The Federal Transportation Surveillance Agency (aka Rostransnadzor) and the Federal Air Fleet Agency (aka Rosaviation) declared on February 12, 2007 that it was no longer legal for a number of Russian air carriers to perform chartered or one-time flights to the EU, reports RosBusinessConsulting referring to the spokesperson for the Russian Federation Department of Transport. These limitations have been caused by a lot of complaints from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy and Transport placed with Rostransnadzor and Rosaviation in January 2007 after the SAFA examinations

‘UralTransBank has been trying to exert some pressure on us through various civic organizations such as the Association of Regional Russian Banks, for example. Rather than trying to look for a suitable compromise, the bank keeps fighting the information battle. However, we don’t feel like joining in the fight as we don’t believe it’s in any way ethical,’ the spokesperson for ROSNO Insurance Company said to UrBC relating to the company’s clash with UralTransBank over insurance payments. UralTransBank has not made any decision so far as to what to do about a number of insured events ROSNO

According to the official press release of Severnaya Kazna, the bank’s authorized capital has recently experienced some share-ownership changes. Chairman of the Board of Directors Vladimir Frolov raised his share in the bank’s authorized capital through acquiring some ordinary shares from Chairman of the Supervisory Board Andrei Volchik on February 16, 2007. This means Mr. Frolov now has a 22.313% share holding (against the 21.313% one he owned up to February 15, 2007); Mr. Volchik’s share dropped from 1.687% to .687%. This is the third time over the last few months the bank’s stockholders

Unless Russia adopts a new scheme for charging for housing maintenance, the regional problems in the field might simply get out of control, says Vyacheslav Prakin, General Director of Sverdlovsk Communal Networks. According to Mr. Prakin, the shamefully low wages of people who provide services to Sverdlovsk Region’s city-dwellers have brought the whole system to the verge of a collapse. The power suppliers of Severouralsk, for instance, are ready to go on strike in order to protect their rights and their families. Other towns are hardly doing any better. Skilled workers and young

The construction of Botanicheskaya underground station in the south of Yekaterinburg will begin on March 1, 2007, reports the spokesperson for the city council. The new station will be located in the vicinity of Dirigible trade center. Unlike the existing stations, Botanicheskaya is to be situated almost on the surface; its lowest point will not even exceed twelve meters. The authorities expect the station to start operating in 2010.

Following the requirement that all issuers publish information vital to the company’s share price, URSA Bank reports that its bonds can now be found at MICEX stock exchange. 1,500,000 interest-bearing inconvertible bearer bonds (state serial number 40600323V as of December 22, 2006) have been allowed to participate in the bidding process without the listing procedures. URSA Bank is the result of a recent merger of the Urals and Siberia’s largest banks (SibAcademBank and Uralvneshtorgbank). The new bank rates Russia’s fifth in terms of regional network development; it has over 260 offices in

Local statisticians completed their report on success of Sverdlovsk Region industry in January 2007. The regional industrial production index in January 2007 amounted to 109.8% of the figures for January 2006 and to 80.6% of the figures for December 2006, reports Sverdlovsk Region division of the State Statistics. The increase in the industrial production (compared to a year earlier) was brought about by 2.7 times more furniture being produced this January as well as by production growth (1.6 times) of radio, TV, and telecommunication equipment, and enginery. In addition, 39% more metal goods

‘The latest regulations imposed by the Central Bank of Russia support the recent trend for bank consolidation. Small regional banks are finding it much harder to stay on the market. This is particularly true in terms of the banks that were originally created as part of a large financial/industrial group meant for servicing the enterprise only. They were never intended for mortgage lending or retail services, they had other things to do,’ Viktor Nemikhin, Director of BrokerCreditService Company Ltd., said to UrBC. As regards the Ural market, SberInvestBank and UralFinPromBank are two such

The Economic Crimes Division of Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs sent a group of officers to UralTransBank’s headquarters today. According to the Department’s press officer Valeriy Gorelikh, the bank is now under investigation related to criminal suits involving some clients of UralTransBank. ‘The banking business is extremely sensitive to any incidents, particularly to those involving the law-enforcement agencies. It’s hard to say now just how these investigative actions are going to affect the bank’s image and reputation, but it will be clearer in one or two weeks’ time when

VVV Company and London & Regional Properties Fund declared they were going to enter Yekaterinburg’s logistics market. They have recently signed a number of joint venture agreements regarding construction of storehouses in some Russian cities. Over 1 million square meters of storage area will be put up in ten places, including Yekaterinburg. The land allotments have already been bought. Sverdlovsk Region has been experiencing storage area shortage lately (it still needs about 700,000 square meters), and the construction designs often fail to agree with one another; to make matters worse,