Russia’ Federal Antimonopoly Service fined OOO KB Uniastrum Bank for its loan ads; the bank is now to pay two 40,000-ruble fines, FAS’s press officer reports. On February 24, 2010, the Service declared that the bank’s loan advertisements contradicted the norms prescribed in Articles 5 (part 3, paragraph 15) and 9 of the Federal Advertising Act. ‘The offense consisted in the launch of an online, bank office, and media ad campaign in March-July 2009; the advertisements promoted Uniastrum Bank credit card-based loans and a special offer that provided for a holiday in Cyprus. The advertisements

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region is planning to propose a new legislation to the federal authorities. Mikhail Yurevitch, who has been running a large city for five years, believes it would be reasonable to direct the transport tax money to the town officials so as to finance municipal improvements. At the moment, 100% of the existing transport tax money gets transferred to the Russian Federation constituencies’ budgets. Chelyabinsk Region, for one, received 858.5 million RUR last year. Now the Governor suggests that this sum should go to the local towns and cities and be invested in roads and

‘Yekaterinburg’s key problem in terms of attracting foreign investment lies in the lack of good quality projects. Most of the projects that could actually interest international investors have not been built yet. On the other hand, one can find a market niche in virtually any field here, as the quality supply is still limited. Until very recently, for example, Yekaterinburg had no five-star hotels at all. Now this niche has been taken by the Hyatt Hotel,’ Cushman & Wakefield/Stiles & Riabokobylko’s General Director and Partner Sergey Riabokobylko announced in the course of a recent

OAO Uralenergotsvetmet is not going to pay any share dividend for the year 2009. The decision to this extent was taken by the company’s stockholders during the recent AGM in Yekaterinburg.

‘As is well known, we’ve been faced with an adverse budget this year. The deficit can be compensated in two ways: through an increase in profits or through taking out loans and giving out guarantees. We can also issue bonds and securities. However, when one comes to analyze the banks’ interest rates, it becomes obvious that this rate comes to 15% to 18% a year, whereas bonds an be issued at a smaller interest and the assets can be managed more easily into the bargain,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin says. ‘We have issued nearly 10 billion RUR worth of guarantees so far. As

‘The outcome of the last heating season is not quite rosy. Customers owe 4 billion RUR to Sverdlovsk Heating Supply Company, of which 1 billion RUR constitutes current debts and 3 billion RUR constitute overdue debt,’ the company’s Executive Director Sergey Yefimov said to UrBC reporters. ‘Our key debtors are the municipalities of Pervouralsk, Krasnoturyinsk, Nizhnyaya Tura, and Kachkanar. As for Pervouralsk, Anatoly Gredin has already set up an ad hoc committee to sort out the town’s problems, and now we are looking into the ways of dealing with them. All in all, such a large debt emerged

Following the demand of the prosecutor from Yekaterinburg’s Chkalovskiy district, an entertainment club located on the 27th floor of a housing block at Ordenonostsev St. in Yekaterinburg was temporarily closed down. This particular street is actually filled with skyscrapers put up by Atomstroycomplex, the city’s major developer. It was detected in the course of an investigation that the club, which belonged to OOO Home Club, did not comply with the sanitary-and-epidemiologic regulations, consumer rights, or fire safety regulations. This was why the public prosecution authorities instituted

‘MTS submitted its revised tax declarations for 2008 in 2009; as a result, we paid a smaller property tax because our earlier years’ payments had actually been greater than necessary,’ OAO MTS Ural Macro-region’s PR expert Darya Volkhina. In the meantime, the regional government’s business support committee declared recently that the local branch of OAO VympelCommunications (Beeline) and OAO MTS were directing less money to the regional budget. ‘MTS did not make any of its Yekaterinburg branch’s employees redundant last year. Quite on the contrary, the company created over a hundred new jobs

‘OAO VympelCom’s Yekaterinburg subsidiary keeps making increasingly more profit from rendering its services to the local customers, so the tax payments directed to Sverdlovsk Region’s budget have been increasing proportionally. This was also true of the year 2009, when the company’s profits soared against the previous year’s figures. Now the decrease in payments that the government officials mentioned at their latest meeting stems from the fact that the company has used its tax relief options in accordance with the property tax legislation,’ the company’s press officer informed UrBC. The

