According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to non-state financial organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 15.38% (from 7.022 million RUR to 5.942 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

Utel (aka Uralsvyazinform), one the region’s major telecommunications provider, has recently been featured in an online video clip called The Immaculate Connection. In terms of the plot, the clip shows a conversation between a young man and a young woman wearing a kimono. The man apparently does not want any children and says he is not willing to provide for the baby, whereupon the woman kicks him several times. In the end, they quarrel bitterly using quite a bit of strong language, and the final slogan reads,’ Utel’s Immaculate Connection. So much for the conversation.’ The spokesperson for

Ural Airlines launched its Special Purpose Passenger project on October 7, 2008 and now needs volunteers among their frequent fliers who would be willing to take part in the crew’s evaluation while on board. The passengers who agree to cooperate will be sent an electronic questionnaire with detailed filling instructions. The questionnaire will give the evaluators a chance to do a written assessment of the flight attendants’ performance during a particular flight. The questions are related to the quality of passenger service on board the plane, with a special section devoted to amiability and

RBC.Rating reports Bank24.ru invested 1.881 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 41.37%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

‘The stock market’s collapse primarily hit the stock price-sensitive investment tools,’ METCOMBANK’s CFO Vadim Bambozov said to an UrBC reporter. ‘Given the fact that the inflation rate reached 9.7% on September 1, 2008, some 89% of the country’s unit investment trusts turned out to be loss-making. Some of them experienced the non-profitability of as much as 50%. To make matters worse, people are less interested in investing in trusts now because of the real estate market’s unpredictability and the difficulties of getting there. Investing in precious metals is losing popularity as well

‘The construction of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district will first and foremost have an impact on the potential customers’ idea of what a quality home is. We haven’t seen such carefully planned and detailed housing projects in Yekaterinburg yet, so Academic will improve on both the quality of and the supply of modern housing in the city,’ says Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s CEO Rustem Galeev. In the meantime, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev spoke rather favorably of the pace and the quality of the construction during his recent meeting with Renova Group’s Chairman Viktor Vekselberg.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to sole traders for 1 t o3 years went down by 25.98% (from 29.424 million RUR to 21.779 million RUR) in January-August 2008.

ChTPZ Group and Rimera are going to participate in KIOGE 2008, the international oil and gas exhibition in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on October 7-10, 2008. ChTPZ Group is planning to present a wide range of full-set delivery options for the fuel and energy sector to its potential customers. These options include Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s produce, the services Rimera can render to the O&G enterprises, and the Group’s new potential in the field of tubing strings, O&G pipelines, casings, and upset tubing production at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s finishing

‘The financial crisis is only starting to gather pace at the moment, so its consequences are hard to predict,’ UMMC Holding’s GD Andrei Kozitsin announced in the course of a press conference in Interfax-Ural’s press center in Yekaterinburg on October 6, 2008. During the regional government’s meeting a week earlier, Kozitsin explained that the global demand for metallurgical industry’s produce tended to go down; so did the nonferrous metals prices, all of which could affect Sverdlovsk Region’s economy quite badly.