[storyteller]

A Russian news site, focused on army and weapons, announced that the Russian soldiers and officers could receive in 2010-2011 wrist watches as part of their equipment. The article says that four types of watches are being designed - mechanical with hand winding for sergeants, mechanical with automatic winding for officers, a 100 m. water-proof watch for the navy and a chronograph for the senior officers. Maktime and Vostok will be commissioned to make them, says the article, and Maktime director confirmed the news, adding that the chronograph will be with automatic winding. link here (http://www.arms-expo.ru/site.xp/052053124054052048050.html). Unfortunately the photos are from other watches, not the announced ones. There is a short description of what the new watches are expected to be, e.g. to have anti-glare coating, if I understood well.
Well, if Vostok people are working right now on a new Zakaz, this could be a great news. In any case, if it is not too late to ask more questions, it might be interesting to know if a new Zakaz is being prepared, how it will look like, and will it be available to humble collectors.
But there is no date put on the article, so it might be an old news, a discarded project.

 

[storyteller]

Yes, it is the same. Pity.

 

[storyteller]

An article about Vostok financial situation. (http://mywatch.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=6750). Notice: I cannot verify this information, it is attributed to a Tatarstan newspaper and republished on a reputable Russian watch forum.

The main points, as far as I understood, are:
- Significant proportion of Vostok production was commissioned by car producers. When the crisis in 2008 began, these commissions all but stopped.
- The Ministry of Defense launched a bid for watches for the army - the new ZAKAZ. Vostok won the lion's share of this bid and invested lots of money for designing new watches and buying new machines.
- The Ministry of Defense did not transfer the money in time, and Vostok failed to pay its taxes in due course. For a relatively minor debts of 5 800 000 rubles (2-300 000 USD), a procedure of bancrupcy was launched.
- The Ministry of Defense sent the first installment on Sept 15, and Vostok was able to pay its debts, but the bankruptcy procedure was launched anyway. Tzivilin, Vostok director, resigned.
- The author suspects that somebody - with the help of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which did not transfer the money before Tzivilin's resignation, and the tax authorities which launched bankruptcy procedure for a relatively minor debt, and did not stop it when the debt was paid - intends to acquire the billions' USD worth of Vostok assets for peanuts.

Again, Russian is not my mother language and I cannot verify this info. Hope some native speaker will help.

 

[storyteller]

Maybe it is just a time of change in Tatarstan now. The former president, Mr. Shajmiev, dominated the local political life since 1983 and resigned on January 25 this year. Other long-term regional leaders in the Russian Federation seem to be on the same track. The new president, Mr. Miminov, who took office in March, was member of Mr. Shajmiev's administration and is supported by Mr. Shajmiev, but still such major political changes sometimes go together with a process of renegotiation of positions, redistribution, readjustment - sorry, my English is really inadequate - in economy. Hopefully, the new president Mr. Miminov has the reputation of a technocrat and maybe will support Vostok.

 

[storyteller]

Of course. Apologies. It is my old age, memory playing tricks. I just read that Mr. Mintimer Shajmiev became advisor at the new administration , so the transition is obviously smooth. (http://www.trud.ru/article/22-04-20...stana_shajmieva_sozdali_novuju_dolzhnost.html)