OREANDA-NEWS. October 23, 2009. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Arkhangelsk region (OFAS Russia) found that the City Council of Arkhangelsk and "Dvina" Publishing House" breached the ban for concerted actions of local self-government bodies and economic entities (Article 16 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition"), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

From mass media, the antimonopoly body discovered that on 8th July 2009 the Department of Information and Public Relations of Arkhangelsk City Council sent a letter to the branch (functional) and area units of the City Council, municipal enterprises, organizations and agencies recommending subscription for the "Arkhangelsk" newspaper published by "Dvina" Publishing House" Regional Government Institution.

To the enquiry of the Arkhangelsk OFAS Russia, the Department explained that the letter had been sent "to correctly and timely apply normative legal acts of the local self-government bodies", because the "Arkhangelsk" newspaper is the official publication containing the legal acts of the City Mayor.

At the same time, the acts passed by the City Mayor and the City Legislature are published in the Appendix to the "Arkhangelsk" newspaper, and do not cover all pages of the newspaper. Moreover, the letter justified recommending subscription for the "Arkhangelsk" newspaper for 2009 "in order to maximum expand the audience of the city municipal newspaper ". The founders of the "Arkhangelsk" newspaper are Arkhangelsk Regional Department for Information Policy, the City Council of Arkhangelsk and "Dvina" Publishing House".

The Arkhangelsk OFAS Russia issued a determination to the City Council of Arkhangelsk and "Dvina" Publishing House" on preventing the actions that can obstruct competition and lead and (or) can lead to restricting or eliminating competition and violating the antimonopoly legislation.