterinburg. The station is to be located next to Dirigible mall; unlike all the operating stations and the would-be Chkalovskaya station, this new underground station is not going to be too deep. Its lowest point will only come to -12 meters, which is why the city hall decided to put up part of the station on the surface as this will cut costs and save time, reports the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg council. The general contractors are currently working on digging the trench, fixing the piles, and the

‘According to expert estimates, 200,000 tons of meat have been imported to Russia illegally since the beginning of the year. This means the meat arrived through Kazakhstan and Kaliningrad without the customs clearance. It is naturally much cheaper, so a lot of meatpacking plants find it profitable to prefer it over the local produce,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Anatoliy Feoktistov said to UrBC. ‘In the meantime, this meat is much poorer in quality than that offered by the region’s producers, yet, since it is so cheap, it is extremely popular with

The report published by UralSvyazInform, the mobile operator, on March 27, 2007 states that Russian Federal Property Fund (a special state body under the Russian Federation Government) reduced its share in the company’s capital from 5.763% to 0% through alienation of ordinary shares.

Consumers have been able to shop in both regional supermarket chains and federal or foreign retailers’ stores lately. Alliance Noncommercial Partnership decided to look into the strengths of local chains (most of which have been around for more than a decade). An ad hoc committee met for the first time on March 27, 2007 to come to the conclusion that the regional grocery chains are at a certain advantage. Firstly, their stores are located conveniently for both pedestrians and drivers. Secondly, they are normally of a middle size, which is the best option in terms of saving one’s time and

OMZ-Spetsstal (part of United Machine Building Works/OMZ (aka Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery)) supplied six turbine rotors to China-based Shanghai Electric Power Company, Shanghai’s largest electricity producer. The $3.5 million contract was signed in 2005, reports OMZ press officer. OMZ-Spetsstal is Russia’s largest producer of metallurgical goods for machine building and other industries. The company deals in forging, stamping, casting, hot-rolling, and making steel sheets.

A new aluminum can factory is to be put up in Ishalino, Argayashsk district, for Rexam, the British can manufacturer, the spokesperson for Chelyabinsk Region Ministry of Economic Development reports. The solemn ceremony devoted to the beginning of construction scheduled for April 4, 2007 was attended by First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Vladimir Dyatlov, Minister of Economic Development Yuri Klepov, head of Argayashsk municipality Israfil Valishin, Rexam management and some of the company’s major partners (representatives of Baltika, Efes, and some others). Mr. Klepov says the plant

UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics has been keeping an eye on all the ploys around HydroSpetsStroy’s bankruptcy proceedings. The regional Court of Arbitration declared HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local developer) insolvent; the company has to undergo bankruptcy proceedings with Olga Rushitskaya as their acting trustee in bankruptcy. HydroSpetsStroy owes its creditors over 55 million RUR. ‘Security guards keep blocking the entrance to Noviy Grad’s headquarters. I’ve tried getting into the office at 13 Vosmogo Marta St. today in order to

RUSAL, SUAL, and Glencore have recently announced that they have successfully merged their assets to become the world’s largest aluminum producer. United Company RUSAL now comprises four bauxite-producing enterprises, 10 alumina-making plants and 14 aluminum-producing ones as well as 3 foil-rolling companies. The new business’s assets are based in 17 countries of the world and on five continents. Its annual turnover is estimated to come to $12 billion, with over 100,000 employees working on bringing the company to prosperity. United Company RUSAL’s production output is expected to reach 4

Ural Airlines experts will give lectures on affordability and reliability of air travel to would-be travel agents for the second time this year, reports the company’s press officer. The lectures are provided for the third and fourth year students of Ural State University’s Department of History who specialize in service and tourism. The 30-hour course covers interaction with Russian and foreign carriers, rules of passenger transfer, modern booking and selling systems, customer loyalty schemes and much else besides. Students are expected to do a test at the end. The company’s Deputy Commercial

‘The regional authorities always compensate us for medicines backed up by social benefits schemes in time. As for the federal authorities, they have only transferred money for January so far, and even that sum was not paid in full,’ Inessa Polozhenko of AS Bureau Ltd. (a pharmaceutical company) said to UrBC. In the meantime, Russian Federation Health Minister Mikhail Zurabov presented his report to the Russian Federation Government committee for regional-federal cooperation claiming that those were mainly the regional authorities that were to blame for the failure of social benefits schemes.

