According to the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Railways, there have so far been eight bomb alarms concerning their premises since the beginning of the year, five of which had to do with the alleged mining of Yekaterinburg railway station and one with mining of Perm railway station. One instance involved placing some mines within a railway carriage, and another – mining the railways proper. All the alarms turned out to be groundless. Each case of ‘false mining’ resulted in criminal action (Article 207 of Russian Criminal Code, ‘Reporting knowingly false information about a terrorist act’)

‘The debt of Yekaterinburg Winery JSC has recently been bought by CentroCredit CJSC of Moscow. Apparently, this Moscow bank made proposals to three banks who were the creditors of the winery,’ the company’s trustee in bankruptcy Eduard Chu said to UrBC representative. According to Mr Chu, the transaction is going to cost around 250m RUR. He also said that the total assessment of the assets of the winery was still in process as the procedure had not been approved of by the Federal Property Management Agency.

Chairman of RAO UES of Russia Anatoliy Chubais signed a protocol that enumerates 16 power facilities located in the ‘dramatically overloaded regions’ that could experience electricity cuts in the coming winter. Yekaterinburg was on the list among the other 15 places. According to the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company, over twenty local businesses were asked to think of some electricity-saving measures in August 2006. If the temperature does not come any lower than 25 degrees centigrade below this winter, all the power facilities should handle the workload okay.

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) has been awarded the Mayor’s diploma for extensive charity work. The company traditionally runs about ten charity and support projects. Evraz Group is keenly aware of their social liabilities as a corporation, this is why their activity is targeted at providing long-term cooperation between business and society. The Complex usually supports development of educational and national healthcare establishments, cultural and sports facilities, and religious and social bodies. This year, the company has already helped over 80

Sredneuralskiy Winery Ltd. (part of AVS-group) applied to Federal Tax Service for a license permitting them to produce alcohol-containing drinks in July 2006. As Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Provision Sergey Latzkov said to UrBC representative, the company still has not got a license, so it is unable to resume its activity.

Magnesite Industrial Complex (part of Magnesite Group) has raised its refractory goods and commercial powders output by 6.2% (up to 254,900 tons) and by 13.7% (up to 526,900 tons), respectively, throughout January to August 2006 compared to the corresponding months of 2005. In the eight months of this year, the company has shipped 8.9% more powders (up to 526,900 tons) and 2.2% more refractory goods (over 243,800 tons), reported the company’s Production Management Director B. Ponomarev.

Real estate of Korkinskaya confectionery has been put up to tender. The area of the premises is 15,080 square meters, with the total area of buildings and other structures coming to 5,740 square meters. The opening bid is 8m RUR.

The name of the General Director of TGK-9, the power generating company, will be announced in the very near future. The Board meeting held in absentia took place on September 12, 2006; the points on the agenda concerned early leave of current GD Valeriy Rodin and appointing former Deputy GD for Sales Andrey Makarov. The votes are currently being counted. The Board of Directors also considered signing an agreement with Morgan Stanley and Co. International Limited Consortium and Troika Dialog Investment Company concerning rendering services in the field of floating an additional stock issue.

Technicians of Kazskiy subsidiary of Evrazruda JSC (part of Evraz Group) began a 51-day overhaul targeted at replacing the No. 2 winder drum at their Main groove. This operation is quite unique, since this is the first time in the experience of Evrazruda when the company’s workers replace such a huge worn-out apparatus. One shaft of the drum alone weighs 34 tons and its body 70 tons, with the diameter of the drum coming to 5 meters. Novokuznetsk Ltd. has been employed as the general contractor for the project; Evrazruda also used the labour force of its Kazskiy subsidiary; as for the

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) set up a special environmental monitoring committee that should be supervising the way the company obeys the conservation laws and preventing possible offenses. The committee is made up of the executives from the company’s Environmental, Legal, and Economic Departments. This week, they are going to ask for data from all of the other departments that have to do with (lack of) offenses of conservation laws, the reasons for violations and preventive steps taken to avoid them in future. These data analysis should provide a

As Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Provision Sergey Latzkov said to UrBC representative, the property of Yekaterinburg Distillery Ltd. is now managed by Ural Commerce and Industry Company Ltd. The distillery was actually transformed into a new legal entity. ‘Ural Commerce and Industry Company has already got a license yet it cannot start operating until is has its new formula officially approved of. The company claims to be producing 100 to 200 decalitres a month soon,’ Mr Latzkov said. He also noted that the company would be using the well-established brands of Yekaterinburg Distillery as

This August, Magnesite Industrial Complex (part of Magnesite Group) has produced 31,200 tons of refractory goods, which exceeds the figures for last August by 6.7%. The commercial powders output also went up by 9.6% and came to 67,900 tons. ‘We had somewhat unusual orders last month, for example, a large number of orders for cement goods supplies. All of the company’s shops kept performing well and achieved the target figures,’ said Production Management Director B. Ponomarev.

South Ural subsidiary of Raiffeisenbank Austria introduced the new seller-paying scheme for mortgages in September 2006. According to their spokesperson, now the whole amount indicated in the purchase and sale agreement (including the loan money) can be transmitted to the seller after producing written notice of placing the application with the chamber of real estate. This means the clients are now offered a wider range of dwellings to choose from and buy on a mortgage. The management of South Ural believes that this is particularly important in the circumstances when the demand for the

Boris Diakonov was appointed Chairman of Bank24.ru at the general shareholder meeting on September 13, 2006. ‘It makes sense to choose a shareholder with the second largest holding for the position,’ said Chairman of Management Board Sergey Lapshin. The Board of Directors now consists of Mr Lapshin, Independent Director Paul Goncharoff, and Counselors of Chairman of Management Board T. V. Pakulina and Yu. V. Petrovskiy, reports the spokesperson for the bank.

‘There is no doubt that this hypermarket is going to be popular with customers, especially at the beginning. Yet whether they will come back afterwards remains to be seen, given in particular the store’s whereabouts. Auchan isn’t located downtown, so it’s questionable whether the residents of Yekaterinburg will be visiting the place on regular basis,’ said Chairman of Alliance Independent Partnership Alexei Podolyako.

The amount of criminal lawsuits involving copyright violation has increased by fourfold this year (compared to 2005). Thus, the figure soared from 19 cases in the first half of 2005 to 80 cases in the first half of 2006. Following the applications from representatives of Microsoft, AutoDesk, and Adobe that claimed that some production and design offices might be using illegal copies of their copyrighted software, the public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region carried out a number of inquiries. These inquiries revealed that the offense did take place. The computers of one production

As the spokesperson for the Court of Noviy Urengoi said to UrBC representative, the court proceedings concerning the arrears of wages at SevTyumenTransPut would be resumed at 10 AM today. The case of Chairman of EuroGreen and former CEO of SevTyumenTransPut Ilya Gaffner, who is charged with failing to pay 47m RUR worth of wages to employees of SevTyumenTransPut, began yesterday. The public prosecution authorities that have been dealing with the inquiry believe that Mr Gaffner transmitted the money into the accounts of a number of Yekaterinburg firms. Should he be proved guilty, Mr Gaffner may

According to the spokesperson for the airport Yulia Fedotova, three Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights were delayed yesterday due to a bomb alarm. Ms Fedotova explained that the special service agents completed searching at 7 PM yesterday; the bomb wasn’t found, so the delayed planes eventually took off.

TGK-9, the local generating company, will start supplying heat to consumers after the municipal councils sign decrees on the beginning of the heating season, reports the company’s spokesperson. These documents are expected to be signed on September 15, and the first buildings to receive heat will be hospitals, schools, kindergartens and day care centers. In the meantime, the company’s experts say that the regional consumers owe the company 562m RUR, with Yekaterinburg’s largest communal facilities operators owing 227m RUR for the heat they’ve received. The bad debtors list includes operators

The court session concerning the claim laid by Starwood Trading Ltd. of the UK against Metallurgical Works of Zlatoust took place in Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration on September 12, 2006. ‘The judge decided to involve the third party yesterday; this is the director of the Bahamas offshore zone; the works was using him to conduct most of its transactions. The assistant to the judge is now trying to get in touch with this person who is allegedly in Chelyabinsk at the moment,’ said the spokesperson for Sovetnik Ltd., the legal representative of the British company. Starwood Trading Ltd.