‘Atomstroycomplex hasn’t had to face a single threat of administrative liability since the beginning of the year, let alone liability related to a missing construction permit. We only had some minor fines last year, only one of which had to do with construction permits, and we fixed things promptly then,’ the builder’s PR Department reports.

In the meantime, Ivan Rabtsevitch, head of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the state construction authority, announced at a recent press conference that the construction of 110 buildings (including 50 buildings in Yekaterinburg) had to be halted. This comes to more than 800,000 square meters and 480,000 square meters of housing respectively. Mr. Rabtsevitch enumerated Atomstroycomplex’s construction sites that had to be temporarily closed; the list included an 18-storey hotel in Stachek St., a 16-storey apartment block in Sobolev St., some stores at 41 Blukher St., a 25-storey apartment block at 17 Ordenonostsev St., a 17-storey apartment block in Slavyanskaya St., and some other buildings.

However, all these data were valid for the period of April 2007-March 2008, the regional construction watchdog’s expert Nina Dyatlova explained.

‘Atomstroycomplex did have to face administrative liability six or seven times, but not this year but within the above-mentioned period of time. The reasons for prosecuting the developer varied,’ she said.