The Court of Arbitration rejected the application regarding the possible dismissal of case of HydroSpetsStroy (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local builder). So, the situation around the developer is not going to change, its trustee in bankruptcy Olga Rushitskaya said to UrBC representative. HydroSpetsStroy is currently in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings; it owes its creditors over 55m RUR.

The environmental experts of Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of Evraz Group) evaluated the company’s conservational activity in 2006, says the spokesperson for the company. The enterprise managed to reduce the amount of manufacturing atmospheric emissions by 11% last year, which was made possible due to the multi-faceted upgrading of the obsolete equipment and introduction of the new facilities at the processing and agglomeration shops. The corporate environmental experts have been trying to help the local environment since 1989. Within this period, the amount of

‘Vodolei casino was closed on January 15, 2007 since it was owned by a sole trader, which contradicts the new gambling business legislation,’ Elena Levchenko, the director of Vodolei entertainment center, said to UrBC representative. The federal law regarding the state regulation of gambling activity came into effect on January 1, 2007. Vodolei casino had been operating in Yekaterinburg for eight years; it used to be one of the most popular local gambling places. Metropolia casino was closed down as well; according to Ms Levchenko, it belonged to the same proprietor.

The students of the sports school supported by Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) won one gold medal, three silver medals, and two bronze ones in the Ural Federal District Table Tennis Championship, says the company’s press officer. Yana Klimochkina and Alexei Likhachev became the best sportspersons of Nizhniy Tagil after they outstripped 170 young tennis players from Nizhnevartovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Magnitogorsk in the course of a tournament that took place in Yekaterinburg. The players from Nizhniy Tagil won both team and individual championships

The average price of one square meter of a Yekaterinburg-based class B office under construction (interior design not included) grew 73% higher in 2006 as far as the center of the city is concerned (i.e. Moskovskaya St., Chelyuskintsy St., Vostochnaya St., Dekabristy St., Belinskiy St., and Bolshakov St.). Namely, the prices soared from 47,540 RUR per square meter in October 2005 to 69,000 RUR one year later, reports Ural Chamber of Real Estate. As regards the city’s most expensive residential area (Avtovokzal, Yugo-Zapadniy, Parkoviy, Botanicheskiy, Vtuzgorodok, Shartashskiy, ZhBI,

SKB-Bank introduced a subsidiary in Perm, thus expanding its geographical spread in Russia even greater. The office is located in the centre of the city at 30 Gazeta Zvezda St. The bank’s new subsidiary offers the full range of banking services to both businesses and individual clients and welcomes the former from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays and the latter on 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends. SKB-Bank now has 54 offices, 19 of which are Yekaterinburg-based supplementary ones. Thirty more offices are located in the cities of Sverdlovsk Region, with the remaining five

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that the air in Verknyaya Pyshma is polluted with sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, fluorides, and black copper oxides. UralElectroMed (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC)) is the area’s major polluter with its 44.4%-share of all the local harmful emissions. The company is also responsible for 70.2% of all the sulphur dioxide in the area, 50.4% of all nitrogen dioxide, 99.7% of emitted lead, 96.2% of all dumped black

Oleg Cherepanov, Chairman of NOVA Group, was detained in Nizhniy Tagil following the decision of Nevyanskiy court made at the request of the local public prosecution authorities on January 19, 2007. Mr Cherepanov is suspected of a capital offense; he was earlier involved in a criminal suit regarding illegal confinement and domestic burglary; his current detention was performed within the framework of the criminal investigation. Mr Cherepanov had already gone through trials related to robbery and organized crime. NOVA Group refused to comment on the situation saying they would soon produce an

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by UralTransBank to sole traders for up to 30 days went down 4.4% (from 44,096,000 RUR to 42,155,000 RUR) in January-December 2006.

Ural Airlines looked at the results of its winter holiday season activity in December 2005-January 2006. The company had designed a special holiday program in advance, with most flights scheduled for January 2, January 3, and January 4, 2007. The carrier’s planes performed 92 chartered flights from December 25, 2006 to January 15, 2007, which exceeds the figures for December 2005-January 2006 by 87.5%. Most flights were bound to Austria, Thailand, China, the Maldives, Vietnam, Egypt, and Turkey. Such travel agents as Fond Mira, More Travel, Tez Tour, Accent Travel, and Mir made most bookings.