UrBC, Chelyabinsk, 19.06.2008. The U.S.-based Reputation Institute reports Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was put on World's Most Respected Companies in 2008 list. The list comprises two hundred entities. Says Renaissance Group’s Chairman Stephen Jennings: ‘The world’s rapidly developing countries provide a perfect environment for shaping some of the most successful business management practices and breeding new market leaders. This is why it is not only the fastest-growing economy and the assets and markets of rapidly developing countries that play the most important part,

Chelyabinsk-based SOT, a company dealing in production of pipeline bends and part of Rimera (ChTPZ Group’s O&G maintenance division), is now the proud owner of a license that allows the enterprise to produce machinery meant for nuclear power stations. The license was issued by Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog). Getting this license means SOT can now manufacture pipeline fittings that will be employed in the nuclear power industry. ‘The energy sector is on the rise now, new heat and nuclear power stations are being put up, while the

‘Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg will surely find it hard to prove that the recent increase in the price of the jet fuel was justified. The mere comparison of the European market’s prices and the Russian market’s ones makes it obvious that Koltsovo is not particularly good at dealing with financial issues; nor is it a very effective business,’ says lawyer Ivan Kadochnikov. ‘I believe that, unlike most other Russian airports, Koltsovo will be subject to a very thorough scrutiny. Firstly, this airport has already clashed with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and had to pay a 13-million-ruble

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 1 to 3 years plummeted by 100% (from 1 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

United Company RUSAL announced it was going to invest over $2bn in finding some new fields of application for aluminum and development of promising products. This is part of the global initiative on wider aluminum usage. UC RUSAL and the International Aluminium Institute are already accepting applications that meet the requirements available from their websites and invite the world’s leading universities and research centers to join in the project. This global initiative on innovational research is UC RUSAL and the IAI’s joint project that provides for three years of selecting the best ideas

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ Bank to private individuals dropped by 32.52% (from 8.72 million RUR to 5.884 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders despite overdraft went down by 72.63% (from 7.341 million RUR to 2.009 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 43.45% (from 235.099 million RUR to 132.943 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Uralfinance valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 49.36% (from 39.5 million RUR to 20 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The stockholders of Betfor, a plant dealing in concrete goods production, were supposed to hold an annual general meeting, but the meeting was declared invalid due to absence of a quorum. The meeting was therefore put off until July 15, 2008. The plant’s majority shareholder is LSR Group.

The genetic labs located in the United States and Austria have fully completed their testing and examination of the so-called royal remains, yet some procedures are still being carried out in Sverdlovsk Region’s forensic medical examination bureau, Interfax reports. Head of the bureau Nikolai Nevolin says only a number of tests have been fully finished so far, so the examination will have to be continued. ‘For one, we still haven’t been able to carry out the test related to identifying the presence of hemophilia-causing bits of DNA (Nicolas the Second’s son Alexei was a hemophiliac),’ Nevolin