Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is considering taking legal action against the distributors and dealers of ŠKODA, Hyundai, KIA, JAGUAR, Land Rover, and Ford automobiles and of AUDI, ŠKODA, and Volkswagen car parts, the Service’s press officer reports. Having looked into the existing relations between the distributors and the dealing and maintenance centers, the FAS stated that many of the distributors make their partners combine the selling and the after-sales services, which makes it difficult for the existing independent maintenance centers to enter the market: in order to get the

Officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Sverdlovsk Region Main Investigative Department instituted criminal proceedings against the management of Uraltransmash (based in Yekaterinburg and a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation). The charges are based on Article 201 of Russia’s Criminal Code (abuse of office). The files for the investigation were supplied by the staff of the region’s Federal Security Service division, Kommersant refers to its own sources as saying. The Main Investigative Department’s inquiry team are now looking into the legitimacy of the plant’s deals with suppliers.

Sergey Bukreyev was appointed Deputy Director-General and Director for Development of ERGO Russia’s Ural branch. Prior to this new appointment, he was the director at the region’s directorate. ‘It is exactly in the North-West and the Urals that ERGO’s Russian business has been developing most successfully and rapidly over the last few years. This is why it was decided to upgrade the status of the regional directorates’ heads and to appoint them Deputy Directors-General. I hope that after the performance reports for 2012 become available for analysis, the heads of other regional directorates

Online voting for the best logo for Ural IT cluster is still in progress on Arena Multimedia International Training Center’s website. Eight projects have been offered for public scrutiny altogether. Some work on the logo for Ural IT Cluster, a non-profit partnership, was part of the agenda of Design Managers’ Days in Yekaterinburg last weekend. The event was attended by experts from British Higher School of Art & Design, Parsons The New School For Design, the Association of Design Management, Ural State University of Economics’ Marketing & International Management Department, and

Yekaterinburg Dairy Plant No. 1 will probably be converted into a Danone yoghurt and dairy products plant, Prime Agency reports. In fact, Unimilk Company (a member of Danone Unimilk Group) bought a 100% shareholding in Yekaterinburg Dairy Plant No.1 earlier, the company explains. Danone is also planning to increase the plant’s baby food output.

Microsoft Corporation is going to launch a micro-grant (up to $10,000) program for IT startups in 2012, CEO Microsoft Rus Strategic Technologies Department’s Seed Financing Fund Gaidar Magdanurov told RIA Novosti. ‘We intend to issue grants to finance a hundred projects over the next decade; last year, we offered grants to eight projects, and two grants have been issued since the beginning of the year; these amount to $40,000 and $50,000. This year we’ll also start offering micro-grants of up to $10,000, there will be at least six of those,’ he said. Magdanurov explained the company was

According to the preliminary data available, the consolidated net profit of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International AG decreased by 17.76% in 2011 and thus amounted to ?968m, the bank’s press release states. At the same time, the company’s pre-tax profit rose by 6.68% last year compared with the year 2010, and came to ?1.37bn. The banking group’s net interest profit went up by 2.49% in 2011 and reached ?3.66bn. The final report will be published on March 29, Banki.ru reports.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected the claim laid by Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch against Russia’s Federal Tax Service, liquidation committees for Magnum-2 and Magnum-9 strong drinks supermarkets, and the committees’ Chair Inna Sulla. The bank insisted that the actions of the liquidation committees be declared unlawful and that the tax service (represented by the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate in Kirovsky District of Yekaterinburg) restore the entries regarding the liquidated legal entities in its Unified State Registers of Legal Entities. Sberbank claims that Ms Sulla did not

Sberbank of Russia wants its claims to a sole trader named Kirill Shlayen to be accounted for on the creditors’ list. The claim to this effect has been placed by the bank with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. It was declared on December 22, 2011 that Shlayen would have to undergo bankruptcy proceedings. Vadim Permikin was chosen as the trustee in bankruptcy for the case. At the moment, the sole traders owes his creditors 769.37m RUR. The hearing of Sberbank’s claim has been set for March 20, 2012. Kirill Shlayen ran the companies Resta Management and Omega Spirits Group in Oleg Fleganov’s

Prolonged windless weather that could be observed in Nizhniy Tagil at the end of January 2012 was the cause of the worsening environmental conditions that finally made the locals place a complaint with the public prosecution authorities. Due to these citizens’ complaints, the Nizhniy Tagil public prosecution authorities for the environment had to check how well the local enterprises Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) and Uralvagonzavod comply with the air protection regulations. It was detected that while this unfavorable weather held, NTMK’s coke production department kept shipping

