Yekaterinburg Municipal Council received the final plan for the repairs and replacement of heating mains in the Urals’ capital from the heat supplier TGK-9; this plan is part of the company’s preparations for the heating season 2012/2013. While the original plan provided for the replacement of 15 km worth of pipelines with the diameters of 500 and 1000mm, the final version covers the repairs and replacement of 18km worth of pipelines. ‘If one compares TGK-9’s last year’s figures and the plans for this year, it’s clear that the volume of network repairs is virtually the same in both cases. I’d

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports that its authorized representatives, acting in accordance with Article 76 of the Federal Law On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), were appointed to seventeen lending institutions (as of April 1, 2012). For one, the representatives are now working at Alfa-Bank, Sberbank of Russia, Nomos-Bank, Khanty-Mansiysky Bank, and a number of other lending institutions.

A work meeting dedicated to Pirelli Russian Cup 2011/2012 was held at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium. The meeting was attended by experts from the Russian Football Union, some of the region’s ministers, members of Yekaterinburg Municipal Council, and representatives of the city and the region’s law enforcement authorities, and Central Stadium and Ural Football Club members. The members of the Russian Football Union presented their requirements for holding the Cup’s final game. Security was one of the important points on the agenda. The ticketing program, events for football fans, volunteer

The clash around Yekaterinburg EXPO exhibition center keeps unfolding. According to people from the construction company Rusgrad, the clash resulted in an actual takeover attempt at the construction site today. ‘Six men blocked the entrance to the construction site when the representatives of our DG tried to get there this morning. The men said they were employed with a private security firm but refused to produce any documents to prove it. The builders, who couldn’t enter the site, called the police; the arrival of the latter was obviously disconcerting to the men, but they did not leave,’

Starting April 17, Ural Airlines is offering a flight to a new destination: from Saint Petersburg to Yerevan and back. The flights will be operated every Tuesday using a comfortable A 321. The cheapest tickets are available for ?155 (one-way, excluding the fees). These can already be booked via the company’s website www.uralairlines.com and in the booking offices, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines also operates flights to the Armenian capital that depart from Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, and Samara. These flights are operated on Thursdays, Tuesdays, and Mondays,

Svyatogor has been placed on the list of companies owing more than 1m RUR to the Russian Federation’s budget. This information (good as of March 15, 2012) was provided by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration court started looking into the clash between Uralmedstroy and Castorama RUS. This happened on the eve of Castorama’s opening in Yekaterinburg. The hypermarket in Shefskaya St, whose area comes to more than 10,000 sq m, is to start operating on April 21, 2012. According to the files of the case, the developer insists on being paid 5.16m RUR by Castorama RUS. The preliminary court hearing has been set for May 4, 2012.

Starting April 13, 2012, Belavia Airlines will no longer be operating flights to Yekaterinburg. This ban (involving a number of other Russian cities as well) was imposed by Rosaviation, Kommersant reports. The ultimatum delivered by Byelorussia to Russian air carriers resulted in yet another conflict escalation in the field of air travel. In response to Byelorussia threatening to limit the number of flights Russian airlines can operate from Moscow to Minsk, Russia’s Transport Ministry informed Byelorussia that, starting April 13, Belavia will also be unable to operate flights from Minsk to

DVI Ural has been placed on the list of companies owing more than 1m RUR to the Russian Federation’s budget. This information (good as of March 15, 2012) was provided by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, April 6, 2012. Under the Russian Federation President Dmitri Medvedev’s decree the Director-General of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Boris Dubrovsky was awarded the Order of Honor. MMK executive was given the award for his ‘work achievements and many years of conscientious performance’. Boris Dubrovsky was born in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region on November 22, 1958. He graduated with honors from Magnitogorsk Mining & Metallurgical Academy in 1990 with a major in metal forming and from the Russian Presidential Academy of National

