PRED-Group’s press officer Valentina Meshavkina was unable to explain why the commissioning of Europe trade and business center had been postponed. When asked about the reasons, she suggested that the reporters should look into the developer’s advertising aids. The website devoted to the building stated in August 2008 that the center would be completed and commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2008. Now PRED-Group’s website says Europe will only be opened in the first quarter of 2009.

‘It’s a bit difficult at the moment to speak of the scale of consequences AIG Inc.’s possible bankruptcy might have for the Russian market on the whole and for the insurance market in particular. What I can say, though, is that this bankruptcy might result in securities downfall and increased lending rates, which, in its turn, is bound to hit the Russian markets and the insurers badly. Quite a lot depends on whether the authorities will take steps to ensure the market’s liquidity and restore the trust lost in the banking field,’ Severnaya Kazna Insurance Company’s Economic Director Svetlana

Starting September 18, 2008, customers can buy the e-tickets for Ural Airlines’ flights through Malev Hungarian Airlines’ authorized agencies, and vice versa. This was made possible due to the two carriers’ ‘electronic’ interline agreement. Besides, the agreement also allows the airlines to sell e-tickets for connecting flights. A passenger flying from Budapest to Yekaterinburg, for instance, an buy a single ticket for Budapest-Moscow flight (operated by Malev) and Moscow-Yekaterinburg one (operated by Ural Airlines), the spokesperson for Ural Airlines reports. Malev is the company’s fourth

‘This year will probably be remembered for the introduction of Cyrillic domains. This is a huge and complex challenge, yet it is also a very promising prospect,’ RU-CENTER’s analyst Pavel Khromtsov announced during an online marathon in Yekaterinburg. ‘There are two ways to look at the issue: the conservative one and the progressive one. The conventionalists believe everything is good enough as it is, while changes might make things more complicated. The progressive thinkers feel there are certain groups of people who don’t think they need to speak or read English. At the same time, these

‘The A-class business centers are not enjoying any great demand in Yekaterinburg at the moment. This is mainly due to the high prices, as most people prefer to rent B-class offices: they have enough quality yet are less expensive, ‘BC-Nedvizhimost’s expert Darya Peranskaya said to an UrBC reporter. There are currently three A-class business centers in Yekaterinburg; these are World Trade Center Yekaterinburg, Senate, and Palladium. A few other centers will probably be introduced in the near future, centers like Forum Mall (put up by Forum Group), Yekaterinburg-City and Ural Guards (Ural

Experts believe Russian electricity consumers will have to bear the burden of unprecedented coal price soaring, which, in its turn, was brought about by Russian Railway Public Company’s increased charges and the greater transportation expenses. What is more, coal producers and coal traders will have to pay much greater fines for any extra load/unload time. In case the unloading is delayed for twenty-four hours, the fine might come to as much as 2,500 RUR per car. A 4,500-ruble fine is imposed on each car that has been returned without getting cleaned. The freight insurance might cost as much

SKB-Bank introduced the 15.5% interest rate as the upper profitability limit on deposits on September 18, 2008. This figure exceeds even the most pessimistic inflation rate predictions for the year 2008, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘We thought of raising the interest rates on deposits in order to protect our many customers’ financial interests. We all notice the price soaring, so one’s savings must both be secured and increased significantly by the bank,’ says SKB-Bank’s Deputy Chairman Oleg Demin. ‘Another reason was our intention to benefit from the challenging situation on the global

MegaFon-Ural reports the company has introduced a number of additional options available through text messaging. If you use the company’s service number 000100, a single list of customer service options will become available, including information on how to subscribe to or unsubscribe to certain services, options, or packages, switch to a new tariff scheme, file for calls on credit, or unsubscribe to all the services for up to ninety days, the spokesperson for MegaFon-Ural says. Service number 000100 can be used for receiving information on one’s phone number and the bills left over from

Sberbank of Russia’s Ural branch’s net profit amounted to more than 6.3 billion RUR on September 1, 2008. The volume of the bank’s net assets has gone up by 30.3% since the beginning of the year and came to 366.6 billion RUR. The working assets’ increase reached 56.9 billion RUR, or 22.6% more than at the beginning of the year, the bank’s press officer reports. The Ural branch’s share in Sberbank’s total profit in January-July 2008 came to 6.6%. This secured the branch the fourth position in Sberbank’s divisions’ profitability rating.

‘The Ural licensed software market is a little behind Moscow’s one at the moment. Yekaterinburg has so far reached the level Moscow was at in the year 2006,’ General Director of Softkey (an online software-selling supermarket) Felix Muchnik said in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg. Softkey conducted its annual research on software users in July and August 2008 and came to the conclusion that the share of licensed software used in the Urals comes to 4% of the country’s market; that of Moscow comes to 40%. ‘Until quite recently, there was no software market to speak of in the