Ural Turbine Plant O&M Service and Ural Turbine Plant (members of RENOVA Group) signed a long-term mutually beneficial cooperation agreement with Belenergo, a state-run industrial enterprise that will now use the companies’ services to have their turbine-driven generators (based in Byelorussia) repaired and upgraded. 'This contract means we can now create a well-coordinated operating network on the CIS members’ energy markets, including the Byelorussian one,’ says Ural Turbine Plant’s O&M Service’s First Deputy GD Sergey Vasenin. The contract will be valid through the year 2012

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 63.06% (from 92.8 million RUR to 34.275 million RUR) in January-February 2008.

Olips, one of Yekaterinburg’s developers, has recently commissioned the first apartment block from Sozvezdiye complex in Belinskiy St.-Fuchik St.-Vosmoye Marta St. This eighteen-storey building with the total area of 9,842 square meters (94 apartments and 15 built-in compartments on the first, second, and third floors) is part of the total 80,000-suare-meter complex. All the apartments in the block have already been sold out; the company’s CFO Evgeniy Melnikov says this impressive demand can be explained by the nice location, developed infrastructure and proximity of a kindergarten, a school,

'METCOMBANK has always relied heavily on private investors’ money; our natural person deposit portfolio reached 4.9 billion RUR in 2007, which is 54.8% better than a year earlier. I thin this increase signifies people’s growing trust: after all, we’ve been inspected for compliance with the state deposit insurance system successfully,’ the bank’s Chairman Rustam Mamatov says. 'Besides, we’ve built up on our capital as well through a 1.5-billion-ruble additional share issue, which means we can now offer more loans,’ he notes. 'The global liquidity crisis that made it more

Ural Customs Administration handled $517.6m worth of imported goods in January 2008, with 55.5% of goods coming from the far abroad and 44.5% of goods coming from the CIS. In terms of weight, the total import volume came to 3.6 million tons, with 2.8% coming from the far abroad (100,800 tons) and 97.2% coming from the CIS (3.5 million tons). This is 65.7% and 20.4% better than in January 2007, respectively. Most goods arrived from Kazakhstan (37.1%), China (17.3%), Germany (9.7%), Ukraine (5.5%), Italy (5.3%), and the U.S. (3.3%), the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports.

Ural Airlines looked into the results of its activity in February 2008. Last month, the carrier’s airplanes operated 714 flights, which is 19% better than in February 2007. The increase was most noticeable with the international flights, as their number rose by 45% compared to a year earlier and reached 126 flights all in all, the airline’s press officer reports. Apart from that, the number of domestic flights and flights bound for the CIS members grew as well: last months, Ural Airlines’ planes operated 532 domestic flights and 56 flights bound for the CIS members, which exceeds the figures

Rosgosstrakh, the insurance company, admitted that they never compensated a car crash victim. 'The law says that a car accident victim who wants to be compensated must personally provide the insurer with a number of papers from the local militia. These papers are necessary so that the company can decide the extent to which the victim might be guilty, which is essential in awarding damages. In case some harm was done to the victim’s health, he or she must supply an additional set of documents from a doctor and one’s employer. These rules apply to all the Russian insurers, and, given all

RusRating confirmed forty-three Russian banks’ credit ratings using the data available as of March 1, 2008. SKB-Bank’s credit rating was confirmed at BB-, which is better than the rating of many large Moscow-based banks. SKB-Bank’s rating was originally confirmed by the agency at B+ in August 2006 and was promoted to BB- in July 2007. The agency’s analysts say SKB Bank’s rating is based on the fact that SKB-Bank is a medium-sized provincial bank (one of the largest in Sverdlovsk Region, though) that has been cooperating intensely with the region’s authorities for a long time. In addition, it

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations despite overdraft dropped by 100% (from 5.967 million RUR to zero) in January-February 2008.

Yekaterinburg customs kept trying to detect cases of trademark abuse as well as prevent it in January-February 2008. As a result, two instances of transferring pirated goods across the state border were revealed, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration says. The goods in question (20,000 pieces of toys and sports gear) had Pepsi and Walt Disney logos and trademarks on them, with the total cost of the products coming to over $15,000. The trademark owner has already confirmed the fact that the logos were used illegally, which means the offenders will have to face administrative