Head of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) Konstantin Pulikovskiy arrived in the Urals on March 26, 2007. The agenda of his visit covers meeting the regions’ leaders, checking out the sites of Mayak Production Association (Chelyabinsk Region), Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Industrial Complex, Beloyarskaya power station and PnevmoStroyMachine, and evaluating the results of complex examinations of the Urals’ largest industrial enterprises, reports the spokesperson for Rostechnadzor in Ural Federal District.

‘Last year, Roszdravnadzor (the state healthcare watchdog) examined 807 healthcare and pharmaceutical entities based in Sverdlovsk Region, which resulted in 43 warnings and 13 reports placed with courts. 249 medical establishments and 184 pharmaceutical companies were provided with licenses (compared to 232 and 102 in 2005, respectively), yet the number of licenses to entities involved in handling drugs and psychotropic agents went down from 32 to 24, which is a little suspicious,’ says Galina Burdina of Sverdlovsk Region division of Roszdravnadzor. ‘Among the main offenses were lack of

‘In my opinion, it is only reasonable to put up no more than two Auchan supermarkets in the city’s suburbs; if they are located in the center of Yekaterinburg, this will increase congestion and force a number of local stores to close down,’ Valeriy Bubnov, General Director of Uniland Yekaterinburg, said to UrBC. ‘Besides, I don’t think fair completion among private companies allows for support of players from other fields of business, especially when it comes to foreign companies,’ Mr. Bubnov said. The whole issue originated when Sverdlovsk Region Governor Eduard Rossel suggested putting up

‘Deputy Mayor Vladimir Kritskiy chaired a meeting of an ad hoc committee regarding action that needs to be taken to protect investors from dishonest builders. The meeting was attended by the local council executives, representatives of the Federal Financial Market Service, public prosecution authorities, and Sverdlovsk Region Duma deputies,’ reports Vasiliy Ganzhin, Chairman of Right to a Dwelling, an NGO. ‘The committee arrived at a decision to take some preventive steps in respect of Noviy Grad, the local builder that owns a number of land allotments and keeps collecting money from the

Concern Kalina published its annual report for 2006 (drawn up according to the International Financial Reporting Standards) on March 22, 2007. The company’s revenues and gross profit reached the point of $344,150,000 and $154,879,000 respectively, which is 19.4% and 14.8% better than in 2005. Kalina’s net profit amounted to $15,374,000, which is 34.9% less than a year earlier. Their EBITDA came to $37,983,000, which falls short of the previous year’s figures by 1.4%, reports the company’s press officer.

Vice President of Russian Railways Sergey Kozyrev was appointed acting Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways, says Moscow-based spokesperson of Russian Railways. The Board of Directors of Russian Railways decided at a meeting in Moscow on March 20, 2007 that Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Shevket Shaidullin should resign. The reasons for Mr. Shaidullin’s resignation were to have been announced at a briefing scheduled for 2 PM on March 22, 2007, but this press conference was put off indefinitely.

Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government for Social Policy Vladimir Vlasov chaired a meeting of the regional Healthcare Committee to discuss their performance in 2006 and plans for this year. The authorities spent over 22 billion RUR on the so-called state-funded guarantees; the total number of investments in the national projects and state programs amounted to 26 billion. The population loss went down 8%, or to 20,000 people, birth rate rose 3% and reached the point of 10.7 infants per 1,000 people, with the town of Aramil reaching the level of the stable year 1996 (15.4 infants per 1,000

The average price of a square meter of a Yekaterinburg-based dwelling comes to 56,000 RUR at the moment. This figure can be applied to both existing homes and buildings under construction, Deputy Mayor Vladimir Kritskiy announced at a press conference. ‘I believe the introduction of a number of mortgage lending programs was one of the key factors that determined the dramatic increase in housing prices in 2006. So, I don’t think the same hype is likely to occur in 2007; the prices will probably go up 20% to 25%. Even now, the price growth rate tends to slow down and the market appears to be

Yekaterinburg is going to host the 5th International Conference on Heating Equipment Restoration, Maintenance, and Repair on March 28-30, 2007. According to the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant, the conference is aimed at information exchange and experience-sharing. The participants (executives of RAO UES of Russia, territorial power generating companies, power stations, contractors, and machine-building enterprises from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Europe, and Japan, as well as faculty of industrial colleges) are to discuss the ways of upgrading equipment, using advanced

‘The reason for canceling our contract with IKEA Torg (Trade and Real Estate) Ltd. was zero profitability. IKEA only offers disadvantageous working terms; their prices don’t keep up with the inflation rate (12% in 2006 plus the statistical inflation), which made us lose about 30% of profits,’ Sales Director of Urallesprom Evgeniy Perov said to UrBC. ‘What is more, the raw stuffs and electricity prices soared last year; besides, our outgoings went up due to pay rises. IKEA Torg, however, refused to consider these factors, and we had to cancel our contract with them,’ Mr. Perov explained.

