Officers of Yekaterinburg Customs inspected one of local fur-selling companies in November 2007. The inspection revealed that the company had smuggled forty-six Chinese mink coats worth 718,000 RUR to Russia. The coats were bought on Moscow’s trade markets; besides, the Moscow suppliers provided the local company with some forged documents that confirmed the alleged customs procedure had taken place. As a result, the local fur-dealer had to pay 216,200 RUR to make up for the customs duties it never paid; the fictitious documents have been placed with Moscow’s law-enforcement agencies, the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Universal Commercial Bank to sole traders for over three years went down by 15,72% (from 8.778 million RUR to 7.398 million RUR).

Russia has gone through the recent global crisis successfully, the World Bank declared a couple of days ago. The country is enjoying stability, which can be proved by the fact that the net influx of capital to Russia reached $10bn in October 2007. According to the World Bank, Russia’s banking sector received as much as $37.6bn in terms of net influx of capital in January-September 2007, with $700m received in the third quarter of the year (compared with $15.7bn in July-August 2006), the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s press officer reports. Then, even though the volume of

'The company’s management gave up on all the principles of their own quality policies to make the public believe a strike in Leningrad Region is not affecting the corporation’s performance as a whole,’ Chairman of Ford Motor Company’s trade union Alexei Etmanov says. He reports the whole Quality Control Department of Ford’s Russian factory joined the strikers and will not resume working until the negotiations with the management begin. 'The plant is now producing only 30 instead of the required 120 cars per shift, so I feel truly sorry for the customers who are going to get the

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service put AS Bureau, a Yekaterinburg-based firm, on the dishonest suppliers list for evading the signing of agreements, the Service’s website reports. The business won in a tender on supplying some medicines on October 4, 2007 and was supposed to have signed a contract worth 2,452,283,000 RUR, but avoided doing so.

Uralsvyazinform, one of the Urals’ major telecommunications operator, organized a tender for financial organizations that could coordinate a loan for them on the international market on July 17, 2007. The results of the tender were summed up on August 23, 2007, and the company had to admit the tender failed because both the first and the second winners backed out of signing the contract, Uralsvyazinform’s press officer reports.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of self-regulatory financial organizations’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 57.45% (from 38.5 million RUR to 16.380 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

The awarding ceremony for winners of the Russian tour of Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007, the international contest, was held in Moscow on November 23, 2007. URSA Bank’s Chairman Igor Kim won in the Master of Business category. The contest is coordinated by Ernst&Young as part of the international program known as Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards and has been held in Russia for the fifth time this year. It is believed to be the most prestigious and well-known competition in the field of entrepreneurship, aimed at acknowledging entrepreneurs’ achievements in both global and national

'Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg is going to get the regional authorities’ support regardless of their ownership status, as we are talking about one of the region’s key transportation facilities here, and the airport’s development is a crucial factor of the regional economy’s growth,’ Viktor Vasiliev of Finam Management said to UrBC. In the meantime, Sverdlovsk Region Government is about to sell a shareholding (of Koltsovo Invest by auction. The opening bid for the holding (25% and one share) has been determined at 249 million RUR. Bids will be accepted up to December 20, 2007, the

Siemens’s Sverdlovsk Region representative Lev Dubnov got three criminal charges regarding large-scale/organized crime group embezzlement, monopolistic policies/limiting competition, and abuse of power. Mr. Dubnov and Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Municipal Council’s Healthcare Department are suspected of violating the law when purchasing medical equipment for the city’s hospitals.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to non-profit NGOs for 1 to 3 years goes down 35.4% (from 15.307 million RUR to 9.889 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for over 3 years went down by 81.23% (from 586.125 million RUR to 110 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region’s first mortgage was given to the Larionovs, a local family, on November 27, 2003. This mortgage was coordinated by the regional Mortgage Lending Agency and SKB-Bank, thus making the latter a mortgage lending pioneer of the Urals. Over the next four years, the region’s mortgage market mechanisms grew to be fully functional and made it possible for the local citizens to improve their living conditions. Besides, mortgages keep receiving a great deal of governmental support, which has already led to the interest rates going down a few times. SKB-Bank began with an 18% annual

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 53.97% (from 6.331 million RUR to 2.914 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region’s First Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Galina Pakhalchak made a report on the state environmental monitoring of the region. The Ministry and the Environmental Monitoring Center inspected 1,416 businesses and organizations between March 2006 and October 2007. As a result, 924 administrative suits were filed against a number of environmental offenders. The spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports the activity of enterprises believed to be doing particularly a lot of harm to the environment is investigated by a special governmental committee. This year,

Those willing to buy a shareholding of Koltsovo-Invest that currently belongs to Sverdlovsk Region Government can send in their bids. The opening bid for the holding (25% and one share) has been determined at 249 million RUR. Bids will be accepted up to December 20, 2007, the auction itself will take place on December 24, 2007. The decision to sell the business was taken by the region’s Legislative Assembly as part of the new legislation on the management of state-run property in 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 23.59% (from 100.429 million RUR to 76.74 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to sole traders for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 3 million RUR to zero) in January-October 2007.

Ural Treasures Bank came up with a special A Step Forward offer for its customers valid on December 4-17, 2007. The offer is available in all of the bank’s offices, excluding additional ones in Nizhniy Tagil, Novouralsk, Serov, and a subsidiary in Kurgan. The offer gives the bank’s borrowers (those who delayed a payment in terms of the main sum, the interest, or the commission) a chance to make the payments without any delay penalty. One just has to fill in an application to pay part of one’s debt or the whole sum.