‘The Czech entrepreneurs don’t often have a very hard time in Sverdlovsk Region. Yekaterinburg’s municipal council and Sverdlovsk Region Government are interested in cooperating with our business community and they do their best to make this cooperation work,’ Jan Krs from the Czech Consulate in Yekaterinburg said to UrBC.

‘At the same time, we don’t get as much support from the federal authorities. The lion’s share of difficulties our businesspeople are faced with is related to customs checks. The thing is, quite a few parts of Russia, including Sverdlovsk Region, haven’t had much contact with any foreign enterprises for a long time. Sadly, this means they lack experience in the field of working with foreign firms and their job is under-organized, there is no single system or a clear set of rules that we would be ready to obey,’ the Consul explained.

‘The road police’s performance is another problem. Sverdlovsk Region’s automobile business is so developed that these authorities are simply unable to handle it in full. It’s not their fault, the traffic wardens are doing their best, but they cannot solve the problem on their own. These issues must be handled by the state authorities.’

‘What is more, the job of the Russian post office is the problem typical of the entire country, and Sverdlovsk Region is no exception. This is a very conservative establishment with a clear-cut set of standard operational procedures; the post office is a well-organized entity with a well-functioning system, but its employees are not prepared to work in some less standardized ways at the moment,’ Jan Krs added.

‘Finally, one problem both Czech diplomats and Czech entrepreneurs have to deal with has to do with the way Russian commercial banks (including Yekaterinburg-based ones) operate. We don’t quite understand how the banks handle the exchange of currency in terms of charging a customer some fee for allegedly damaged banknotes. I believe we’ll have to send a query to the State Bank in order to be explained what principles and criteria are employed by the commercial banks when determining the degree of damage done to a banknote. I must admit I have never had any experience of such profound sort in any other country,’ the Consul noted.