Moscow, June 18, 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, has announced plans to invest more than USD 2 million to find the best new applications for aluminium and to develop innovative products. As part of this Global Technology and Innovation Research Project UC RUSAL and the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) are inviting leading universities and research centers from around the world to apply for the funding of innovative research projects.љ Over the next three years, the Global Technology and Innovation Project will select the most ground breaking ideas

The total damage caused by industrial and other kinds of accidents that occurred in Sverdlovsk Region in 2005 amounted to 19.6 million RUR; this figure includes 11.1 million RUR worth of damage caused by accidents related to major pipeline transport. In 2006, the total damage was estimated at 23.5 million RUR, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 19.7%; in 2007, losses reached 82.8 million RUR, which exceeded the figures for 2006 by 28%. In the first quarter of 2008, figures came to 13.2 million RUR.

Kirill Shubin, General Director of Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg, admitted that the airport was going to introduce another fuel price increase soon. On June 21, 2008, the fuel will cost 13.6% more than before and will be available for 30,600 RUR per ton. The announcement to this extent was also made by the airport’s deputy GD Anton Fedotov earlier. The airport’s top executives report the increase has to do with the general state of events on the domestic and global market.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel appointed Mikhail Sharin Sverdlvosk Region’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Science. Mikhail Sharin was born in 1960 and graduated from Ural Electromechanic Institute of Railway Transport Engineers in 1982. He has always been employed at Sverdlovsk Region Railways in one capacity or another, his last position being that of first deputy railway head for passenger carriers and that of head of infrastructure services for passenger travel. Mikhail Sharin’s new office is related to supervising all kinds of air, automobile, and railway transport as well

Kinetika, a group of logistics companies, has recently introduced a toll-free number (8-800-2000-999, all calls free within Russia) for its contact center. ‘We did this to make sure Kinetika is easy to work with no matter what part of Russia our customer is in. The quality of our customer service is reaching some totally new heights,’ says the company’s Sales and Marketing Director Stanislav Danilchenko. Experts from the company’s help and information center can update their callers on all the issues related to the logistics services Kinetika renders; they can also handle contract-related

On June 16, 2008, URSA Bank made 28.425 million RUR worth of coupon payments on its second bond issue. The coupon yield was determined by the 7.6% annual interest rate, with payment per bond coming to 18.95 RUR. URSA Bank went through with its second bond issue worth 1.5 billion RUR on December 16, 2005; the bonds are to be in circulation for three years; the issue was coordinated by Dresdner Bank.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 721,400 tons of tubular goods in the first five months of 2008, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 809,100 tons) by 11%. ChTPZ Group sold 385,800 tons of tubes and pipes in the five months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 453,400 tons) by 15%. These figures include a 23% drop in the amount of large-diameter pipes: this came to 198,300 tons compared with 256,200 tons of LDPs in

The Bank of Russia came up with some data on the international money orders made by private individuals in the first quarter of 2008. Over 190 billion RUR worth of international money orders have been made in Russia since the beginning of the year. Most money orders destined for the countries of the far abroad go to Switzerland, China, and the United States. Over 21 billion RUR, for instance, were directed to Switzerland and over 10 billion RUR were sent to the U.S. At the same time, a lot of international money orders go to the countries of the near abroad. The lion’s share of those (10

In order to meet its customers’ needs and for their greater convenience, Ural Airlines will operate some additional Yekaterinburg-Anapa-Yekaterinburg flights on June 17, 2008 and June 28, 2008. This is believed to be a good offer for travelers going to or from the south of Russia. On Tuesday, June 17, 2008, the plane is to leave Yekaterinburg at 5.15 PM and to arrive in Anapa at 6.30 PM, and then the aircraft is to take off in Anapa at 8 PM and to land in Yekaterinburg at 1.15 AM on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. On Saturday, June 28, 2008, the plane takes off from Yekaterinburg at 4.30 PM and

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 31 to 90 days went down by 55.80% (from 6.277 million RUR to 2.774 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

An extraordinary general meeting held at a Nizhniy Tagil-based plant dealing in production of boilers and heaters resulted in early termination of powers of all of the enterprise’s BOD members. Boris Dyakonov, Yegor Konyukhovskiy, Yuri Bystrov, Valeriy Petaev, Vladimir Belov, and Mark Kravchenko were elected the new BOD members. This means that Chairman of Bank24.ru’s Supervisory Board Sergey Lapshin is not going to become the plant’s new BOD member.