According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of private individuals’ deposits in TagilBank valid for 31 to 90 days dropped by 12.64% (from 36.908 million RUR to 32.24 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank to private individuals plummeted by 100% (from 3.585 million RUR to zero) in January-June 2008.

‘In August, most travelers head for Turkey and Egypt: you don’t need to worry about your visa when going there, you can use U.S. dollars in both countries, and there are plenty of all-inclusive hotels there. Rhodes is one new destination that has been introduced this year, but since only very few people actually booked their vacations there, the flights were cancelled. In the meantime, soaring jet fuel prices have led to trips to Crete, Italy, and Spain becoming more expensive, which is why these holiday destinations became less popular with customers. In addition, three Turkey-bound flights

Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover came to $5.5bn in January-May 2008, which was 24.6% better than in January-May 2007. The figures include $4.1bn worth of exported goods (which was 15% better than a year earlier) and $1.4bn worth of imported goods (which exceeds the figures for January-May 2007 by 63.7%). The region’s large and medium-scale enterprises made 76.8 billion RUR worth of profits in the first five months of 2008, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 5.3%, and sustained 5.1 billion RUR worth of losses, which exceeds the figures for January-May 2007 by 63.2%. Thus

‘In Russia, the inflation rate reached 8.7% in the first half of 2008; these growing figures mean the banks have to raise their interest rates on loans, which, in its turn, might affect their lending business badly,’ Ural Treasures Bank’s executive Konstantin Yushkov said to UrBC. Konstantin Yushkov reported banks with access to inexpensive long-term resources that could afford to face a price war were best prepared for the possible problems.

The value of Uralvagonzavod Finance’s assets went down by 17.26%. The enterprise explains this has to do with a decrease in the amount of the company’s long-term liabilities, as they repurchased the second issue of their bonds worth 766.133 million RUR altogether in the second quarter of 2008.

Tyumen Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against LUKoil-Uralnefteprodukt, Gazpromneft-Tyumen, and AZS-N1, accusing them of violating the existing legislation on the protection of competition. The data available from the weekly monitoring of the wholesale and retail oil product prices indicate that the three companies have been using the same retail oil product prices for a long period of time. Tyumen Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service sees this as a violation of the antimonopoly legislation through illegal price collusion. Article 11 of

Sberbank’s Ural branch processed 430,000 Blitz money orders worth 13.2 billion RUR altogether in the first half of 2008, while the number of money orders made in April-June 2008 exceeded that made in January-March 2008 by 36.5%. Besides, the number of the bank’s subsidiaries in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan Regions and Bashkortostan where Blitz money orders are available went up by 93 units and came to 736 bank outlets in June 2008.

The ongoing fall of Mechel’s stocks (presumably brought about by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s unfavorable critique) has already made some of the company’s investors lose money. The share quotations dropped by over 45% and 40% at Russian stock exchanges and at New York Stock Exchange, respectively, on July 25, 2008. The enterprise’s market capitalization decreased by more than 115 billion RUR in just one day. Mechel Group reports about a quarter of their shares can be bought and sold freely, while the rest of the stock belongs to investors, Igor Zyuzin being the major one. Following the