‘The results of the state environmental examination of Reftinskaya plant’s proposed upgrade might not be one hundred percent true from the start,’ the coordinator of Ecozashchita international environmental group Olga Podosenova said to UrBC. Reftinskaya state district power plant (Enel OGK-5) actually conducted public hearings on the plant’s proposed ash handling system upgrade in the village of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region this January. The plant claims the upgrade is actually expected to reduce the damage done by the ash dumps to nature. Environmentalists, however, are very skeptical

Reftinskaya state district power plant (Enel OGK-5) conducted public hearings on the plant’s proposed ash handling system upgrade in the village of Reftinskiy, Sverdlovsk Region this January. The hearings were organized in accordance with the Environmental Examination Act 174 and the Provision on the impact an enterprise’s activity makes on the Russian Federation environment. The plant claims the upgrade is actually expected to reduce the damage done by the ash dumps to nature. Environmentalists, however, are very skeptical about the project and insist that the introduction of a new system

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is currently considering the claim laid by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Natural Resources against a Kushva-based forming roll manufacturer. The plaintiff insists that the plant must pay money for using the local bodies of water. The Ministry has recently raised its financial claims to 2.06 million RUR, and the court ruled in favor of this decision. In the meantime, the plant has been undergoing bankruptcy proceedings since August 2009.

A meeting was held in Gazprom’s headquarters on the need to buy some large-diameter pipes from a Russian manufacturer in 2010-2012. The meeting was chaired by Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Alexander Ananenkov. Gazprom Supervisory Board members, department directors and a number of experts, as well as some representatives of Russian pipe-making and metallurgical enterprises (including an executive from Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works) were also present. The attendees spoke about how to plan and organize the delivery of Russian LDPs to Gazprom over the next three years.

Yekaterinburg’s entertainment centers are now busy eliminating their fire safety problems, all of which were detected in the course of recent inspections carried out by the public prosecution authorities and the Russian Ministry of Emergencies, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. Following the authorities’ demands, a number of local clubs and cinemas stopped operating for the time being, namely, the Salut movie theater, From Dusk till Dawn and Teleclub (two nightclubs), Dudki restaurant, Hooch Pub & Dancing café, and one of Em Sam (the Japanese

Sverdlovsk Region prosecution authorities for transportation looked into the way local businesses and organizations complied with the currency laws. It was revealed that some local companies dealing in foreign trade failed to go through the customs clearance using their cargo manifests and transaction passports when they had some foreign trade contracts with the firms based in China, Cyprus, and the United Arab Emirates. Still, in all these cases, the offenders’ foreign partners met their contractual obligations in full, the spokesperson for Ural prosecution authorities for transportation

‘I have numerous reports from environmental experts indicating that Reftinskaya state district power plant’s proposed hydraulic ash handling system upgrade will have a negative environmental impact and is therefore unacceptable. I intend to present these report findings at the public hearings today, and I hope this will result in an examination of the project by an independent board of experts,’ Chairman of the International Socio-Environmental Union’s Sverdlovsk Region division Vladimir Terekhov said to an UrBC reporter. The public hearings taking place in the town of Reftinskiy are devoted

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps considering the claim laid by Legion Commercial Bank against Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Enterprise regarding the latter’s 10-million-ruble debt. The court hearing was scheduled for January 12, 2010. The plaintiff took the case to court in order to get the money through the 10-million-ruble promissory note UVZ No. 0000254 issued by Uralvagonzavod on August 23, 2006. The bank provided the court with the original note that was attached to the entire case-related file. The defendant, however, refused to pay and now claims the promissory

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on its unique Mill 2000 within the framework of the cold roll facilities investment project. According to MMK PR Department, the construction site is now full of builders working on the foundations for the etching department machinery and for the mill itself; they are also making and assembling the metal framework for the main building and have already started constructing the electric machine rooms and power substation 23. The enterprise has already received about 11,500 out of 38,000 tons worth of equipment related to Mill 2000. The

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court closed up all the proceedings related to the claim laid by Bank VTB against Rostransavto; the bank insisted that Yekaterinburg-based Rostransavto be declared bankrupt, the spokesperson for the court reports. The claim was first heard in court in November 2009 when the defendant’s debt to the bank reached 130.79 million RUR. The existence of this debt was officially confirmed by Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. Rostransavto is a large business dealing in the supplies of road construction appliances, freight vehicles, communal housing services and

