UC RUSAL’s Ural smelter had its environmental protection lab certified recently. ‘The accrediting certificate was issued by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulations and Metrology and proved the lab’s independence and competence in environmental monitoring,’ says UC RUSAL’s local press officer Roman Lukichev. The enterprise’s lab has some 150 pieces of equipment meant for controlling the smelter’s environmental safety at the moment. ‘The lab experts carry out over 3,000 measuring procedures each month and regularly come up with new proposals on improving the plant’s conservational policies

‘I believe Sverdlovsk Region has great potential for drawing up and implementing some multi-faceted area development projects,’ region’s Duma Deputy Galina Artemieva said to UrBC. The Russian Government stated recently that the federation’s constituent entities with special long-term multi-faceted area development programs were going to receive some substantial funding from the federal authorities meant for putting up engineering and social infrastructures. Apart from such projects, the region must deal in some state-private partnership projects (involving some large-scale investors)

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development came up with a new mortgage offer for its customers: private individuals can now apply for a loan that allows one to buy an apartment in the building currently under construction, the bank’s press officer reports. The program differs nicely from its many counterparts in that it provides for some of the market’s lowest interest rates for the construction period. The interest comes to 14.25% to 15.25% a year while the apartment is still being built (no collateral is required) and to 12.5% to 13.5% a year after the finished dwelling can be

Mechel-Bank introduced its new office (known as Sverdlovsk Department) at 14 Sverdlov St. in Yekaterinburg on July 30, 2008. The opening ceremony was attended by President and BOD member of Ural Financial Holding (which Mechel-Bank is a part of) Vladimir Shulgin, Mechel-Bank’s Chair of the Supervisory Board Elena Nesterova, Mechel-Bank’s Yekaterinburg branch CEO Evgeniy Esselevitch, head of Sverdlovsk Department Elena Albycheva, and the new office’s first customers. Sverdlovsk Department is going to render a full range of services to both businesses and private customers, including the

Regarding the information released by some media about alleged talks being underway between Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin on merging of UC RUSAL and Norilsk Nickel, UC RUSAL states the following: Oleg Deripaska does not carry out any talks with Vladimir Potanin about a possible merger of UC RUSAL and Norilsk Nickel. No confidentiality agreement has been discussed or signed between them. UC RUSAL considers its acquisition of 25% plus two shares as a strategic investment and still intends to pursue all legal remedies to protect its interests as the company’s shareholder.

Ural Treasures Bank changed the terms of its Elite and Elite Plus deposits on July 30, 2008. The minimum amount of money you can place with the bank when opening Elite Plus has deposit been decreased to 1 million RUR; the minimum amount of money that you can top up your deposit account with now comes to 100,000 RUR. Both deposit types’ interest is paid on the last working day of the month and at the end of the deposit period; the money is transferred into the customer’s special account. In addition, the bank’s customers can get a Visa Gold или MasterCard without the down payment and a card

In December 2007, Chelyabinsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service claimed International Moscow Bank (now known as UniCreditBank) and fifteen insurance companies (Ingosstrakh, AlfaStrakhovaniye, AIG Insurance & Reinsurance Company, Russia, Soglasiye, Surgutneftegaz, ROSNO, Zurich-Rus, Progress Garant, NASTA, Voenno-Strakhovaya Kompaniya, Renaissance Insurance Group, Rosgosstrakh-Ural, RESO Garanita, and Sogaz) were guilty of violating Article 11 (part 2) of the federal bill on the protection of competition. The violation allegedly consisted in the fact that the bank only

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch set up three new safety vaults in June and July 2008. One of them is located in Yekaterinburg, the other two can be found in Ufa, so the bank currently offers its customers eighty safety vaults in forty-two cities in the Urals altogether. These safety vaults enjoy good demand, particularly during the summer vacation season. Sberbank can rent a safe to both private customers and legal entities, with tariffs depending on the duration of the renting period and the size of the safety vault. Conveniently, there is no upper or lower limit for the renting period, so

ROSNO, the insurance company, has received over 200 applications from Detour’s unfortunate customers by July 28, 2008. The upper limit for the insurance indemnity provided by Detour and ROSNO’s agreement was set at 10 million RUR, while the claims laid by the bankrupt tour operator’s victims have so far amounted to over 20 million RUR already; besides, the unhappy travelers’ applications keep coming over an ad hoc hotline. The insurer has already been able to come up with some statistics: the company reports travelers’ money claims vary between 20,000 RUR and 600,000 RUR. The spread can be

