The Russian Federation public prosecution authorities report Russia and Italy actually don’t have any bilateral agreement on extraditing people suspected of criminal offenses. Russian authorities sent their request to extradite Bank24.ru’s former BOD member Alexei Kalinichenko on the basis of the 1957 European Convention (the convention was ratified and came into force in Italy in 1963). ‘Alexei Kalinichenko was detained in Italy on June 4, 2007, and on July 3, 2008, the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Administration for International Legal Cooperation sent their query to the Italian

‘Our latest campaign targeted at introducing some new ways of working with businesses (known as Business Packages for Legal Entities) has resulted in some good outcomes. The bank’s partners proved very interested in this innovational offer, so over 50% of business customers’ accounts in URSA Bank’s Tyumen branch have been switched to one or another business package by June 20, 2008. In addition, about seventy new legal entities have set up accounts there over the last three months. All of them chose our Acquaintance package,’ Director of URSA Bank’s Tyumen branch Olga Kalyuzhnaya said to

Timothy Sandusky, the new U.S. Consul General, arrived in Yekaterinburg last Friday. The spokesperson for the Consulate reports Mr. Sandusky has been working for the U.S. State Department since 1984, mainly holding offices related to political issues and consulate affairs. In 1990-1992, he was working in the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Besides, Mr. Sandusky was employed at diplomatic missions in Poland, Guyana, and Indonesia. Prior to his appointment as Yekaterinburg’s Consul General, the official was holding office in the U.S. State Department’s Analytical Section and in

‘It’s possible that VEK’s proposal to buy UralTransBank’s shares was an attempt to consolidate the bank’s assets in order to sell the business to a large strategic investor later. UralTransBank has ten subsidiaries and thirty-five offices, which makes it a strong regional financial structure,’ says Finam Management’s Alexander Osin. Ural Transport Bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders should accept VEK’s proposal to buy the bank’s ordinary registered uncertified shares. On June 28, 2008, VEK sent an obligatory notification to Uraltransbank, proposing to buy the bank’s

This year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) intends to invest over $2bn in capital development. MMK’s BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov says this amount is comparable with the sum invested by the enterprise over a whole decade, that is, between 1996 and 2005. Besides, the two-billion-dollar figure comes to twice the amount directed to the company’s capital development last year. This large-scale investment is expected to result in greater production output, a wider range of products, better quality of produce, a bigger share of high-level processing goods, fewer material resource