3.064 billion RUR will be allocated for construction and renovating of highways in Chelyabinsk Region this year. The spokesperson for the region’s Ministry for Construction, Infrastructure, and Roads reports 1.876 billion RUR will be supplied by the region and 1.187 billion RUR will be supplied by the federal authorities. 1 billion RUR will be spent on Chelyabinsk roads and the rest will be invested in regional highways, including 50.3 kilometers worth of new roads and five bridges and overhead crossings with the total length of 556 meters. In addition, 323 kilometers worth of roads in the

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, 05.06.2008 A new maintenance center will be set up at MMK Atakaş A. Ş., a Russian-Turkish joint venture, by the end of 2008. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Atakaş, the Turkish firm, are working on the construction of a metallurgical complex in Turkey. The new enterprise will have premises in Istanbul and in Iskenderun and is expected to produce over 2.3 million tons of flat stock a year. Two maintenance centers will be set up in Istanbul and Iskenderun as well as a seaport (capable of servicing vessels whose draught comes to up to 80,000 tons. The machinery

Aston, the local developer, is believed to postpone the commissioning of its Aston Plaza, an eighteen-storey building in Radischev-Gurzufskaya St, until the end of 2008. In the meantime, the builder’s official website still says that the building will be finished in the third quarter of 2008, even though their press officer does admit the terms have changed. Remarkably, Aston keeps putting up the building despite Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities’ demands that the construction process should be stopped. The building in question has already been featured in eleven lawsuits,

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UniCreditBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 86.62% (from 134.5 million RUR to 18 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The Bank of Russia came up with a report on the Russian bank cards market’s trends and prospects. According to this report, Russian citizens are starting to use their cards more often in their daily life; as for the credit cards, most of the cardholders are between twenty-five and forty-four years old. Last year, Russian cardholders performed a total of 1.6 billion card transactions (involving 6.5 trillion RUR) both within the country and abroad. These figures exceed the ones for 2006 by 36% and 47%, respectively. The country’s banks had issued 103.5 million cards by January 1, 2008, which is

Starting June 16, 2008, MegaFon Ural is to launch two new offers on text messages: a package of seventy-five text messages and a subscription with seventy-five text messages available. Both offers are available for 75 RUR (VAT included); the former will be valid for twenty days, the latter until the end of the current month. The terms of subscribing to the offers are the same as those for the company’s similar packages and subscriptions, MegaFon Ural’s press officer reports. At the same time, beginning from June 16, 2008, the package of one hundred text messages and the subscription with one

‘The so-called holiday loans naturally become much more popular in the summer, as the customers need to pay for their vacations, get ready for these trips and pack as well as make sure they have a certain sum of money on them when they go somewhere,’ says URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s Mass Lending Director Tatiana Sosnovskikh. She believes express loans enjoy the greatest demand, as it only takes a little time to get such a loan, while the amount will be quite sufficient for covering holiday expenses. ‘Most of our customers prefer to use credit cards instead of having to carry cash around,’

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 18.83% (from 30.327 million RUR to 24.615 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 82.53% (from 11.94 million RUR to 2.085 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to nongovernmental financial institutions for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 66.59% (from 19.635 million RUR to 6.56 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘The recent increase in fuel prices is not going to influence food prices right now, and even if it does, it will only happen at the end of the season when farmers get the final data on the prime cost of their produce. Whether the prices will keep going up in the future depends on the global oil prices and the Russian Government’s stance on economic leveling of domestic market prices (through tax relief, for instance: this could make selling on the home market more profitable than exporting oil, so the prices might grow steadier),’ Alexei Podolyako of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership said

‘The scheduled pressure testing of hot water pipes has been finished for the time being, so the dwellers of Yekaterinburg are going to have plenty of hot water until the next session of tests begins,’ the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg municipal council Konstantin Pudov said to UrBC. ‘Delivering hot water stably is something that differentiates Yekaterinburg from the other local towns. In Chelyabinsk, Nizhniy Tagil, and Kamensk-Uralskiy, for instance, hot water is frequently missing for months in the summertime. This wasn’t the case in Yekaterinburg — either last year or before. The only