The PR agency Weber Shandwick announced that it was requested to promote Yekaterinburg as the host city for EXPO 2020 exhibition. This information is available from the company’s website. In fact, Yekaterinburg is currently among the five shortlist candidates for hosting the World Universal Exhibition in 2020. ‘We are proud to be engaged in supporting Russia and Yekaterinburg in their efforts to host EXPO 2020. We intend to create the strongest international team available and to use the experience from our best global PR campaigns to bring EXPO 2020 to Russia and to the Urals,’ says the

An ad hoc committee was set up to look into the causes and circumstances of a worker’s death at UC RUSAL Ural smelter. The worker was killed during switching operations with the railway carriages; according to the enterprise’s management, he slipped from the buffer bar onto the approaching lines and was deadly injured. ‘It has preliminarily been reported that the accident was caused by a violation of safety regulations, as the worker was located in the part of the carriage that is not meant for performing switching operations,’ UC RUSAL representative Roman Lukichev told UrBC. The company

Perm division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service fined ROSNO Insurance Company for colluding with Sberbank in the field of personal insurance for consumer loan applicants. The fine comes to 1.44m RUR, and the charges are based on Article 14.32 of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code. According to RBC daily, Sberbank made its loan applicants sign a life and health insurance agreement with ROSNO; no other insurers were available. In fact, Perm division of the FAS had already fined Sberbank for the same offense earlier; the fine came to 11m RUR then. ‘The insurance company

Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (VGOK) dumped 11.654m cubic meters of contaminated waste water in the system last year, which accounted for 8.1% of all the waste water dumped in the town of Nizhniy Tagil. These data are available from the public report on the state of and the protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in 2010. The report is based on the data provided by the state statistical service and environmental surveillance bodies as well as on the information from the state-run environmental protection authorities and leading conservationist and environmentalist

Uralvagonzavod dumped 12.72m cubic meters of contaminated waste water in the system last year, which accounted for 8.8% of all the waste water dumped in the town of Nizhniy Tagil. These data are available from the public report on the state of and the protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in 2010. The report is based on the data provided by the state statistical service and environmental surveillance bodies as well as on the information from the state-run environmental protection authorities and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

‘This Rezh-based nickel plant is a troubled enterprise, and its problems have a long history rooted in the fact that the production cost of nickel is actually higher than its market price. This plant is the surrounding town’s only employer, which is very important. The municipal authorities should pay special attention to the fact that there is a stoppage and that nearly 1,000 people need to find new jobs. The two-thirds of their wages that they get is not a bad thing at all, but something must be done right now, because, if the plant does not resume operating in two or three months, people

Ural Airlines was given the 97th position in the rating of the Urals and Siberia’s top 400 companies compiled by the Expert-Ural magazine. The rating is updated on a yearly basis and looks at the companies’ financial performance indicators as well as at its development dynamics, the airline’s press service explains. Over the course of one year, Ural Airlines was promoted by three points, from the 100th position in 2009 to the 97th position a year later.

Rosaviation forbade VIM Avia to operate any flights to Europe, RBC daily reports. On November 3, the airline received a wire from Rosaviation telling them that some limitations were imposed on its aircraft operator license regarding flights to the EU using Boeing 757-200 aircraft. ‘However, the official wording of the order still had not been conveyed to us by yesterday,’ the air carrier’s official representative told RBC daily.

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) dumped 29,215m cubic meters of contaminated waste water in the system last year, which accounted for 20.2% of all the waste water dumped in the town of Nizhniy Tagil. These data are available from the public report on the state of and the protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in 2010. The report is based on the data provided by the state statistical service and environmental surveillance bodies as well as on the information from the state-run environmental protection authorities and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

UrBC, Moscow, November 8, 2011. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) stopped prosecuting Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) on the suspicion that the enterprise violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 3) of the Federal Competition Protection Act, as no violation has apparently been committed, the FAS’s press service reports. The agency took action when the Russian pipe manufacturers complained about MMK infringing disadvantageous agreement terms upon them. According to a number of manufacturers, MMK increased the price of massive plates at its own discretion in January 2011. The

Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport emergency crew and firefighters watched with apprehension as a passenger Boeing from Surgut was trying to land, the airport’s press service informed Interfax. ‘The crew of Surgut-Saint Petersburg flight reported they had problems landing, which is why the firefighters and the emergency crew were sent down the landing strip,’ the press officer said. He explained this was a standard procedure for cases when pilots operating a plane feel something is not right while landing. UTair airplane landed smoothly, no one was hurt, the press officer added.

