'The issue of dishonest business practices is becoming more and more acute and dishonesty is even sometimes seen as an entrepreneurial tool; so we thought of setting up an organization that could file all the instances of unfair play on the market,’ General Director of Intellect-C Evgeniy Shestakov announced at a press conference on October 23, 2007.

'A non-profit partnership will have been registered by the end of the year, and any firm willing to do so will be allowed to join. We are currently working on this organization’s charter. We feel it’s necessary to disclose the names of unscrupulous businesses, so the future partnership will deal in creating and expanding the ‘blacklist’ database. The idea behind this is to give all companies a chance to learn about their contractors. All of the organization’s activities will be perfectly legal, and all the reports on this or that company’s dishonesty will be supported be strong evidence in the form of papers and court rulings. We are prepared to assume responsibility for making our claims and can guarantee our data are reliable. I’d like to make it clear that we are not going to use any data provided in anonymous ratings featured at various Internet resources, since these data haven’t been verified properly,’ Mr. Shestakov added.

'The ‘blacklist’ database will be available via the future organization’s website and through the media,’ he noted.

Mr. Shestakov reports that twenty verified instances of unfair market play have been registered so far. These instances are attributed to Stroi-Mechanizatsiya Trust Ltd, Sredneuralsk Hardware Plant, Urozhai, Baby Style, and some others.

Chairman of Committee 101 Dmitriy Golovin, who attended the conference as well, says the state, too, is supposed to help prevent unscrupulous business practices through both setting an example and using coercion to some extent.