Regions of the Ural Federal District submerged into the pre-election activities. Politicians, businessmen and experts wait for the United Russia to decide who is going to be the new governor of Sverdlovsk Region. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works launched industrial production at a new black iron ore deposit in Chelyabinsk Region. Find out more in the weekly report of events by UralPolit.Ru.
Regions of the Ural Federal District submerged into the pre-election activities. Politicians, businessmen and experts wait for the United Russia to decide who is going to be the new governor of Sverdlovsk Region. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works launched industrial production at a new black iron ore deposit in Chelyabinsk Region. Find out more in the weekly report of events by UralPolit.Ru.
The Middle Urals: political scandals
Great expectations
The political party United Russia and the administration of the President of Russia officially started consultations regarding possible candidates for the position of the governor of Sverdlovsk Region.
At the moment no information is available who the candidates are. Experts and political observers seriously believe the final decision is going to be unexpected taken the latest practices of the President’s administration.
Passenger pass
Mayor’s office of Ekaterinburg and the Regional Energy Commission (REC) have finally come to common ground finishing their long-term confrontation.
The city administration gave consent to introduce the so-called unified social public transport pass for people who have the right for social benefits. Something they had refused to do before.
REC will in return allow transport companies to raise tariffs for common passengers of public transport.
Details of the new passenger pass are not yet known, but it might be in use starting September 1.
America’s interest in Sysert
The unique situation in the town of Sysert, Sverdlovsk Region, has attracted the attention of foreign reporters. Correspondents from the American TV channel CNN and the newspaper New York Times are going to investigate the case with mayor’s elections and the post-election precedent.
The town currently has two mayors – the one elected in spring and the other appointed by the election committee after the vote bulletins had been re-counted.
VSMPO-Avisma’s media achievements
The world’s leading Urals-based producer of titanium Corporation VSMPO-Avisma got listed in the Rating of metallurgical companies’ activities in the sphere of mass communications. Such a rating is prepared by the Analytical Center of FederalPress on a monthly basis.
VSMPO-Avisma got into the federal and international news feeds in the past month due to various corporate and economy-related events. The Corporation’s president has been appointed general director. The company demonstrated state-of-the-art achievements in the sphere of aviation construction at the traditional exhibition Russian Expo Arms 2009, which took place in Nizhny Tagil.
Chelyabinsk Region: new impeachment on the way
Sick politicians
Heads of the so-called mono-towns (one-company towns) of Chelyabinsk Regions decided literary to fall ill before the autumn elections. Problems have been accumulating in these towns, including bankruptcy proceedings at the township-forming enterprises, debts and social tension.
Thus, the list of sick politicians now counts three persons: mayor of Zlatoust Dmitry Migashkin, mayor of Ozersk Sergey Chernyshev and mayor of Verkhny Ufalei Yury Zaitsev.
UralPolit.Ru has learnt that Ozersk city deputies are nevertheless going to make the second attempt at dismissal of Sergey Chernyshev.
A dose of optimism
Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Pyotr Sumin and mayor of Chelyabinsk Mikhail Yurevich both spoke of the first signs of the economic recovery in the region. The mayor confidently said he expected the second half of 2009 to be “milder than the first half”.
Governor of the region Pyotr Sumin acknowledged that the crisis reached its bottom and “the region was going up again, but very slowly”.
Raw materials base
Last week Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) officially started production at the Sosnovsky deposit of black iron ore in Chelyabinsk Region. The deposit reserves will allow extracting ore for 40 years. The designed capacity of the deposit makes 2-2.5 million tons of ore a year.
Stock brokers responded immediately to the news MMK’s raw materials base was extended. Shares of MMK grew by 4.23%.
Investors also accepted this news with optimism. The new ore deposit adds considerably to the provision of the Works with its own ore (it now amounts to 29%).
Western Siberia: solutions to problems
Sports events
Governor of Yugra (Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District) Alexander Filipenko participated in a meeting of the sports organizing committee devoted to preparation of Russian sportsmen for the XXI Winter Olympics and the X Winter Paralympics in 2010 in Vancouver (Canada).
Yugra’s governor and vice prime minister of Russia Alexander Zhukov paid special attention to the process of preparations for the Chess Olympics in Khanty-Mansiisk.
Relations with Kazakhstan
Deputy of Tyumen Regional Duma Vladimir Sysoev has been appointed the new trade representative for the Republic of Kazakhstan. He says the most important task now is to find businessmen in Tyumen Region willing to invest into Kazakhstan market.
“Hunger” money
Administration of the geological exploration company “Northern Expedition” paid off all debts to those workers who organized a hunger strike. This is a step away from the original plan of the company’s to eliminate back pay in equal parts to all workers of the company.
Kurgan Region: pre-election activities
Duma’s decision
Kurgan City Duma decided to purchase two facilities from the OJSC Region-Autotrans-Kurgan for 4.5 million rubles. This has been done to help the company pay wages to workers. The municipal authorities own 49% of shares of this company already.
Frontier town
The third town for frontier officers has been opened in Kurgan Region near Russia-Kazakhstan border on August 11, 2009.
This complex comprises an administrative building, two apartment buildings, a garage and a playground. It will accommodate 75 families of the Russian military officers.
United Russia
The local division of United Russia held a meeting in Shadrinsk on August 11, 2009. The party members voted for their candidate for the mayor’s elections which are to take place on October 11, 2009.
Political council of the party along with 500 other people decided to support the current mayor of the city Aleksey Kokorin and will put him forward for the second term.
Budget-2009
Kurgan Regional Duma Committee on budgeting, finances and tax policy reviewed and adopted amendments to the regional budget for 2009.
Corrected budget income now makes 20.8 billion rubles, budget expenses amount to 22.2 billion rubles. The budget deficit currently equals 1.385 billion rubles.