Moscow, 16 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the 2008 year results of the Global Technology and Innovation Research Project, a long-term programme designed to involve leading universities and research centres in the identification of innovative and sustainable applications for aluminium products.љ A joint committee comprising of UC RUSAL, the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and Professor Thomas Graedel from the Yale University, as the independent expert, has selected three of the most promising research projects to

Moscow, 16 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce its production and summary financial results for the first nine months of 2008. Highlights Bauxite output rose 3.4% to 13.5 mln tonnesљ compared to the same period last year Alumina output grew 2% to reach 8.4 mln tonnes Primary aluminium production increased 6.5% to 3.3 mln tonnes Output of value-added casthouse products increased 10.8% to constitute 51% of the company’s total aluminium output Foil production rose 5.7% Total revenues for the first nine months of 2008 increased 14%

‘The honesty of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) will surely be appreciated by the company’s shareholders and investors,’ Finam Management’s leading expert Dmitriy Baranov said to an UrBC reporter. MMK was one of the country’s first metallurgical enterprises to announce a production downfall and certain redundancies brought about by the global financial crisis. ‘In the long run, everything will depend on the state of events at each particular metallurgical enterprise. What MMK is doing now is one of the most logical and speediest ways to react to a crisis,’ he explained.

‘Once the financial crisis broke out, the number of customers who used to shop at Corteo Fashion Mall has gone down dramatically. The sales have naturally dropped quite a bit as well. Those who could afford to buy some really expensive things before are having a hard time now,’ the mall’s Armani section VIP Manager Nina Borodulina said to an UrBC reporter. ‘It’s a bit difficult at the moment to say how much damage has been done to the deluxe clothes retailers. We haven’t got any reliable data yet, though it really is true that the sales have decreased a lot,’ she added.

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank might soon appear in a whole series of scandalous court trials: the bank will probably be sued by its own customers. On October 14, 2008, the bank imposed a 20% fee on private customers who want to cash their deposits in before the end of the deposit period. The fee is imposed on private individuals who want to withdraw more than 50,000 RUR. The bank claims this has been done in order to avoid the panic that started to spread among the customers. As a result, all the depositors who wanted to get their money back before the end of the deposit period had to either

‘The ongoing financial crisis might actually affect our industrial enterprises. Pnevmostroymachina is the least likely to be damaged, since 30% of this enterprise’s output is export-oriented; besides, this company is involved in a key industry, namely, road construction. As long as the authorities provide the money for roads, this company will keep on working,’ says FINPROMCO’s Vice President Ildar Gubaev. ‘As far as all the other enterprises of the union are concerned, they can get seriously hurt. They might have to switch to a four-day working week, cut back on the social benefit programs,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBan to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 50.90% (from 27.5 million RUR to 13.5 million RUR) in January-September 2008.