Over twenty different kinds of perfumes and cosmetic products were withdrawn from commerce at three of L’Etoile’s chain stores, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) reports. Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Yekaterinburg division checked the stores for compliance with the health legislation, the Consumer Rights Protection Act, and the regulations for selling certain kinds of products. Over forty-five kinds of cosmetics items (including thirty-nine imported ones) were examined, and more than twenty items were withdrawn. Following the

‘Yekaterinburg is now aspiring to be a key node in international business communication, so international cooperation is an ever-present issue on our agenda. We hold about two hundred exhibitions every year, which I feel is an indicator of sorts,’ Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev said at the local exhibition and fair committee’s latest meeting. ‘However, we are faced with a few major problems here. To start with, we actually don’t work with the fair participants enough. About 12,000 to 14,000 companies take part in our trade shows, but we seem unable to provide them with very good

The BOD of OAO Ural Chemical Machine-Building Plant (Uralkhimmash) suggested that the shareholders vote for keeping last year’s net profit in the hands of the joint stock company when they meet at the upcoming AGM. It was agreed that any decisions regarding the plant’s net profit would be coordinated with the Board of Directors. It was also suggested that the stockholders vote for skipping last year’s dividend payments on ordinary registered shares and type A preference registered shares.

ZAO Raiffeisenbank’s Board of Directors decided to close down seven of the company’s provincial subsidiaries and convert them into offices instead. The decision was aimed at enhancing the bank’s regional network’s operational efficiency as well as at introducing more services in Raiffeisenbank’s provincial representations. This means that the bank’s Volgo-Vyatskiy subsidiary based in Kirov and the subsidiaries based in Izhevsk, Kazan, Saransk, Saratov, Cherepovets, and Smolensk will close down this year.

UC RUSAL’s stock quotation started dropping about a month ago and has by now reached its lowest-ever level. On May 19, 2010, the company’s shares cost nearly 30% less than they did during the initial offering in January 2010, Kommersant reports. According to the newspaper, UC RUSAL lost another 2.7% in capitalization at the close of business at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, so the total figure came to $14.8bn. This was 29.7% lower than the initial offering price quoted on January 24, 2010. The company was estimated at $21bn at the time. RUSAL’s share listings dropped lowest on February 18, 2010

Moscow Arbitration Court ruled that ZAO MIAN Development must undergo bankruptcy proceedings, Interfax reports. It was explained to the reporters that Igor Kulakov would be appointed the company’s provisional trustee in bankruptcy. This means the court accepted MIAN Development’s bankruptcy application. The debtor’s representative announced in the course of a court session that the company’s debts totaled to 10.5 billion RUR, whereas its assets (including the accounts receivable) amounted to 7.5 billion RUR. The company had no immovable or movable assets; nor did it have any arrears of wages.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) will probably not pay any dividend for 2009. The company’s Board of Directors has already suggested that the shareholders made a decision to this extent during the AGM on June 22, 2010 in Moscow. It was also suggested that ten people should be elected on the BOD, one of these people being Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy.

The public prosecution authorities of Yekaterinburg’s Chkalovskiy district instituted administrative lawsuits against the Director and the warehouse superintendent of OOO Rimex Trade, with charges based on Article 5.27 (part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (violation of labor law and labor protection regulations), the spokesperson for the authorities informed UrBC. The legal action was taken after the investigation of an accident in February 2010 that left one of the company’s workers with two broken vertebrae. The man fell down while working at heights. It was

The office of CzechTourism was set up in Yekaterinburg recently. The organization’s Yekaterinburg representation will be run by Pavel Franěk. CzechTourism deals in organization of sightseeing tours around the Czech Republic for representatives of foreign and Czech in-coming travel companies and reporters. The opening ceremony was attended by the Czech Republic’s Minister for Regional Development Rostislav Vondruška, Chair of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly’s House of Representatives Lyudmila Babushkina, Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Industry and Science Alexander Petrov, Mayor of

In April 2010, Ural Airlines’ planes operated 1,050 flights (which was 34% better than in April 2009), including 595 domestic flights, 201 international flights, and 254 flights within the CIS. The carrier serviced 113,718 passengers (which was 39% more than in April 2009), of whom 61,172 people were on domestic flights, 27,702 people were on international flights, and 24,844 people were on flights operated within the CIS. Once the global economies have started their gradual recovery, the number of Ural Airlines’ passengers soared dramatically in January-April 2010 compared with January-April

OAO Uralcryomash sustained 2.57 million RUR worth of losses in the first quarter of 2010, whereas the plant’s revenues increased up to 48.93 million RUR over the same period of time. The company explains the increase in revenues had to do with their greater cryogenic cisterns output, more orders for oil-loading cisterns, and changes in the company’s spending priorities.

