‘As far as I know 150 people from Chelyabinsk and 15 people from Sverdlovsk Region (Russkiye Kanikuly’s customers) could not get to Turkey due to Vasco de Tour’s recent bankruptcy,’ President of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information and Tourism Center Vadim Viner said to UrBC. Vasco de Tour, a Turkish tour operator, was reported to have gone bust last Friday. As a result, some 500 Russians (including 120 travelers from Chelyabinsk) could not check in their hotels since the company did not pay for the reservations. Some people from Yekaterinburg were among the unfortunate holidaymakers as well. ‘We

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 48.95% (from 4.8 million RUR to 2.45 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tagilbank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 89.92% (from 11.94 million RUR to 1.215 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Yekaterinburg’s Internet provider services market kept getting redistributed among a number of major players throughout last year. Companies that could offer their customers unlimited Internet access, high speed connection and good service keep getting increasingly more subscribers, partly at the expense of the ‘traditional’ providers who have been operating on the market for quite a while but found themselves unable to adjust to the new market opportunities in time. Besides, the number of customers who switch from one operator to another or use several Internet providers at once is on the

Uralskaya Stal’s AGM resulted in the decision to pass a dividend for the financial year 2007. 5.7 billion RUR worth of profit will be managed by the joint stock society.

‘Banks don’t slow down on trying to attract private individuals’ investments in the summertime. Their ad campaigns are just as proactive, new interest rates and deposit terms are offered all the time. At the same time, there is usually a certain seasonal standstill on the savings market in the summer, as people spend their money on vacations, on buying and building summerhouses, and on repairs and decoration,’ says Ural Treasures Bank’s Marketing Director Alexander Nistranskiy. Alexander Nistranskiy reports bank deposits are a traditional way of attracting people’s investments. ‘Banks tend to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 26.76% (from 13.141 million RUR to 9.624 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

URSA Bank set up seven new additional offices in the Urals, that is, in Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Surgut, and Yekaterinburg. This large-scale expansion is part of URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s subsidiary network development program. This year, twenty-five more offices will be introduced in the Urals, Western Siberia, and the Volga region. RBC.Rating reports URSA Bank was rated Russia’s 6th largest bank in terms of the number of cities (populated by at least 50,000 people) where the bank operated on January 1, 2008. ‘The new offices are mainly designed to service private customers; this is why we

Hydrospetsstroy, Noviy Grad’s former general contractor, is still going through bankruptcy proceedings. Olga Rushitskaya, their acting trustee in bankruptcy, says the region’s Court of Arbitration is still handling the claims laid against Noviy Grad and its partners; there are about twenty claims altogether. The Court of Arbitration declared Hydrospetsstroy insolvent; the company has to face claims, all related to reclamation of Hydrospetsstroy’s property and selling it by auction. This money will be used to pay the company’s creditors, as Hydrospetsstroy owes them more than 55 million RUR at

MegaFon’s MegaFon Modem and MegaFon Modem Plus tariff schemes acquired additional options (Packet Internet 250, Packet Internet 1500, Packet Internet Subscription 250 and Packet Internet Subscription 1500) on July 2, 2008. Packet Internet is an additional incidental service including 250 MB or 1,500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection. Packet Internet Subscription is an additional monthly service including 250 MB or 1500 MB of incoming and outgoing traffic for GPRS connection with number rounding value of 1 Kb. Thus buying Internet traffic wholesale saves you a lot of