‘The outcomes of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg look rather dubious, to say the least. On the one hand, all the planned events did take place smoothly. On the other hand, knowing that the state and the local businesses have spent a total of about 60 billion RUR in preparation, one cannot help feeling that this is too much. Then, the summit was actually targeted at attracting investors but resulted in just one agreement: the China State Bank is going to offer us $1bn loan (instead of the earlier declared ?1bn, which would mean 33% more money). The loan is to be

‘Seventy rooms have already got commissioned at Ramada Ekaterinburg Hotel by now, with thirty more to get commissioned next week. There are 156 rooms in the hotel altogether,’ Director of Ramada Ekaterinburg Hotel Xavier Khlopovsky said at a meeting with the other local hoteliers. The hotel, formerly known as The Ukraine, is located next to Yekaterinburg-Koltsovo highway. It is now being renovated by Uralzarubezhservis and Mayak Corporation. The hotel had been expected to host a delegation of Chinese officials during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg on June 15-16,

‘We were trying to get to the federal highway, but we were prevented from doing so by two hundred special police force officers, who blocked all the way to the road. We’ve only got four hours to make the authorities resume the natural gas supply to the plant. The thing is, our furnaces will cool down without the continuous supply of gas, and it will be impossible to get them going again once they’ve grown cold. We mean to make more attempts as to blocking the federal highway,’ Bogdanovitch china plant’s Production Director Nadezhda Ulyanova said to UrBC. The plant was faced with the

MICEX index dropped by 7.8% at the close of business on June 22, 2009 and therefore amounted to 937.98 points at 7:29 PM (Moscow time). This level is actually comparable with that of the end of April. The stock exchange reports the shares of Uralsvyazinform dropped the lowest, with the share price going down by 13% at the close of business. Meanwhile, RTS index decreased by 5% by the end of the day as well and came to 961.04 points. Analysts believe the market has already shrunk by 20% since early June (when the year’s maximum figures were reached). They feel the decrease has to do with the

The international rating agency decreased Uralsvyazinform’s long-term credit rating from ВВ- to В+ and took it off their CreditWatch list. The telecommunications provider’s rating was placed on the list with Negative Rating Outlook on March 2, 2009. Now the company’s Rating Outlook is Stable. ‘The rating demotion was caused by our concerns over the way the company’s liquid assets are managed: we find it aggressive and unfit for ВВ- rating category,’ says Standard & Poor’s analyst Alexander Gryaznov. ‘Then, Uralsvyazinform’s rating is threatened by the business’s low liquidity figures, the