‘According to the available federal research findings, pirated software products comprise about 67% of the Russian market. This figure has remained virtually the same over time. Over a year, there has been just a 1% drop so far. Microsoft does not deal in tracking the market share of counterfeits, which is why we personally cannot support or refute these figures. What we can say, however, is that over 90% of our business customers use licensed software products,’ Microsoft’s representative in Russia announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘As for the private home users, the number

Companies and individuals appear to be getting increasingly careless about their overdue loan payments, Vedomosti refers to the latest bank reports as stating. In April 2010, for instance, most banks got an increase in delayed repayments. The amount of overdue debts at Alfa-Bank rose by 1.6 billion RUR and reached 28.6 billion RUR altogether, which makes up 8.3% of the bank’s lending portfolio. Rosbank’s delayed repayments went up by 800 million RUR and amounted to 8.7 billion RUR, which makes up 7% of the bank’s lending portfolio. The delayed repayments of Raiffeisen-Bank and the Bank of

Moscow Federal Arbitration Court dismissed the complaint placed by OAO MRSK Urala regarding 1 billion RUR worth of tax, Kommersant reports. The company was accused of tax evasion in 2004-2005 by Tax Inspectorate No. 4 that is in charge of dealing with the largest taxpayers. For one, the tax officers claimed that the VAT deductions OAO Sverdlovenergo used when buying Kazakh coal from ZAO Uralo-Kazakhskaya Kompaniya were illegitimate. The tax inspectorate analysts detected that in 2004-2005, OAO Sverdlovenergo actually owned 20% of ZAO Uralo-Kazakhskaya Kompaniya and was, in fact, its only

Officers from Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs’ Center for Fighting Consumer Market Offenses and from Yekaterinburg Customs’ Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department inspected a number of stores in Hanoi Shopping Mall in Yekaterinburg. This was done within the framework of the agreement on cooperation in the field of intellectual property rights protection, signed by Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs and Yekaterinburg Customs in 2009, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. The officers checked two shoe shops whose assortment included

Although the sales of counterfeit software in Ural Federal District’s computer shops have been on the decrease lately, the local software piracy statistics still looks more alarming that the data on the country’s average piracy levels, Microsoft’s piracy monitoring report states. According to this report, on average, 23% of Ural computer shops sell or recommend counterfeit software; 12% of stores offer the service of having pirated software installed right there. The figures for Chelyabinsk, for one, are close to the district’s average piracy indicators. In Magnitogorsk, the number of such

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is going to resume looking into the claim laid by Denis Luzhetskiy against OOO Fond Mira Travel Company on June 23, 2010, the court’s press officer reports. The plaintiff insists that the company be declared bankrupt. Fond Mira’s creditor, Luzhetskiy placed his claim with the court on April 6, 2010. This is, in fact, not the only lawsuit the travel company got involved in. On April 5, 2010, OAO Uralprivatbank laid a claim against Fond Mira as well. The bank demanded that the debtor and its codefendants OOO Yurmarket and the company’s director Igor

OAO NK Lukoil’s revenues (if calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) decreased by 14 times in the first quarter of 2010 compared with January-March 2009 and reached 8.58 billion RUR, RIA Novosti reports. In fact, Lukoil has been exporting oil on contracts of commission agency-basis only since January 1, 2010. Besides, the company does not deal in any oil sales on the domestic market, as this task was 100% delegated to Lukoil Group’s oil-production enterprises. ‘These facts resulted in a significant drop in revenues,’ the company’s report says.

Experts from Yekaterinburg Customs Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department and officers of Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetskiy district customs found out in the course of a customs check that a number of toy mobile phones bearing a logo very nearly identical to that of Disney were imported to Russia from China, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. ‘The trademark owner’s representative in the Russian Federation has been informed of this copyright infringement and violation of intellectual property rights. The representative confirmed that the toy mobiles in question

One more Airbus A320-214 has been added to Ural Airlines’ air fleet. The carrier bought the aircraft that was previously used by USA3000 on an operating lease agreement for eight and a half years. The airplane is currently in perfect condition. Prior to using the plane, Ural Airlines gave the aircraft full-scale scheduled maintenance service. The plane is fitted with a leather-upholstered business class, 12 business class seats, and 138 economy class seats. Ural Airlines is currently operating a dozen A320 airplanes, two A321 ones, and a few TU-154M planes.