Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met the heads of the region’s banking and small and medium business communities to discuss the current state of the region’s economy and the federal authorities’ attempts to make the country’s financial system more dependable as well as the things the regional government could do to support the small business. The meeting participants spoke favorably of the Russian Government’s decision to allocate 30 billion RUR to help the small business and said they hoped some portion of this money would be directed to Chelyabinsk Region. In the meantime, an ad

Moody’s, the international rating agency, demoted Bank Severnaya Kazna’s long-term ratings on national and foreign currency deposits from B2 to Caa2 – all that without providing any definite rating outlook, Banki.ru reports. What is more, the bank’s financial stability rating went down from E+ to E, with Stable rating outlook. In the meantime, the agency confirmed Bank Severnaya Kazna’s short-term ratings on national and foreign currency deposits as Not-Prime, whereas Moody’s Interfax Rating Agency decreased the bank’s long-term national scale rating from Baa1.ru to B2.ru. ‘These decisions

Renova-StroyGroup is currently coordinating a tender aimed at finding a general contractor for the construction of blocks 2.1 and 2.1.1 of Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district. This will include putting up apartment building ranging in height from seven to sixteen floors (with all the communications provided) and setting up the entire infrastructure like pedestrian walks, pavements, squares, parking lots, parks and flower beds, street lights, and so on. The construction process is to begin in December 2008 after the tender has been completed. ‘Our long-term economic strategy and the

MOTIV Telecommunications Group is going to make its GPRS roaming services available in a few more countries at the end of October 2008. Staring October 24, 2008, for example, the service will be offered in the Republic of Mauritius (through Emtel Limited). On October 27, 2008, MOTIV’s customers using the GSM standard will be able to use international roaming in Tajikistan (through Indigo Tajikistan CJSC). Finally, Telefónica Móviles España, S.A will start cooperating with MOTIV in Spain on October 29, 2008, MOTIV’s press officer reports.

Bank24.ru’s top managers are asking the bank’s customers to consider the advanced repayment of their credits. The bank’s official website, for example, advertises their special offer: pay off your debt now and don’t worry about the interest rate payments in October. Meanwhile, Bank24.ru keeps applying certain sanctions to customers who want to cash their deposits before the end of the deposit period. The bank’s call center reports in this case a customer has to place an application nearly a month in advance and will only be allowed to take out no more than 10,000 RUR. As far as ATMs and