President of RenovaStroyGroup Veniamin Golubitskiy took part in the fifteenth session of the Russian-French council for economic, financial, production, and trade contacts in Saint Petersburg. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Head of Russian Federation Government Sergey Sobyanin and Christine Lagarde, French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment. The issue of infrastructure development projects in Russia was one of the main points on the agenda. Veniamin Golubitskiy made a report on Renova’s multi-faceted area development projects in Russia, commenting on the French companies’

‘The downfall of Mechel’s shares last Friday led to a decrease in the share price of many other mining and metallurgical enterprises; however, things have been gradually getting back on track over the last two days. I feel the initial panic has by now been succeeded by a somewhat more level-headed risk assessment,’ FINAM Investment Company’s analyst Alexei Sulinov said to UrBC. ‘We expect the investors to slowly grow interested in the metallurgical sector’s securities again, but no quick recovery can be hoped for. I believe the country’s leading steel manufacturers and coal companies have the

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration started looking into the claim laid by Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) against Aston, the local developer. ‘We carried out our first inspection of buildings at 1a Radischev St. (a twenty-five storey apartment building) and at 16 Radischev St. (an eighteen-storey one) in April 2008. Aston was apparently violating the design documentation and the construction procedure requirements. Our second inspection in June 2008 revealed that the developer did not eliminate those

The building and energy-saving technologies that large developers (like RenovaStroyGroup, for instance) employ are going to benefit the smaller builders’ technological development as well, which, in its turn, is likely to stimulate the building market’s growth in general, Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Minister for Construction Alexei Krupkin said in the course of a press conference. RenovaStroyGroup’s Academic construction project is the largest building project implemented in Yekaterinburg at the moment. The press conference was devoted to the practical application of the federal bill on the

Russian Special-Property Alloys Management Company’s annual general meeting held in Yekaterinburg resulted in the decision to pass a dividend for 2007. In addition, a Board of Directors was elected: Sergey Gilvarg, Serafim Kolpakov, Igor Tkachenko, and Yuri Valkovskiy became the new BOD members.

Ural Airlines keeps making e-tickets to more destinations available online. On July 29, 2008, the carrier’s online booking offices started selling e-tickets to over thirty destinations within Russia and the CIS. The company’s experts are now working on making e-tickets for all of the airline’s flights available for online purchase. For one, e-tickets for Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights will be bought online in the near future. The company actually started selling its e-tickets online on July 24, 2008, but, until July 29, 2008, this service was only offered for international flights, the

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development had its QUIK Broker online trading system upgraded in July 2008, so the system now works faster and is more reliable. The upgrading process was four-fold: firstly, the facility was transferred into the bank’s server room, secondly, the system’s central Internet Transaction Server was replaced with a new one, thirdly, a new Internet provider was chosen, while the entire system’s fall-over protection and capacity were greatly increased. Finally, the bank provided its customers with the system’s latest version QUIK 5.11 The bank’s press officer

VEK sent an obligatory notification to Uraltransbank, proposing to buy the bank’s securities for 6.61 RUR apiece. The bank must accept the proposal or come up with its terms within seventy days of receiving this notification. This compulsory purchase procedure was guaranteed by Bank Severnaya Kazna.

Mechel Bank keeps setting up more offices in Yekaterinburg. A new office was opened at 14 Sverdlov St. on July 29, 2008. This outlet is going to render a full range of services to both businesses and private customers, including the renting of safety vaults. Prior to the introduction of the new office, the latter service used to be available only in the bank’s office at 53 Kraul St. Mechel Bank runs 45 subdivisions (including seven subsidiaries, twenty-nine additional offices, six credit and cash terminals, and two cash departments) altogether, five of which are located in Yekaterinburg.

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration delivered its judgment regarding case А60-13735/08, the claim laid by Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) against Rusgrad, the developer that works on Koltsovo airport’s new international terminal. The first court hearing took place on July 22, 2008. Rostechnadzor insisted on Rusgrad’s administrative prosecution for lacking some essential papers: the state board of experts’ approval of the developer’s design documentation and engineering surveys as well as the

‘The fact that Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service only provides the local citizens with foreign passports with great delays is a violation of their civil rights. Yekaterinburg’s tourist community has numerously placed claims and requests with the Service’s representatives, asking them to do something about the problem. At the beginning of summer, these officials were invited to the town hall to think over the possible solutions with the tourist market representatives and Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev. One of the ways out proposed in the course of this meeting was to