McDonald’s fast food chain is going significantly to expand its presence in the Ural Region; the company is planning to launch about twenty restaurants here in the next two years, Kommersant reports. McDonald’s Logistics Manager for Russia and Eastern Europe Sergey Kapkov told the newspaper that the company was planning to set up some twenty outlets in the Urals (including Perm). ‘About a dozen restaurants are run in Ural Federal District today. Over the next two years, we expect to open fifteen to twenty more. Besides, we’ve also got a ten-year development plan that covers for the launch of

The special economic zone Titanium Valley’s stockholders are planning to re-elect the company’s BOD in the course of an extraordinary general meeting. The decision is to be made on August 20, 2012. The agenda of the meeting also covers the approval of a provision on the company’s Board of Directors as well of a provision on the review committee and the election of the new BOD for Titanium Valley.

Radio Aids Plant is not going to pay any share dividend for the year 2011. This decision, taken at the annual general meeting, has been reported via the plant’s official announcement. The company’s press release states their net profit for last year will be directed to R & D and invested into new equipment, MFD InfoCenter reports.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court admitted that the tax authorities’ claims against OAO Oil Plant are well grounded. The Interregional division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service for Sverdlovsk Region’s largest taxpayers carried out an in-house tax audit of the plant’s VAT declaration. The results of the inspection were presented in the Act dated July 28, 2011; after the report had been studied and the taxpayers’ claims accounted for, it was decided to reject the demands to make the plant face tax liability and not to allow the tax deduction option in what regards the tax declaration for the

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court has accepted Bank Uralsib’s application regarding being placed on the list of Ural-Hotel-Standard’s creditors; the bank’s claims amount to 432.01m RUR. The same decision was made in relation to Bank VTB, whose claims come to 651.17m RUR. Both claims are to be heard on June 20, 2012. Now on April 12, 2012 an observation procedure involving Ural-Hotel-Standard was launched. Sergey Ryvkin was appointed the debtor’s trustee in bankruptcy. At the same time, the Internal Affairs Ministry keeps investigating another case. According to the Ministry’s Main

The Italian company Officine Meccaniche Pejrani srl made the installation of Newster-10 and Newster-5 apparatuses illegal in Yekaterinburg. The petition to this extent was sustained by Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. The company manufactures medical equipment, including medical waste recycling units. Officine Meccaniche Pejrani srl went to court asking for the protection of its exclusive rights over the invention related to thermal sterilization/disinfection of waste (Russian Federation Patent 2128522) through forbidding the defendant (Germed Technologies) to import to Russia, sell, put

Uraltransbank reduced the amount of its financial claims to the founder of Fond Mira Igor Dulebints down to 10.06m RUR. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court sustained the bank’s petition to this extent. Igor I. Dulebints had to undergo an observation procedure in October 2012 after a corresponding application had been submitted by his creditor A. Davydkov. On February 20, 2012 the court ruled that Dulebints had to undergo bankruptcy proceedings. On March 22, 2012 a claim was placed with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court by Ural Transport Bank (Uraltransbank); the bank wanted to be on the

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev signed Decree 403-UG dated June 9, 2012 which appoints Eduard Rossel a member of the Russian Federation’s Soviet of the Federation within the Federal Assembly. Rossel will now be a representative of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region in the Soviet. The decree comes into full effect the moment it has been signed. Rossel became Senator in December 2009 and was the Soviet of the Federation Member for Budget & Financial Markets. Once the new Governor of Sverdlovsk Region had been appointed, Rossel resigned in full compliance with the existing

Yekaterinburg-based Avtomobilist Hockey Club started repaying the arrears in salaries to the hockey players, the club’s official webpage says. The club agreed with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev that they should turn down the Continental Hockey League’s loan offer and pay the salaries using the club’s own funds. In fact, a survey was conducted among the League member clubs, asking their opinion on whether a loan should be granted to Avtomobilist using the League’s reserves so that the team could be present at the next championship. Under the existing rules, a club that fails

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) might impose a 130m-ruble fine of Metro Cash & Carry’s Russia-based daughter enterprise. This will be the largest fine in the history of Russian retail business so far. Last year, the FAS issued a total of 35.3m RUR worth of fines involving trade law violators, RBC daily says. In November 2011, the service’s central office declared OOO Metro Cash & Carry (the Russian branch of the German Metro Cash & Carry) guilty of discriminating against their fish suppliers (Article 13 of the Trade Act). The retailer wanted its contractors to