Sverdlovsk Region post offices have been equipped with 101 point-of-sale terminals for bank cards, with another 325 terminals to be introduced by June 2007. Large post offices with scores of tellers will be provided with the respective number of POS terminals. 23 post offices will be involved in the new project altogether. Most of them are currently located in Yekaterinburg, reports the PR Group of the Federal Post in Sverdlovsk Region. ‘This year, our customers will be able not only to withdraw money but also to pay their bills and buy things using their VISA cards,’ says director of the

Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Agriculture and Food Sergey Chemesov presented his report on the Agricultural Development Project in 2006 to the regional government, reports the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. ‘Money was mainly invested in such top-priority programs as rapid stock-raising development, support of small farms, providing young experts and other rural dwellers with affordable housing, improvement of technologies and upgrading equipment. The region spent more than 1.7 billion RUR to support our agriculture in 2006,’ Mr. Chemesov said. ‘Large, medium-scale, and

A Kyrgyz citizen tried to offer a $200 bribe to officers of Petukhovo customs station in order to prevent his MAN car from being searched, reports the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration. It turned out that he was trying to leave Russia with more than 800 kilos of undeclared bananas. The security officers of Kurgan customs caught the offender in the act; all the documents have been filed and placed with the public prosecution authorities of Petukhovo district. The latter filed a criminal suit against the accused, who had been detained for two days.

‘We naturally offer some goods from India, but not too many, so possible limitations on the import of Indian rice are not going to affect our customers badly. As for sesame and peanuts, plenty of other countries produce these foods, and the difference is quality is insubstantial, so we’ll just switch to new suppliers. It will surely create certain problems since we’ll have to find some new partners, do market research and so on, but our clients are not going to notice any shortage,’ says the spokesperson for Kupets supermarket chain Nadezhda Buriko. Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural

Director of Sverdlovsk Region Placement Service Vyacheslav Krivel presented his report on the performance of local job centers in 2006-2008 to Sverdlovsk Region Government, reports the spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. Mr. Krivel said the unemployment rate had gone down from 7.2% to 6.7% in 2006. Over 1 million people used the regional job centers, which is 12% more than a year earlier. 176,000 people found a job, almost 13,000 people were re-trained, 27,000 people were used for community service.

The deadline for re-stamping strong drinks imported before March 31, 2006 expires on March 30, 2007, reports the Russian Federation Customs Service. This deadline won’t be put off. Prior to this date, importers have to hand in their reports on the use of stamps they received and the Service has to look into these reports. Only if these reports have been approved of will the Service leave the importers in peace. The Russian Federation Government originally allowed the importers to keep re-stamping only until December 29, 2006, but only half of importers were able to make it then, so the

A new Deputy Chairman has been appointed at Bank24.ru recently. Former counselor to the chairman Tatiana Kislitsina will become Deputy Chairman after this appointment has been approved of by the main division of the Bank of Russia in Sverdlovsk Region. Ms Kislitsina’s responsibilities will include supervising the performance of tellers and collectors as well as monitoring cash turnover, reports the bank’s press officer.

A group of experts of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) attended the International Metallurgical Forum in Moscow on March 22, 2007. The event was devoted to the 15th anniversary of the International Union of Metallurgists; about 200 companies from Russia, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Georgia, Germany, Austria, and other countries took part in the forum. The team of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil was headed by CEO Alexei Kushnarev. The Complex representatives presented their report on the company’s development. Metallurgical Industrial

‘The possible limitations on the import of Indian rice won’t affect our stores as the share of Indian produce in our assortment of different kinds of rice is insignificant,’ the spokesperson for Kirovskiy supermarket chain Olga Nagibina said to UrBC. In the meantime, Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) intends to limit the import of rice, sesame, and peanuts from India beginning from May 1, 2007, which has been brought about by a lot of low-quality produce imported recently.

The city council held a meeting of Yekaterinburg medical committee to discuss performance of the local hospitals and clinics in 2006, reports the council’s press officer. The city was quite successful in implementing the four strategic projects referred to as Health of Little Dwellers, Three Steps to Long Life, Yekaterinburg as the Region’s Medical Center, and the National Health Project. According to head of Yekaterinburg Healthcare Administration A. Prutkov, the latter received 455 million RUR worth of investments in 2006. Children’s hospitals 5 and 11 and central municipal clinics 2, 3, 6,