ZAO Ural precision alloys plant’s BOD suggested that the company’s shareholders vote for not paying any dividend on ordinary registered shares for the year 2009. This decision will have to be made by the stockholders in the course of an upcoming annual general meeting scheduled for June 29, 2010. The agenda of the AGM mainly covers issues related to the plant’s performance in 2009.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch asked the region’s Ministry for Economic Development to pay more attention to the local entrepreneurs’ applications. The Governor explained it was important to look more carefully into the businessmen’s complaints regarding the obstacles the municipal authorities appear to create for them. ‘We have to register and investigate every case where an entrepreneur’s rights are violated. If an applicant’s complaint is grounded and that the applicant is a law-abiding citizen, we’ll have to interfere. We also need to keep track of the number of such

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled in favor of Rospotrebnadzor’s Chkalovskiy division of Sverdlovsk Region Administration’s decision regarding OAO VUZ-Bank. The state consumer rights watchdog insisted that the bank was violating the rights of its customers. This Chkalovskiy division of the consumer rights protection agency received a number of complaints filed by VUZ-Bank’s customers in September 2009-April 2010. The subsequent inspections revealed that the bank’s loan agreements contained some terms that infringed upon the customers’ legal rights. After Rospotrebnadzor had ordered the

Experts from Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Yekaterinburg Department of Sverdlovsk Region carried out inspections of Auchan and Auchan-City hypermarkets located in Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetskiy district in April 2010. The inspections were organized in accordance with the state consumer rights watchdog’s official schedule for the year 2010, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor reports. The two stores were checked for compliance with the existing health legislation, the Consumer Rights Protection Act, and the sales regulations for certain kinds of products. The better part of the problems detected

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch visited the local town of Zlatoust on May 25, 2010 and looked at the place’s most remarkable landmarks. For one, the Governor could see a church under reconstruction, a monument dedicated to P. Anosov (an outstanding Russian engineer and director of Zlatoust armory), and Bulat plant’s exhibition center. Mikhail Yurevitch also visited the town museum and had a look at the cold steel arms exhibition; all of the objects on display were produced by Zlatoust craftsmen. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Yurevitch was greatly impressed

MMK Management Company’s First Vice President for Strategic Development & Metallurgy Rafkat Takhautdinov says he is positive the produce of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) cold roll Mill 2000 will be very popular with the Russian car manufacturers. According to MMK executive, the enterprise’s management had some thorough market research done prior to launching the project. The research findings made it clear that such a unique facility is quite needed. ‘All the car makers are looking forward to this mill’s produce, especially because the foreign automobile manufacturers who run

OAO NOMOS-Bank is not going to pay any dividends on preference registered shares or ordinary registered shares for the year 2009. This recommendation was given by the bank’s Supervisory Board to the company’s stockholders, who will have to turn in their votes at the upcoming AGM on June 23, 2010.

It has been alleged that the accomplices of Alexei Kalinichenko, the man who’d set up a pyramid scheme on Forex market and was charged with fraud in Russia, were detained in Italy. Infox.ru refers to the Italian La Nazione as stating that the people in question are a Russian subject and an Italian citizen presumably responsible for laundering Kalinichenko’s money. Under the Russian law, Alexei Kalinichenko is accused of setting Global Gaming Expo (GGE) to deal in trading on Forex exchange market and of stealing over 1 billion RUR from 4,000 Russian nationals. The trading was actually

OAO VUZ-Bank will not pay any share dividends for the year 2009. The decision to this extent was taken by the bank’s stockholders in the course of the recent AGM in Moscow. The bank explains the lack of dividends has to do with the actual lack of profits. In fact, VUZ-Bank finished last year off with 156.31 million RUR worth of losses; these will have to be compensated with the remains of the earlier years’ profits.

OAO MDM Bank’s representation was recently opened in the course of a solemn ceremony in Beijing. Over 170 guests were present at the reception held in the Russian Federation Embassy in Beijing, the bank’s friends and partners from the Chinese, Russian, and foreign banks and representatives of China and Russia’s business communities among them. Russian Minister Counselor to China Evgeniy Tomikhin gave a salutatory speech on behalf of the Russian Federation Embassy. MDM Bank’s delegation was led by the bank’s Deputy General Director Vadim Sorokin. According to the bank’s representatives, the

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) completed its investigation of a fatal accident at UC RUSAL Sevuralboksitruda’s Cheremukhovskaya mine, the division’s press officer announced on May 21, 2010. The accident occurred on April 12, 2010: a mine worker was smashed by an electric locomotive while proceeding to his work place. The investigative committee came to the conclusion that the accident had been caused by poor industrial control and unsatisfactory production and labor discipline at the mine.