Yekaterinburg’s first outlet of Ramstore, a federal supermarket chain owned by Ramenka, is going to welcome visitors on the premises of Carnival Trade and Entertainment Center on February 3, 2007. The total area of the store is estimated at 8,000 square meters, with 5,300 square meters used for retailing purposes. The project has required $2.5 million worth of investments. With this supermarket, Ramenka implemented the one stop shopping concept: both food and non-food items are available there. The emergence of the large federal and international players on the local grocery market alarmed

The inspections conducted by the Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) revealed that Ural Chemical Company exceeded the limits set for emission of pollutants; to make matters worse, the company was not even trying to cut down on emissions in order to fit within the norms, reports Rostechnadzor’s press officer.

Yekaterinburg-based building known as BusinessMANCenter has still remained the apple of discord for investors and builders. Some companies, who invested in the would-be offices but did not get them in due time, have recently managed to meet the management of the Center in order to discuss the reasons for delay. Prior to the meeting, a letter has been sent by the investors to Nikolai Savin, CEO of MAN, the developer. In it, they posed a number of questions related to the construction permit, papers testifying the builder’s right to the land, and documents regarding electricity supply and

The opening ceremony of a traditional two-day meeting of Russian bankers with the management of the Bank of Russia took place in the vicinity of Moscow on February 1, 2007. The event was coordinated by the Association of Regional Russian Banks. The meeting was attended by Sergey Ignatiev, chairman of The Central Bank of Russia, and deputy chairmen Gennadiy Melikyan and Viktor Melnikov, as well as by the Bank’s directors Lyudmila Gudenko, Nadezhda Ivanova, Alexei Simanovskiy, Mikhail Sukhov, Sergey Golubev, and Elena Ischenko, reports Association Russia. The agenda of the event covers a report

A committee set up to investigate the causes of fire at Reftinskaya power station (part of OGK-5) based in Sverdlovsk Region reports the accident was caused by faulty equipment. ‘The initial designing mistakes as well as those made in the process of equipment-making eventually served as catalysts of the tragedy,’ says the press release of OGK-5. It also states finding the mistakes at the design and development stage was impossible, as back in the 70s designers just did not have the equipment needed for proper control and diagnostics. The committee (headed by M. Lvov, Technical Audit and

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that A. K. Serov Metallurgical Plant (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC)) and Serovskaya power station use approximately 91.85% of water supplied to the town of Serov, Sverdlovsk Region. Alongside with Signal, a metallurgical company, the plant and the power station dump 97% of all local manufacturing water.

ISB Bank (Investment and Savings Bank) published a report on Sverdlovsk Region’s banking activity in January-September 2006. Inter-bank loans have remained the cheapest way of finding additional finances, even though (given the current market opportunities) the annual interest rates have been going up for three months already (from 3.98% to 5%, or by 1.02%). In the course of the repurchase agreement auction held by the Bank of Russia at the end of October, the interest rates were set at 6.05%-6.3% a year, so the average annual interest rate of 2% to 4% signifies the over-liquidity of the

‘We don’t use even the new models of Ural cars since they are plainly obsolete,’ Irina Ledeneva, the dispatcher of Ikar Auto-Trans, said to UrBC representative. ‘This is why we use GAZ-made cars, MAZ-made ones, KamAZes, and Volvos,’ Ms Ledeneva said.

Starting February 1, 2007, the rules regarding a German visa application grew stricter. The evidence of employment must be provided in German, the number of passports to be considered has been limited to 600 items a week, and the wait time has been extended from five to ten working days. As the representative of Deutsche Botschaft Moskau (the Moscow-based consulate) Cordula Steinke said to UrBC representative, some of the visa-getting procedures will be improved within the month of February; this pertains to tourist visas accredited by the embassy; people applying for such visas will be able

Teyskiy subsidiary of Evrazruda (Russian ore maker and part of Evraz Group) received two new 35-ton Volvo dumpers. This is the second portion of foreign dumpers meant for transporting ore from Izykh-Golskoye deposit obtained by the company; the first four cars arrived last November. These new cars are unique in that they are fitted with electronic equipment allowing to keep record of all the operations a dumper performs throughout a shift, such as the time spend driving to and from the place, the amount of time a dumper is not moving but has the engine on (or off), the number of kilometers