Former Managing Director of United Company RUSAL’s Krasnoyarsk smelter Evgeniy Zhukov has recently been appointed the General Director of RUSAL’s Ural smelter, the company’s press officer reports. Boris Smolyanitskiy, who’d held the position for nine years, was appointed Counselor to UC RUSAL Aluminum Division Director. Also, former Managing Director of Sayanogorsk smelter Evgeniy Nikitin is to replace Evgeniy Zhukov in the capacity of Krasnoyarsk smelter’s Managing Director. ‘Our cadre rotation program is targeted at the spread of the best corporate policies throughout the company’s

‘The company managed to commission all the buildings that had to be finished in 2009. The last buildings got commissioned on December 31, 2009, in fact. We do admit, however, that the deadline for the commissioning had to be met six months ago,’ Stroy-Accent real estate expert Natalya Derbusheva informed an UrBC reporter. ZAO Stroy-Accent deals in putting up and selling residential real estate in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region. The builder announced as early as June 2009 that they might have to put off the commissioning of their buildings. ‘This delay actually stems from the

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps processing the claim laid by Bank24.ru against UralTransBank regarding the 40-million-ruble debt. The court session has been scheduled for January 11, 2010. It is reported that the plaintiff wants to be paid the sum resulting from a promissory note issued by UralTransBank on July 27, 2009; the note was to be paid on demand but no earlier than October 27, 2009. In addition to this debt, Bank24.ru insists on getting the interest charged between October 27, 2009 and October 30, 2009 and further on. The defendant, in its turn, claims that the promissory

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is still looking into Avtofrans bankruptcy case. The demand that the company be declared bankrupt was actually placed with the court by UKS-Invest. The plaintiff insisted that Avtofrans owed it 5.871 million RUR for the jobs UKS-Invest had completed within the two parties’ construction financing and contractor-controlling agreement. The existence of this debt was officially confirmed by the court on July 30, 2009. As a matter of fact, Avtofrans admits that they do owe money to the plaintiff. ‘As far as the building at 3 Vysotskiy St. in Yekaterinburg is

Deja-Invest is no longer a shareholder of Gardis Production Enterprise. Gardis deals in recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. Prior to this, Deja-Invest used to own 100% of Gardis shares that it bought in June 2008.

A rock burst at UC RUSAL’s Krasnaya Shapochka mine left one worker badly hurt. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Ministry of Emergencies, the thirty-two-year-old man had some head injuries and collar bone fractures and was taken to municipal clinic of Severouralsk. ‘The northern Urals are a seismogenic area. Severouralsk bauxite mine’s rock burst monitoring and prevention service registers over 3,000 instances of subterranean earthquakes at the local bauxite deposit every year,’ UC RUSAL official representative Roman Lukichev says.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court considered the claim laid by VUZ-Bank (the asset of Life Group) against the regional division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog). The bank was trying to contest Rospotrebnadzor’s order to stop violating consumers’ rights issued on October 15, 2009. The agency issued this order for the bank after VUZ-Bank had been inspected by Rospotrebnadzor’s experts following a customer complaint. The subject of the inspection was whether the bank actually charged an extra fee for the administration of a loan offered to a customer. ‘The loan agreement

BINBANK’s Yekaterinburg subsidiary placed an application with Yekaterinburg Verkh-Isetskiy district court. BINBANK asks that a lost 36-million-ruble promissory note (UM 113753) issued to Uralfinprombank should be declared invalid. At the same time, the bank would like to restore its promissory notes rights later. This news has been announced via Oblastnaya Gazeta. The note was issued on July 14, 2009 and was to be paid on demand but no earlier than March 1, 2010. It was suggested that the promissory note holder should place an application with the court in order to declare its rights over the

The Russian Federation President Dmitriy Medvedev gave state awards to the representatives of the Russian scientific, cultural, artistic, and business communities. The ceremony took place in the Kremlin’s Yekaterininskiy Hall. The former Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel was given the Order of Merit for the Motherland, 1st degree; opera singer Elena Obraztsova was given the Order of Merit for the Motherland, 2nd degree, the director of the Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovskiy was given the Order of Merit for the Motherland, 3d degree, theatre and movie actor Mikhail Boyarskiy and

The Board of Directors of TGK-9, the heat and power supplier, met on December 24, 2009 to close down some of the company’s subsidiaries, namely, Permteplosbyt, Sverdlovteplosbyt, Syktyvkarskiye Teploviye Seti, and Ukhtinskiye Teploviye Seti. In fact, Sverdlovteplosbyt was set up at the time to facilitate the purchase of heat energy from all the suppliers connected to the heating networks and the sale of this energy to end users at a fixed price.