Russia’s metallurgical companies have felt the impact of the global market changes that first occurred in August 2011: the Russian holdings’ steel output went drastically down in September and reached the year’s lowest point. The official reason for the plunging output is said to lie in the seasonal consumption variations, Kommersant reports. According to Metal Courier’s statistics, Russia’s total steel production dropped by nearly 5% in September 2011 compared to August 2011 and came to 5.4m tons. In comparison with January, the output declined by 8.6% and in comparison with over 6m tons of

Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) conducted an unscheduled inspection of Linde Uraltechgaz to make sure the enterprise complies with the orders of Yekaterinburg Ordzhonikidzevsky and Zheleznodorozhny district’s chief sanitary inspector. As of the date of the inspection, October 4, 2011, the company turned out not to comply with the said orders in full, Rospotrebnadzor’s press officer reports. Following the inspection by the regional division of Rospotrebnadzor, three fines (a total of 2,100 RUR) were imposed on the enterprise’s executives and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, November 7, 2011. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)’s quality management system has been successfully audited and recertified for compliance with the international ISO 9001:2008 and ISO/TU 16949:2009 standards as well as with STO Gazprom 9001:2006 standard. For one week, the auditing committees comprising the experts from the international certification authority TUV NORD CERT and Paritet inspected the performance of the company’s processes aimed at the production of high-quality goods and meeting consumer’s needs. The audit involved nearly all

Under the order of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service’s Ural Federal District division No. 62-11-1416/pz-i dated October 31, 2011, the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based Dejа-Invest’s preference registered uncertified shares was halted.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court held a preliminary hearing of the claim laid by SK Iset against Ural Exhibition Center; the plaintiff wants to be paid 246.28m RUR for the jobs completed in the course of putting up the international exhibition center Yekaterinburg Expo. SK Iset was involved in building the engineering networks on the construction site between December 2010 and April 2011, and is now trying to get the money for the job. The company says the two parties did not sign any independent work contract, and all their agreements were mostly based on business correspondence and

The 9th Arbitration & Appeals Court supported the ruling of Moscow Arbitration Court that rejected the claim laid by UMMC Perspektiva Non-State Retirement Fund against Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service, Kommersant reports. The plaintiff disagreed with the Service’s order issued on March 31, 2011 that made the fund eliminate the legal violations contained in the decisions made by the company’s Board in February and March 2009 within thirty days. The decisions had to do with the redistribution of profits and losses obtained through the management of retirement savings and reserves

Transaero Aviation Company reports that its net profit decreased considerably in the third quarter of 2011, that is, from 494.31m RUR down to 402.34m RUR, or 18.6%. The company explains this has to do with the seasonal variations and says that at the same time its profits went up by 35% and revenues rose by 50% compared with the third quarter of 2010.

Justice of the Peace of Court Division No. 9 of Yekaterinburg Zheleznodorozhny district pronounced the verdict of ‘guilty’ upon a 33-year-old native of Irbit Andrei Betskikh; the man was found guilty of illegal use of counterfeit software products; the charges were based on Article 146 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. The court determined that Betskikh illegitimately bought some pirated computer games for Microsoft Xbox 360 trademarked by Microsoft and Electronic Arts Inc. and kept these in his home. The culprit then offered the CDs for sale over the Internet and sold 55 CDs

The net profit of VSMPO-Avisma Corporation decreased by 92.5% in the third quarter of 2011, that is, from 1.59bn RUR down to 119.32m RUR. The company explains this sharp decline in profits has to do with the re-evaluation of the existing currency liabilities necessitated by the growing dollar exchange rate in the third quarter of the year and by the dramatic increase in the dollar price in September 2011.