premieraudit.r52.ru was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod auditing firm OOO "Premier Audit" (Премьер аудит), which operated in the first half of the 2000s in the Nizhny Novgorod local domain zone r52.ru. The home page stated that the company was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Chamber of Auditors[1], and in a later edition — that it had been "reorganized in 2002 through the merger of two well-known Nizhny Novgorod auditing companies, OOO 'Premier Audit' and OOO 'Firma \"Complex-Audit\"'"[2]. The site was hosted locally: the footer of every surviving page carried the line "Hosted by R52.RU"[1]. The earliest snapshot of the home page is dated 11 December 2002, and the latest in our sample is 9 March 2005[4].

What the site looked like

The site was arranged as simply as possible: a single text home page telling about the firm, with a horizontal text menu in two lines — "General Information | Our Specialists | Services | Site Map" and "How to Find Us | News | New in Legislation"[1]. Separate links from the home page led to sections titled "Information about the Director," "Information about Certified Auditors," and "Licenses"[2]. The surviving text of the home page contains no visitor counters, banners, or feedback forms; the set of sections did not change from 2002 to 2005[4].

What the firm said about itself

The earliest surviving edition of the home page, from December 2002, dated the firm's history to 1998: as the home page stated, OOO "Premier Audit" "was founded in 1998" and had been operating in the auditing services market "since 19.10.1998." At the time the staff numbered seven certified auditors and three specialists, "all employees with higher education in economics"[1].

By October 2003 the text had been rewritten. The firm now presented itself as the result of a 2002 merger, with its specialists' experience dated back to 1993; the staff had grown to ten certified auditors and seven specialists[2]. The same edition listed membership in the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Chambers of Auditors, in the Institute of Professional Auditors of Russia, and in the "Russian Guild of Professional Crisis Managers," as well as an FSB license to work with information constituting a state secret. The auditors' civil liability was insured with OAO "Military Insurance Company" (Voenno-strakhovaya kompaniya), and their professional liability with OAO "Rosgosstrakh-NN"[2]. It reported the opening of a Moscow branch in 2001 and the firm's inclusion, in October 2002, in the register of auditing firms that had "proven themselves favorably in the Moscow market," by decision of the Commission for Coordination of Auditing Activity under the Mayor of Moscow[3].

Services were described in a single phrase — "in the field of general audit, accounting, and financial analysis," with a promise to the client of "the completeness and accuracy of accounting (financial) statements" and "tax optimization"[3]. The open client list is the site's most substantive part. In 2002 it included FGUP "Murom Instrument-Making Plant," ZAO TD "NMZhK-Sarov," OAO TPK "Pechersky," OAO "Metiz," OAO "Elegant," FGUP "NNIIRT," FGUP "Burevestnik," ZAO "Balzam," and OOO "Kalipso"[1]. In the 2003 edition the list had expanded and shifted noticeably toward defense-sector and Moscow clients: FGUP "Krasnoznamenets," FGUP NPP "Polyot," GUP MGSTK, ZAO NPP "GIKOM," OOO "Le Monti i Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka," ZAO "Orion," OOO "NBK-NN," OOO "Karamel," FGUP "Etalon"[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site made it into the census through the nn.ru directory's classifier, where it was described with the line "Services in the field of general audit, accounting, and financial analysis." It does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating, and the domain premieraudit.r52.ru is not listed in the results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote[5]. This is the typical fate of a corporate "calling card" site of that era: it was built not for an audience or traffic, but as proof that the firm existed and as a reference on its licenses for a prospective client. In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s, such pages made up a significant share of directory listings but almost never took part in ratings or votes — for more on this, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

Closure

The content of the home page stopped being updated after 2003: the snapshots from June 2004 and March 2005 repeat the October 2003 edition word for word, including the same typos[3][4]. The last snapshot of the home page in our data is dated 9 March 2005[4]; the web archive holds sixteen captures of this address in total. By the time the census was compiled, the domain premieraudit.r52.ru was no longer active, and our materials contain no information about the site moving to another address.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote, 2004 (archive)