Moscow, 15 July 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce that the Volgograd Aluminium Smelter (VgAZ) has put into operation a dry scrubber system, which is the key element of the modernisation programme at the plant. The new system removes 99.5% of emissions. The investment into the new gas treatment system exceeded USD 12 million. The new dry gas scrubbers absorb over 250,000 cubic metres of gases and dust from reduction cells per hour and will replace 15 foam scrubbers at VgAZ. The new scrubbers, produced by a Canadian company, provide for

‘The profit Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg made allows them to invest in the airport reconstruction as planned and to declare dividends. This impressive result must stem from the renovations that have already been introduced and from the increased passenger turnover as well as from the airport’s more expensive services. Investing more in the airport reconstruction right now appears to be impossible, as the company has already come up with a certain plan and investment schedules. Even if more money is invested, things won’t get done faster, there are some objective limitations for this.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 76% (from 10 million RUR to 2.4 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service laid a claim related to protection of competition against Russian Railways Public Company, the spokesperson for the Service reports. Russian Railways Public Company, represented by Sverdlovsk Region Railways, is believed to have refused a set of transportation services at Sverdlovsk-Tovarniy station to a number of shippers and receivers of cargo for no good reason. The Federal Antimonopoly Service sees this as a violation of the federal bill on the protection of competition.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel signed a bill on the regional budget implementation in 2007 before leaving on vacation. The revenues amounted to 128.4 billion RUR last year, which was 8% better than the initially expected figures. All the minor local budgets received their subsidies in full.

‘Nearly all the workers employed at Lobvisnkiy biochemical plant are going to get fired on July 16, 2008, reports the plant’s trade union chairman Andrei Abuzyarov. ‘The decision to fire the workers was taken by the company’s old and new proprietors. Some five hundred people are to lose their jobs altogether,’ he notes. The redundancies are probably related to the plant’s full stoppage and closing down. In fact, the enterprise was proverbial for violating the workers’ constitutional rights, with arrears of wages coming to more than 19 million RUR on April 18, 2008. The employees also claim

‘Small enterprises are the backbone of Russia’s growing economy; today’s entrepreneurs really need some floating capital to work with, which is why they apply for large-scale bank loans. Having to provide some kind of collateral used to be a problem for most businesspeople, but now this is no longer something one has to worry about. SKB-Bank is to offer its customers collateral-free loans on July 9, 2008. No collateral is needed to borrow up to 1 million RUR,’ SKB-Bank’s press officer reports. ‘This offer is valid for our individual mini loans, investment mini loans, and credit lines. One

Ural Federal District’s Court of Arbitration supported Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration’s ruling related to administrative prosecution of Mirage, a limited liability company allegedly guilty of violating the Administrative Offense Code (Article 14.1, Part 3: entrepreneurial activity that does not comply with the permit or license regulations). Yekaterinburg’s public prosecution authorities revealed that Mirage violated the federal bill on the state regulation of the gambling industry when setting up its Villa Peurbana casino in Vostochnaya St. For one, the actual gambling area comes to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals despite overdraft went down by 30.66% (from 2.628 million RUR to 1.822 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Yekaterinburg’s Oktyabrskiy district’s public prosecution authorities laid an administrative liability claim against Zenith, a company that is believed to violate the town planning requirements. It was detected in the course of the authorities’ investigation that Zenith was putting up the third section of Antey Trade & Entertainment Center in Malyshev St.-Krasnoarmeyskaya St. in Yekaterinburg without any proper permission. The authorities placed their claim against Zenith with Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration, demanding that the company be charged with violation of the construction

The Russian Federation Ministry of Finances made an official statement regarding Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’s plummeting stock prices. ‘The current regulations on the management of the country’s Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund prevent us from investing their resources in these mortgage lending agencies’ bonds. The liabilities of the U.S. agencies accountable to the state are partially used by the Bank of Russia to deal with the forex/gold holdings. The management of these holdings is closely monitored by the National Banking Council, consisting of Members of Government, the