‘A lot of Chelyabinsk dwellers are suffering from alcoholism, and some special attention needs to be paid to the so-called beer alcoholism,’ Vladimir Bogomolov, the director of Wings, an autonomous non-profit organization, said to UrBC. He reported beer alcoholism was widely spread among teenagers. ‘Beer makers target their ads at the younger generation, and some retail outlets (whose licenses must no doubt be annulled) sell beer to minors. Beer is just too easily available these days; the kind made by Baltika (the main beer supplier in the Southern Urals) falls right into the price segment

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development came up with a new deposit offer for businesses; the new scheme provides for either a monthly payment of interest or the payment of interest at the end of the deposit period (this comes to thirteen months, or 397 days). The interest rate is determined at 13% a year; there is no early termination option.

Bentley is planning to set up a show room in Yekaterinburg at the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009, Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev said to UrBC. ‘These luxury cars will probably enjoy good enough demand in Yekaterinburg. When Porsche introduced its outlet here, for example, the owners were planning to sell about a dozen cars a year, whereas the sales come to up to six automobiles a month at the moment,’ he added.

Ural Airlines is to switch to its summer timetable on March 30, 2008 and use it through October 31, 2008. Experts from the airline’s Scheduling Department tried to provide plenty of flights to the most popular destinations, especially popular family holiday resorts. In addition, they did their best to make the time of departure for flights bound for the southern resorts as convenient as possible. In terms of flights frequency, three flights a week will be operated to Mineralniye Vody now compared with only one flight a week in the winter time; flights to Krasnodar and Sochi will be offered

Russian Trading System is planning to send a written request on the possibility of withdrawing RichBrokerService’s shares from circulation to Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange, Vedomosti reports. The company’s shares were admitted to RTS on March 17, 2008, but as soon as March 20, 2008 all the trading operations were stopped due to ‘the threat of circumstances that could infringe on the shareholders’ rights’. Vedomosti quoted Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange CEO Alexei Sergeev, who said the exchange would probably agree to withdrawing, even though the final decision had not been made yet.

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Economics and Labor Mikhail Maximov chaired this year’s first meeting on environment and nature management; one of the main points on the agenda was related to the maximum permissible discharge limits (introduced by the government on March 18, 2005) the regional enterprises were supposed to reach. Sverdlovsk Region’s First Deputy Minister for Natural Resources Galina Pakhalchuk said the deadlines (ranging from 2005 to 2011) were set for sixteen enterprises located in environmentally impaired cities; this included seven

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration is to consider two complaints (А60-3012/08 and А60-3039/08) filed by UralTransBank against ROSNO on March 28, 2008. Both cases are related to insurance payments. ‘As for the first suit (А60-3012/08), UralTransBank demands for 68,235.54 RUR in compensation, as for the second one (А60-3039/08), the bank wants to get 142,000 RUR. Even though the sums are not overwhelming, the thing is, the bank has already laid more than 200 claims against the insurer, so the total sum comes to a very tidy bit. I believe these two cases will be the main points on today’s

Three trade unions of Severouralsk Bauxite Mine (aka SUBR) – Russia’s Ore and Mining Trade Union, the regional division of Independent Trade Union of Ural Miners, and Severouralsk division of Trade Union of Ural Miners – objected to the illegitimate actions of some members of SUBR United Independent Trade Union of Russian Miners and asked the company’s management to deal with the problem, the spokesperson for United Company RUSAL said to UrBC. The three trade unions’ position was backed up by Sverdlovsk Region administration; the latter filed a complaint with the regional prosecution

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in UniCreditBank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.71% (from 164.564 million RUR to 135.416 million RUR) in January 2008.

‘We decided not to raise our prices so as not to hurt the consumers. We keep the prices the same to make sure anyone can afford to buy a perfect quality product. Our assets as well as our flexible pricing policy allow us to reach a compromise with every single customer,’ says Roman Marchenko, the General Director of Khortytsa’s Russian representation. In the meantime, the government imposed some prohibitive export tax on wheat that came to 40% of the price of a ton of wheat. However, this measure did not succeed in preventing the price increases on the home market. At the same time, the news

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch is currently investing in the construction of a new head office. The seventeen-storey building is to be located in the heart of the city, at the intersection of Kuibyshev St, Rosa Luxemburg St, and Gogol St. The whole project requires over 2 billion RUR worth of investments, and the bank is able to finance it independently. At the moment, the sixth storey is about to be completed. The developers are employing today’s most advanced building technologies in the construction process. The site has some complicated hydrogeological conditions, so the builders had to

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 25, 2008, the share price of Alfa Capital Index MICEX (Alfa Capital Management Company) has gone down by 14.52% since the beginning of 2008.

‘We are not likely to see any dramatic market changes after Tata acquires Jaguar and Land Rover. The only thing that could change is these brands’ image, as this Indian holding specializes in inexpensive cars. This means customers might stop considering Jaguar and Land Rover to be exceptional quality automobiles,’ Lucky Motors’ Sales Manager Stepan Pidzhakoiv said to UrBC. A little while ago, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to Tata for $2.3bn. The two dealers who offer these cars to Yekaterinburg’s customers are Autoland and Krasnolesye.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 25, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 14.35% since the beginning of 2008.

The net profit of Uralvagonzavod-Finance dropped by 92.98% in October-December 2007 compared with July-September 2007 and reached 67,000 RUR against 955,000 RUR in the previous quarter.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 25, 2008, the share price of VTB Index MICEX (VTB-Index MICEX Management Company) has gone down by 14,46% since the beginning of the year.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for up to 30 days plummeted by 100% (from 200 million RUR to zero) in January 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of March 25, 2008, the share price of BCS Bank Stock Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 17.88% since the beginning of the year.

‘Nakhimov Plaza is still being put up by URAL VEM, while PremierStroy is still the developer’s general contractor. The construction process drags on because the construction site is not big enough,’ Aston Group’s Chairman Vyacheslav Trapesnikov said to UrBC. Mr. Trapesnikov reports Aston Group is going to be the future plaza’s broker. Aston’s official website reports Nakhimov Plaza, an office and trade center at 9 Vainer St, is currently under construction, but does not provide any information as to when the construction process is to be finished. At the moment, the construction process does

Following the Federal Customs Service’s order issued on March 5, 2008, Colonel Alexander Brov was appointed Deputy Head of Ural Customs Administration, the spokesperson for the Administration reports. Alexander Brov has been employed at the customs since September 2001; prior to this, he used to serve in the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Far East. He was first appointed Head of Far Eastern Customs’ Interrogation Department and was then employed in the capacity of Far Eastern Customs’ Deputy Head between November 2002 and March 2008. The Colonel has a number of