According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 16.12% (from 134.791 million RUR to 113.057 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 21, 2008, the share price of Raiffeisen Telecommunications (Raiffeisen Capital Management Company) has gone down by 19.14% since the beginning of the year.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of February 21, 2008, the share price of CIT Fortis Telecommunications (CIT Fortis Investment Management Company) has gone down by 18.28% since the beginning of the year.

'If the regional division of the state board of experts does not approve of their construction project, Aston might be forced to pull down the building they have been putting up at 57 Radischev St. It all depends on whether the builder has actually got the construction permit,’ says Svetlana Korabel, Director of Jus Cogens Law Firm. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the state board of experts looked into the project and was planning to turn it down on February 20, 2008, since the experts found a number of problems in this project. In the meantime, the local

The world’s largest producer of aluminum and alumina, UC RUSAL has recently launched ALSCON plant in Nigeria. The company is planning to fully upgrade all the production processes and make the plant produce 197,000 tons of aluminum a year in 2010. The upgrading program will cost about $300m to complete. Having bought ALSCON’s shareholding in February 2007, RUSAL decided to revive the plant that had been idle for eight years. The upgrading program covers both the construction jobs and the improvements in the technological field. The plant consists of two electrolysis departments, a

The new Board of Directors was elected in the course of an EGM held by Ural Treasures Bank’s shareholders. The new Board now consists of V. Balabanov, A. Gusev, A. Danilin, I. Mukhametdinov, and V. Urvantseva. Besides, the bank moved on from being a close joint stock company to being an open one. V. Balabanov was re-elected BOD Chairman, while Alexander Vasilyev was appointed acting CEO and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, thus succeeding Mr. Markov, who is now employed by Moscow-based Rus-Bank, the bank’s press officer said to UrBC. Ural Treasures Bank is Ural Federal District’s 15th

LUKOIL Permnefteprodukt introduced new prices for gasoline sold in Perm Territory, Kirov Region, and Sverdlovsk Region. Regular EURO 92 and Super EURO 98 now cost 20.5 RUR and 23.9 RUR per liter, respectively, which is 3% and 1.7% more expensive than the previous prices and 18.50% and 14.35% more expensive than in February 2007. The increase in prices was explained by the need to switch to the EURO standard gasoline whose quality is better in many ways, the growing wholesale market prices, and rising tariffs, which means LUKOIL has to spend more on transportation and storage.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 5.97% (from 196.167 million RUR to 184.449 million RUR) in December 2007-January 2008.

'The scheme that gives a member of a cooperative a chance to buy an apartment for 50% of the price does not seem to be very transparent or clear. The cooperative must explain where they will get the other half that will later be paid to the bank through a mortgage loan,’ Director of Yarmarka real estate agency Dmitriy Gusev said to UrBC. In the meantime, Yekaterinburg is full of ads that offer buying a place through cooperatives. The cooperatives claim you only have to pay 50% of the apartment’s full cost, with the other half to be paid by RusFinance. Then the cooperative will allegedly