Yekaterinburg will be presented as a candidate for hosting the World Universal Exhibition EXPO 2020 at the BIE’s General Assembly in Paris. Delegates from 160 countries will attend. The 151st General Assembly will be held in Paris on June 11-12, 2012. The International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) is an international organization in charge of world-scale exhibitions that sets the date and the venue for every EXPO. During the assembly, cities aspiring to host the world exhibitions in 2017 and 2020 will have to present their applications and to speak of the advantages of the exhibition concepts

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev keeps on meeting heads of the major industrial holdings that run some of their enterprises in the Mid-Urals. For one, he spoke about the implementation of investment projects, ways to increase the regional budget’s revenues, and raise the locals’ income with EvrazHolding BOD Chairman Alexander Abramov. The Governor said the quality of life depended directly on the scale of one’s pay, so it was crucial for the regional authorities to make sure big industrial holdings, including Evraz, take steps to increase their employees’ incomes. EvrazHolding

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region is going personally to supervise the spending of funds allocated for the organization and coordination of the Ural International Exhibition/Forum Innoprom 2012. ‘The money must be spent expediently,’ Evgeny Kuivashev said in answer to the reporters’ questions during a fair preparation briefing. ‘One shouldn't change horses in midstream, so it will be the same company that did it before that will keep on preparing for this grand event. One should be aware that there is no time left to look for a new contractor. So my job as a Governor is to control the

‘Deputy Chairman of Russian Federation Government Arkady Dvorkovitch will be in charge of EXPO 2020. He is to hold an Innoprom coordination committee meeting on June 25, 2012,’ says Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) fulfilled its obligations relating to the 01 Series exchange-traded debentures by redeeming 1.4bn RUR worth of bonds with the help of its own funds and by paying the coupon interest due in full, the company’s press service reports. 62.33 RUR, or a 12.5% annual interest rate, was paid per each 1,000-ruble inconvertible bearer bond. ‘The company always has met and keeps on meeting its creditor obligations. So redeeming the bonds within the offer is a routine event for us,’ says the plant’s Director-General Yaroslav Zhdan.

In March 2012, Sverdlovsk Interregional Public Prosecution Authorities for the Environment checked the compliance of some local companies with the legislation on safe operation of hazardous production facilities. The inspection involved VIZ, located at 28 Kirov St in Yekaterinburg. The inspection revealed that under its hazardous facilities registration certificate, VIZ has been operating one hazardous production facility (a steel enamelware production site), yet the enterprise had no license allowing it to operate explosion-prone production facilities at the time of the inspection. The

The Russian Federation Government is willing to sell nearly 1,500 joint stock companies by 2016, including such giants as Rosneft and VTB. However, the selling schedule does not have any fixed dates yet: the White House will have to take the worsening financial markets conditions into account, RBC daily writes. About 200 small and medium joint stock companies will be put up to auction by the fall of 2012; the sales are expected to yield about 300bn RUR to the budget, the Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said at a government meeting recently. The 2012-2016 privatization plan

Ural Airlines won in the city contest called Best Taxpayer. The contest was coordinated by Yekaterinburg Council and targeted at singling out the bona fide taxpayers who contribute to the city’s development. Our of fourteen candidates selected by the board of experts for the final voting, six best companies were picked out, including Ural Airlines, the air carrier’s press service reports. In 2011, Ural Airlines paid 617m RUR to the budgets and non-budgetary funds at all levels. The better part of this sum (192m RUR) was made in the form of obligatory retirement insurance; 173m RUR was made in

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev asked the head of the Governor Administration Yakov Silin to personally supervise the situation around Ural Electro-Chemical Plant in Novouralsk. Silin is to meet the representatives of Rosatom State Corporation next week in order to talk over a number of issues relating to the protection of the local dweller’s labor rights and to come up with a number of measures to make things at the plant more stable. Sverdlovsk Region Government and the regional Industry & Science Ministry are also working on ruling the situation out. ‘Things look

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court halted the proceedings related to the claim laid by MDM Bank against the assets of former Avtoland Holding. The bank took the case to court in order to make Uralchermetavto and Avtoland Sever (the loan guarantors) 206.47m RUR. This sum comprises the loan repayment, the interest, and the fines. In the course of the last sessions, the court considered Uralchermetavto’s petition that asked for the proceedings to be halted until another arbitration case ruling comes into effect. The court decided to sustain this petition, since the said case has to do with the