'Russia’s regional office markets develop in a way that resembles that of Europe and Moscow a while ago, so I don’t think the emergence of any new trends is very likely,’ Alexander Kurochkin of Saint-Petersburg-based Management Companies and Commercial and Industrial Property Developers Guild announced at a recent press conference. 'My feeling is that the players need to interact very actively in order to understand the best way to move forward. One of the major issues, for example, is deciding on how to classify the office types. Some large Russian companies agreed upon a certain

Head of the Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) Andrei Korolev suddenly passed away on April 18, 2007, reports Rostechnadzor’s press officer. Andrei N. Korolev was born on June 10, 1958 in Yekaterinburg. He graduated from Ural State Technical University (Department of Physics) in 1981 and was involved in political activity in 1981-1986; then he moved on to become employed at Ural Mechanic-Electrical Plant in 1986-1988 and was promoted to the director of a potassium producing company in 1998-1991. He went back to politics in 1992 and

‘We hope all the Russian travel agents manage to undergo the obligatory inspection by Rostourism and make it to the United Federal Register before June 1, 2007; as for our company, we only do business with reliable agents who are already getting all the papers ready,’ reports Olga Gulyar of Zima-Leto Travel Agency. 'We are both an agent and an operator, so we are currently drawing up all the documents as well. In case some company fails to be inspected prior to the deadline, I think the authorities could try to extend it until later, since the procedure itself is not very clear to

‘Noviy Grad’s deceived housing investors are going to support the All-Russian hunger-strike aimed at attracting attention to this problem,’ reports Chairman of Right to a Dwelling Vasiliy Ganzhin. 'Members of our NGO will picket the streets in the morning of April 21, 2007 with slogans like ‘Give us our dwellings!’ and ‘Noviy Grad is a dishonest builder,’ Mr. Ganzhin adds. 'I do hope all our authorities will finally begin handling the issue of deceived housing investors seriously as such protest marches are going to take place in many Russian cities at a time.’

The Academic construction project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin met some executives of the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry in Yekaterinburg to discuss the construction project in question. This meeting was coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign and External Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region. According to Mr. Pridvizhkin, the Finnish climate is similar to that of the Urals; this is why local developers are quite interested in what Finnish architects have to offer in terms of combining unique exteriors with technological securities of buildings meant for cold climates. RENOVA

Alexander Kazantsev was appointed Commercial Director of MegaFon Ural on April 18, 2007. Mr. Kazantsev was originally employed in the capacity of the Marketing Manager of the company’s Surgut-based division in 2003 and promoted to Commercial Director in November 2006. He had worked as MegaFon Tyumen’s Regional Director prior to his new appointment.

Head of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) Konstantin Pulikovskiy believes obsolete equipment in all branches of industry is the greatest man-caused threat facing Russia at the moment. Equipment owners are generally trying to prolong its life beyond reasonable limits, which results in accidents and human casualties, reports Rostechnadzor’s press officer in Ural Federal District. 'How does one find the golden mean that allows one to both make a profit and comply with the safety regulations? This golden mean lies in the presence of the state

United Company RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminum and alumina producer, looked at its achievements in the first quarter of 2007, shortly after RUSAL, SUAL, and Glencore merged their assets to form a new company. The company’s aluminum output rose by 2.5% compared to a year earlier and amounted to 999,415 tons. The alumina production has remained the same (2,740,168 tons), whereas the bauxite production went down 8.6% and came to 4,127,607 tons (this was due to a temporary halt in bauxite production in Guinea and Sredne-Timanskiy deposit based in Komi, Russia). 'By merging into United

A new rolled wire shop (to be controlled by American Southwire Company) is being put up at Kyshtym Copper-Electrolysis Plant (part of Russian Copper Company); the productivity of the shop is estimated to reach 100,000 tons of wire annually, reports the spokesperson for Russian Copper Company. The shop is expected to be launched in the middle of 2007, which will raise the works’ total rolled wire output to 110,000 tons a year. The project will require $25.6 million worth of investments.

Ural Airlines (one of the Urals’ largest community-oriented businesses) once again comes up with offers for the war veterans around the Victory Day, reports the carrier’s press officer. This year, the Great Patriotic War veterans and people accompanying them can get an economy class ticket for any domestic flight for free (no fuel fee is charged either). Ural Airlines strategic program that covers these free tickets is targeted at developing flexible tariff policies for the most vulnerable social strata. The program aims to make air travel affordable for passengers who can normally only