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to accept Rusgrad Construction Company’s claim regarding the confiscation of assets from Ural Exhibition Center, which allegedly withholds these assets illegally. The assets in question are a number of non-residential buildings and rooms, a boiler house, and a water supply plant of Yekaterinburg EXPO Exhibition Center. The plaintiff did some work under the terms of a controversial agreement; the general contractor and the customer later clashed over the price of the work done and the payment. The real estate that Rusgrad indicated in its claim is

A crane operator was killed at EVRAZ Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Plant (KGOK) due to poor organization of work process. This was the conclusion Sverdlovsk Region State Labor Inspectorate came to. On January 6, 2012, a crane operator lost her balance and fell from the height of 27 meters when she was observing her EOT crane moving along the horizontal beam. The inquiry into the case resulted in an H-1 report. The files of the case have been transferred to public prosecution authorities. EVRAZ KGOK had to face administrative liability, that is, to pay a 50,000-ruble fine. The

The reason a worker was injured at UC RUSAL SUBR Krasnaya Shapochka mine was insufficient organization of labor protection, the State Labor Inspectorate reports. Now a worker was injured on December 21, 2011 when he was busy crushing bulky rocks in the mine with a chipping hammer. ‘It was revealed in the course of an investigation that this serious accident had been caused by poor organization of labor protection and insufficient employee training in what concerns compliance with the labor protection regulations. The worker was allowed to start crushing bulky rocks even though he had no

Criminal action was taken against Rosprirodnadzor officials who are suspected of accepting a ?90,000 bribe for their audit of Svyatogor (a member of UMMC Holding); they are also suspected of taking 11.8m RUR from the company for covering up the detected legal offenses. Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow has already ruled that head of Rosprirodnadzor’s Environmental Control Department Lyudmila Plushch must be taken under arrest, Kommersant reports. The official was under the Federal Security Service and the Internal Affairs Ministry Economic Security Departments’ officers’ observation for over a

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service fined OOO Peugeot Citroen Rus for running misleading advertisements on car loans for their Peugeot 308 and Peugeot 207 makes. The fine amounted to 110,000 RUR. The violation of the Advertising Act consisted in that only one loan term (the annual interest rate) was mentioned in the advertising clips on Peugeot 308 and Peugeot 207. ‘The fact that only one particular car loan term was referred to in the Peugeot 308 and Peugeot 207 ads means that the consumer who is interested in the service is unable to get sufficient information on this service. This, in

The press service of Russian Authors Society (RAO) reports Sverdlovsk Region Court rejected the complaint placed by Salut Movie Theater on Yekaterinburg’s Leninsky District Court’s ruling regarding the payment of royalties to foreign composers. ‘Given the decision taken by the court, Salut representatives’ comments on how RAO allegedly misinforms the public about the position movie theaters take in court disputes and on how courts tend to support these movie theaters in their judgment look unconvincing,’ RAO reports. In 2011, two claims RAO placed against movie theaters were left unheard for

Harley-Davidson’s official dealer representation will be opened in Yekaterinburg in the first half of March 2012. ‘The final decoration jobs are being completed, and all the necessary equipment is being installed,’ the store’s website states. It is also reported that the Harley-Davidson Yekaterinburg representation is a member of Harley-Davidson Group. OOO Motorcycle No. 1 (Harley-Davidson’s official dealer in Yekaterinburg) explains the store will be selling both new and used motorcycles.

The household appliances and electronic goods store Technosila closed down its outlet in Fan Fan Shopping Mall in Yekaterinburg. The store has already been replaced by another chain, Eldorado. This means Technosila now operates only two stores in Yekaterinburg, that is, in Greenwich and Park House malls. In fact, the outlet in Park House might soon stop operating as well. Manhattan Real Estate Management’s Yekaterinburg branch informed UrBC that yet another electronic goods chain, Media Markt, is about to open on the third floor of the mall. The German hypermarket is expected to use the area

Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Public Property Management Vitaly Nedelsky will not take part in the re-election of Koltsovo Airport’s Board of Directors by the stockholders. The decision was made by the airport’s BOD. It was suggested that Sverdlovsk Region should be represented on the board by Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Head of Administration Pavel Korolev and Transport & Roads Minister Gennady Marenkov. Nedelsky and Marenkov were both elected on the airport’s BOD in September 2011 in the course of an extraordinary general meeting.

Last year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) invested over 120m RUR in employee training. 12,883 employees took part in various professional development, re-training, and second specialization programs, including 6,747 blue-collar workers and 6,136 managers, experts, and clerks. The majority of workers (4,241 people) attended purpose-oriented courses last year, while 1,603 people underwent re-training programs, 339 people attended production & technical courses, and 564 people obtained a second qualification. MMK’s employee training spending amounted to 121.3m RUR last year. In