‘The decision of Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant’s shareholders to pass a dividend for 2006 may have been caused by their wish to reinvest the profits in order to get better dividends in the future. If the shareholders choose to reinvest, they thus declare that their company has some excellent investment opportunities, but the ROE (return on equity) coefficient of Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant does not look like it. It’s actually lower than the average figures in this branch,’ maintains Vsevolod Chaschin of Blagodat Securities Investment Company. The Board of Directors of Chelyabinsk

A meeting of Union of Sverdlovsk Region Entrepreneurs and Manufacturers took place in the Government House of Yekaterinburg on March 22, 2007, reports the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region. In his report, Chairman Vladimir Semenov said that the gross regional product had gone up 400 billion RUR over five years (from 200 billion in 2002 to 600 billion in 2007). The investments in the Ural companies’ fixed capital rose to 133.8 billion RUR; the average wage of an industrial worker increased from 3,200 RUR to 13,900 RUR a month. The volume of foreign investments amounted to

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel held a meeting devoted to the development of the region’s rural areas on March 22, 2007, reports the Governor’s press officer. The local players sold us 7,000 tons of milk last year; the figure is expected to rise to 10,000 tons this year and to 20,000 tons in 2008; the producers are also estimated to supply 20,000 tons of meat in two years’ time. ‘There are 239,732 agricultural households in the Mid-Urals today, but only 65,000 rural dwellers actually raise cattle. This is obviously very little. There are a few reasons for this: for one thing, the

‘The discussions of a possible ban on the use of IL 86 planes for flying Russian tourists to Egypt have been going on for the last five years, but the decisions have always been favorable for these airplanes since Egypt itself is interested in our travelers,’ says the spokesperson for Ural Airlines. ‘There are two possible outcomes right now: according to the first scenario, Russian aviation authorities, including the Department of Transport, will negotiate for the use of IL 86 planes, as this is what quite a few Russian carriers and their customers want. The second scenario means the planes

The division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) in Yekaterinburg summed up the results of its activity in 2006. The agency received more than 2,000 complaints from the local residents, which is almost twice the previous year’s number. Complaints regarding unsuitable living conditions experienced a particularly dramatic increase. The city dwellers are mainly concerned with the poor state of entrances, hallways, and basements in their apartment blocks as well as low quality of cleaning and garbage collecting and lack of regular overhauls. People are also unhappy about the

‘A company has to undergo bankruptcy proceedings after it has been found insolvent in order to pay off its debts to creditors. All the actions a trustee in bankruptcy takes are targeted at satisfying the creditors’ claims, possibly through putting the company’s assets up to auction,’ Irina Kaleeva of Jus-Cogens Ltd. said to UrBC relating to HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local developer). ‘People who invested their money in the would-be buildings now need to apply for the contract annulment, claim their money back, and demand that they be included in the list of

The division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) in the Republic of Dagestan found critical amounts of pesticides in fresh pomegranates imported from Azerbaijan without any quality or safety certificates; in fact, the pesticide content exceeded the upper limit six or seven times. Rospotrebnadzor’s division in Yekaterinburg has already planned to check the quality of pomegranates in local stores, with emphasis laid on whether the shops have documents that indicate the origin, quality, and safety of fresh fruit imported from Azerbaijan. These inspections are targeted at

Evraz Group is planning to buy a 5.003% share holding of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil. Mastercroft Limited, the company’s subsidiary that owns 94.997% of the Complex, has offered 65.541 million shares to the minority shareholder; these shares are to be acquired before May 29, 2007 for 63.72 RUR ($2.45) apiece. The total cost of the 5.003% share holding will thus come to 4.18 billion RUR, reports the spokesperson for Evraz Group.

A facilities manager and a test-pilot of Airbus, a globally recognized aircraft constructing corporation, visited the premises of Ural Airlines in Yekaterinburg in mid-March, reports the company’s press officer. The French experts say they aim to build up cooperation ties with their Ural partners as well as make sure Airbus planes are used effectively and safely. Actually, large foreign companies normally choose to sign leasing agreements only with well-reputed Russian carriers and keep controlling their use of aircraft throughout the whole period. This time, Airbus executives tested the

Viktor Chirkov, head of the local division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog), responded to questions on consumer rights protection that were posed by the readers of Vecherniy Yekaterinburg newspaper on March 15, 2007. One of the complaints was related to possible violation of sanitary regulations in Yekaterinburg-based Auchan, reports the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor in Yekaterinburg. ‘The current legislation prevents us from doing scheduled inspections in Auchan as this food retailer has not been around for two years yet. A customer complaint, however, gives us