HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the developer) is still undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, says their trustee in bankruptcy Olga Rushitskaya. ‘The presentation of the trustee in bankruptcy’s report in the Court of Arbitration was postponed and should now take place on February 19, 2007,’ she said. ‘In the meantime, no circumstances related to the case have changed so far as the developer hasn’t produced any further information,’ Ms Rushitskaya said. The company’s debt currently amounts to over 55 million RUR.

‘Fire at Antey Trade and Entertainment Center was caused by arson. The fire broke out at the 11th bowling lane; some pieces of equipment had not been put together yet, so the lane was never actually turned on. This is why the short-circuit failure the firefighters speak about simply couldn’t happen. The fuel was put underneath the lane, and the smoke stayed there for a while, which is why the fire alarm failed to react instantaneously. When the fire did break out from underneath the lane, it was so formidable that all the hydrants switched on at once. The water pressure, however, was not

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by UralTransBank to nongovernmental commercial organizations for a term 31 to 90 days went down 20.7% (from 259,966,000 RUR to 205,940,000 RUR) in January 2006-January 2007.

‘Many travel agents are offering tours well in advance, and experienced travelers often book early, so the offer made by Ural Airlines (a chance to buy tickets for summer flights on sale) is definitely going to enjoy great demand,’ Inna Averyanova, director of Inna Tour Travel Agency, said to UrBC. Anyone willing to fly to Anapa, Simferopol, Sochi, Krasnodar, or Mineralniye Vody (all situated at the Black Sea) can buy a single ticket for only 3,999 RUR between February 1, 2007 and March 31, 2007. ‘The offer can be popular with tourists and travel agents alike,’ Ms Averyanova said.

The public prosecution authorities of Oktyabrskiy district of Yekaterinburg took criminal action regarding fire at Antey Trade and Entertainment Center on February 10, 2007. The charge involves Article 168 of Russian Criminal Code (Destruction of or damage to property through negligence, which could result in the arsonist getting up to one year in prison. The case will be investigated by the district law-enforcement officers. The fire broke out at one of the bowling lanes on the 6th floor; the area touched by the fire reached the point of 900 square meters. One employee was injured and taken

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has recently set up a new office in Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Region, located at 21 Molodezhnaya St. The wide range of services and products offered by the bank is expected to fully cover the city dwellers’ needs. The bank conducts customer preference surveys regularly, so it is able to come up with offers its clients need most. In the office, private individuals can get a loan or a credit card as well as transfer money to their relatives or friends via Western Union. A 24-hour ATM is available as well.

The average existing home prices (per square meter of dwelling) in the center of Yekaterinburg (i.e. in Moskovskaya St., Chelyuskintsy St., Vostochnaya St., Dekabristy St., Belinskiy St., and Bolshakov St.) went up 5.48% on February 6, 2007, compared with January 9, 2007, reports the Analytical Department of the Ural Chamber of Real Estate. The figure rose by 3.76% in Yekaterinburg’s most expensive residential area (Avtovokzal, Yugo-Zapadniy, Parkoviy, Botanicheskiy, Vtuzgorodok, Shartashskiy, ZhBI – downtown and the south-west and the south-east of the city), by 3.84% in the city’s second

The Board of Directors of RAO UES of Russia approved of the share-selling auctions schedule for the first quarter of 2007. The company is going to sell shares of a number of power supplying enterprises, namely, those of SverdlovEnergoSbyt and OhrenburgEnergoSbyt, and stock of supplying companies based in Belgorod, Vologda, Kola Peninsula, Kuban, Kuzbass, and Nizhniy Novgorod. The dates of the auctions are to be announced in March 2007, the auctions themselves will take place this April. The original decision to sell the shares was made by the Board on December 8, 2006, reports the

United Machine Building Works (aka OMZ (Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery) and MetalloInvest Management Company decided to set up a large industrial corporation that will unite UZTM (Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant), Uralmash-SpetsStal Ltd., OMZ DRO, OMZ Crane Ltd., and ORMETO-YUMZ Heavy Engineering Joint Stock Co. After the companies, based in Yekaterinburg and Ohrsk, merge to form one business, this large enterprise will be capable of becoming the CIS’ leading metallurgical equipment producer. The joint shares of ORMETO-YUMZ and Uralmash will amount to