Baltika beer is missing from most of Yekaterinburg’s cafes and pizzerias, including, for instance, MacPeak, Bullet, Passage, Tsentralniy Dvor, Proviant-21, McDonald’s Sbarro, Studio, Pizza-Nova, American Hot Pizza, Master Pizza, and Pizza Mia, all of which appear to prefer some other beer suppliers. In the meantime, Director of Tatischev café chain Maxim Myakishev recently spoke very unfavorably of Baltika beer’s quality.

‘We’ve used URSA Bank’s package offer and it helped us to use our time more effectively, to cut down on the accountants’ labor cost and to spend less on the certain services URSA Bank offers,’ says the director of Kompaniya REM Elena Sukhanova. URSA Bank came up with the new way of working with businesses, known as Business Packages, in March 2008. These packages provide for a set of services related to settlement and cash services and of special lending offers. The bank currently offers its partners four business packages: Acquaintance, Development, Leader, and Partner, each of which is

‘65% to 70% of Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ rolling equipment is depreciated right now. We use some electric trains that are forty years old, even though their lifetime normally comes to no more than twenty-eight years,’ head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Vladimir Suprun said in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The fact that the equipment is worn out does not mean it’s not safe. We give all the cars and railway engines regular overhauls and carry our repairs. All this helps to use them longer. Some of our railway engines are worn out by 100%, but they can still work,’

‘No insurance payment can fully cover the cost of having a car repaired,’ director of Autoservice Vladimir Maryanov said to UrBC. The businessman reports there are some unwritten rules that the insurers and the claim adjusters adhere to: ‘No insurance company will ever work with an adjuster who proposes payment amounts that are greater than a certain figure. Experts look into the visible damage, yet there are some hidden defects that can only be detected later on. An experienced adjuster can often see these problems from the start, but they would normally ignore them. In case a car owner asks

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad-based KD-Avia for their alleged violation of the federal bill on the protection of competition, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The suit was initiated on July 29, 2008 upon Siberia Air Company’s request. Siberia claimed Koltsovo airport and KD-Avia avoided signing agreements on ground handling operations and airport servicing with the airline. Thus Koltsovo airport refused to cooperate with Siberia when the latter wanted to operate scheduled

According to the National Managers’ League, the profitability of unit investment trusts run by metallurgical enterprises dropped below zero on July 24-31, 2008. For one, the share price of Trubnaya Ploschad – Russian Metallurgy (Bank of Moscow Management Company) went down by 10.44%, that of Rus-Capital-Metallurgy (Rus-Capital Management Company) dropped by 9.18%, and that of BCS Metallurgy Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) decreased by 8.5%. At the same time, the share prices of CIT Fortis-Russian Metallurgy and Machine-Building (CIT Fortis Investments Management Company), Troika

102,974,900,000 RUR were directed to the federal budget from Sverdlovsk Region’s territory in January-May 2008, which exceeded the figures for January-May 2008 by 31.6%, the spokesperson for the regional division of the Federal Tax Service reports. Sverdlovsk Region is reported to have transferred 28,810,500,000 RUR worth of tax payments to the federal budget, which is 1.4 times better than a year earlier. As for the regional budget itself, Sverdlovsk Region received 40,141,500,000 RUR worth of tax and non-tax payments in January-May 2008, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by

‘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

The Deposit Insurance Agency reports people deposited 11.9% more money in the Russian banks in the first half of the year compared to a year earlier. At the same time, some provincial banks did even better than the country’s average. The volume of money placed by private individuals with SKB-Bank, for instance, went up by 38% in January-June 2008.

Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee reports 127 car-washing installations are operating in the city at the moment, while the number of cars comes to 360 automobiles per every one hundred dwellers. To make sure the already-existing cars are properly taken care of, Yekaterinburg needs some 230 car washes. The only reason why there are still not enough installations is the shortage of available land allotments.