‘Even by the end of August, many housing maintenance and utilities services still haven’t paid their natural gas bills issued as early as last year. The case hasn’t changed much over last month, and all the services still owe us 1 billion RUR altogether,’ the spokesperson for Uralsevergas Oleg Vlasov said to UrBC.

‘At the moment, there are twenty-nine municipalities in Sverdlovsk Region that are serviced by companies with over five-million-ruble debts. Our greatest debtors (as of August 28, 2007) are Nizhniy Tagil, with its 238 million RUR worth of debt, Ivdel, with its 105 million RUR worth of debt, Severouralsk, with its 91 million RUR worth of debt, Gornouralskiy municipality, with its 67 million RUR worth of debt, and Nevyansk, with its 55 million RUR worth of debt,’ Mr. Vlasov added.