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2012. 3.9% of workplaces in Yekaterinburg’s Ordzhonikidzevsky district do not meet the sanitary and hygienic requirements in terms of air pollutants concentration; 6% of workplaces have excessive noise levels, and 3.8% of workplaces have excessive vibration, Rospotrebnadzor reports. In 2011, 26 instances of professional chronic illnesses were diagnosed in Ordzhonikidzevsky district; the greatest proportion of those was diagnosed at Uralmashzavod. In 2011, fifteen instances were diagnosed at the plant (compared with ten cases a year earlier). This came to 57% of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2012. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court looked into the clash between Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Consumer Rights Protection Surveillance Agency (Rospotrebnadzor) and Koltsovo Airport. Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division’s claims were considered to be well-grounded, legitimate, and accomplishable, the division’s press service reports. In 2011, the agency inspected Koltsovo Airport for compliance with the sanitary legislation, consumer rights legislation, and licensing requirements. The inspection revealed numerous violations of the sanitary and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2012. Beloyarskaya nuclear power station’s US BAES, the daughter company of Uralenergostroy that was set up specifically to supervise the construction and assembly jobs at the power station’s power generating unit BN 800, was featured in a bankruptcy claim submitted to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court on April 2, 2012. The plaintiff’s representative Finishing Jobs Directorate 1 told the reporters that US BAES owed them over 7m RUR. For the time being, the court took no action regarding the claim. In fact, the court is also considering another claim laid by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2012. Koltsovo Airport’s spring- and summer-timetable came into effect at the end of March. The timetable offers flights to all the 98 available destinations, of which 58 destinations are international ones (of which 34 destinations are holiday ones, including those around the CIS), and 40 are domestic ones. Among the new destinations expected to be available are Harbin, Shardzha, Urumchi, Lenkoran, Gyumri, Kulyab, Noyabrsk, Vorkuta, and Makhachkala. More flights are now being operated to nearly all the popular summer holiday destinations. The number of flights

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 5, 2012. AstanaEnergoPromStroy & Co increased the sum of the claim against Beloyarskaya nuclear power station’s US BAES to 76.67m RUR. The sum comprises 61.53m RUR worth of unpaid work completed in accordance with the contractor’s agreement and 15.23m RUR worth of interest charged for using another party’s funds. In fact, the original sum of the claim placed with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court came to 73.98m RUR. US BAES tried to get the court to declare that the plaintiff had missed the action limitation period, but the court rejected the station’s

Ural Civil Aviation Plant is now on the list of companies whose debt to the Russian Federation budget exceeds 1m RUR. These data (good as of March 15, 2012) were presented by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

Rostourism took 301 companies off its Unified Register of Tour Operators recently. For one, Yekaterinburg International Tourism Bureau Sputnik was among the excluded operators, the Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. According to what Deputy Head of Rostourism’s Legal Department Gennady Chutkin said at the Public Chamber meeting on changes in the tourist legislation, normally only about ten to fifteen companies get excluded from the register. ‘301 businesses is an impressive figure. They might steel be able to renew their financial guarantees and make it back to the register.

Ural Transport Machine-Building Plant is now on the list of companies whose debt to the Russian Federation budget exceeds 1m RUR. These data (good as of March 15, 2012) were presented by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

An investment committee chaired by Governor Alexander Misharin has been set up in Sverdlovsk Region. The Governor’s decree states that the committee’s key tasks are to improve the region’s investment climate, to promote a unified policy aimed at rational distribution of production forces throughout the area, to come up with proposals for the Governor concerning the local investment climate improvements, and to develop state-private partnership. Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin and the region’s Investments & Development Minister Mikhail Maksimov were appointed Deputy

Russian Railways Public Company is considering hiring foreign companies as consultants for the reconstruction of some railway stations in Russia, the company’s Railway Stations Directorate reports. The carrier’s experts are now elaborating the idea and are discussing it with the interested foreign companies. The task is to convert Russia’s railway stations into transportation and connecting hubs, RIA Novosti reports. For one, experts from AREP (Sociйtй Nationale des Chemins de fer Franсais/SNCF’s daughter enterprise) might be involved in the reconstruction of Krasnodar Territory-based railway