UrBC found out recently that the chartered flights operated by Yamal Airlines from Yekaterinburg to Bulgaria are in danger of being called off. Apparently, the problem came up because the company’s management neglects the existing rules and only informs Rosaviation of the upcoming flight at the last possible minute. According to an official source, Yamal expects to operate fifteen chartered flights from Yekaterinburg to Burgas and a number of flights to Varna this year. These flights were ordered by Neva ad Capital Tour travel agents. At the moment, hundreds of travelers are uncertain about

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development joined Visa’s promotion campaign dubbed ‘Try It-You’ll Love It!’ this May. Under the terms of this special offer, any customer who uses their Visa-UBRD card to pay for goods and services between May 20, 2010 and December 31, 2010 gets a chance to win 3,000 RUR. One’s chances increase with every new transaction. The first prize-winners will have been determined by mid-summer 2010; the prize-drawing process will be split into four two-month stages, with intermediary prizes. 3,000 prizes will be given out altogether, with money to be transferred

Ural Federal University is currently on the look-out for a bank that could become the university’s partner in terms of cash processing. The university has encouraged the local banks to place their applications with the UFU’s Supervisory Board. The Board will have to come up with recommendations on the banks it sees most suitable for rendering the university cash processing, depositing, and other financial services as well as dealing with the obligatory medical insurance payments.

This year, the American magazine Forbes did a research on the economic situation in Russia’s thirty most populated cities (excluding Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and the cities located in the North Caucasus). The cities were ranked in accordance with their final score that depended on six indicator groups: business climate, the population’s spending power, stability during a recession, social characteristics, infrastructure, and the ease of doing business for the companies’ owners and top managers. Among the Top 10 best business cities were Krasnodar, Khabarovsk, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk,

Russia’ Federal Antimonopoly Service fined OOO KB Uniastrum Bank for its loan ads; the bank is now to pay two 40,000-ruble fines, FAS’s press officer reports. On February 24, 2010, the Service declared that the bank’s loan advertisements contradicted the norms prescribed in Articles 5 (part 3, paragraph 15) and 9 of the Federal Advertising Act. ‘The offense consisted in the launch of an online, bank office, and media ad campaign in March-July 2009; the advertisements promoted Uniastrum Bank credit card-based loans and a special offer that provided for a holiday in Cyprus. The advertisements

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region is planning to propose a new legislation to the federal authorities. Mikhail Yurevitch, who has been running a large city for five years, believes it would be reasonable to direct the transport tax money to the town officials so as to finance municipal improvements. At the moment, 100% of the existing transport tax money gets transferred to the Russian Federation constituencies’ budgets. Chelyabinsk Region, for one, received 858.5 million RUR last year. Now the Governor suggests that this sum should go to the local towns and cities and be invested in roads and

‘Yekaterinburg’s key problem in terms of attracting foreign investment lies in the lack of good quality projects. Most of the projects that could actually interest international investors have not been built yet. On the other hand, one can find a market niche in virtually any field here, as the quality supply is still limited. Until very recently, for example, Yekaterinburg had no five-star hotels at all. Now this niche has been taken by the Hyatt Hotel,’ Cushman & Wakefield/Stiles & Riabokobylko’s General Director and Partner Sergey Riabokobylko announced in the course of a recent

OAO Uralenergotsvetmet is not going to pay any share dividend for the year 2009. The decision to this extent was taken by the company’s stockholders during the recent AGM in Yekaterinburg.

‘As is well known, we’ve been faced with an adverse budget this year. The deficit can be compensated in two ways: through an increase in profits or through taking out loans and giving out guarantees. We can also issue bonds and securities. However, when one comes to analyze the banks’ interest rates, it becomes obvious that this rate comes to 15% to 18% a year, whereas bonds an be issued at a smaller interest and the assets can be managed more easily into the bargain,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin says. ‘We have issued nearly 10 billion RUR worth of guarantees so far. As

‘The outcome of the last heating season is not quite rosy. Customers owe 4 billion RUR to Sverdlovsk Heating Supply Company, of which 1 billion RUR constitutes current debts and 3 billion RUR constitute overdue debt,’ the company’s Executive Director Sergey Yefimov said to UrBC reporters. ‘Our key debtors are the municipalities of Pervouralsk, Krasnoturyinsk, Nizhnyaya Tura, and Kachkanar. As for Pervouralsk, Anatoly Gredin has already set up an ad hoc committee to sort out the town’s problems, and now we are looking into the ways of dealing with them. All in all, such a large debt emerged

Following the demand of the prosecutor from Yekaterinburg’s Chkalovskiy district, an entertainment club located on the 27th floor of a housing block at Ordenonostsev St. in Yekaterinburg was temporarily closed down. This particular street is actually filled with skyscrapers put up by Atomstroycomplex, the city’s major developer. It was detected in the course of an investigation that the club, which belonged to OOO Home Club, did not comply with the sanitary-and-epidemiologic regulations, consumer rights, or fire safety regulations. This was why the public prosecution authorities instituted

‘MTS submitted its revised tax declarations for 2008 in 2009; as a result, we paid a smaller property tax because our earlier years’ payments had actually been greater than necessary,’ OAO MTS Ural Macro-region’s PR expert Darya Volkhina. In the meantime, the regional government’s business support committee declared recently that the local branch of OAO VympelCommunications (Beeline) and OAO MTS were directing less money to the regional budget. ‘MTS did not make any of its Yekaterinburg branch’s employees redundant last year. Quite on the contrary, the company created over a hundred new jobs

‘OAO VympelCom’s Yekaterinburg subsidiary keeps making increasingly more profit from rendering its services to the local customers, so the tax payments directed to Sverdlovsk Region’s budget have been increasing proportionally. This was also true of the year 2009, when the company’s profits soared against the previous year’s figures. Now the decrease in payments that the government officials mentioned at their latest meeting stems from the fact that the company has used its tax relief options in accordance with the property tax legislation,’ the company’s press officer informed UrBC. The

ZAO Ural precision alloys plant’s BOD suggested that the company’s shareholders vote for not paying any dividend on ordinary registered shares for the year 2009. This decision will have to be made by the stockholders in the course of an upcoming annual general meeting scheduled for June 29, 2010. The agenda of the AGM mainly covers issues related to the plant’s performance in 2009.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch asked the region’s Ministry for Economic Development to pay more attention to the local entrepreneurs’ applications. The Governor explained it was important to look more carefully into the businessmen’s complaints regarding the obstacles the municipal authorities appear to create for them. ‘We have to register and investigate every case where an entrepreneur’s rights are violated. If an applicant’s complaint is grounded and that the applicant is a law-abiding citizen, we’ll have to interfere. We also need to keep track of the number of such

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled in favor of Rospotrebnadzor’s Chkalovskiy division of Sverdlovsk Region Administration’s decision regarding OAO VUZ-Bank. The state consumer rights watchdog insisted that the bank was violating the rights of its customers. This Chkalovskiy division of the consumer rights protection agency received a number of complaints filed by VUZ-Bank’s customers in September 2009-April 2010. The subsequent inspections revealed that the bank’s loan agreements contained some terms that infringed upon the customers’ legal rights. After Rospotrebnadzor had ordered the

Experts from Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Yekaterinburg Department of Sverdlovsk Region carried out inspections of Auchan and Auchan-City hypermarkets located in Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetskiy district in April 2010. The inspections were organized in accordance with the state consumer rights watchdog’s official schedule for the year 2010, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor reports. The two stores were checked for compliance with the existing health legislation, the Consumer Rights Protection Act, and the sales regulations for certain kinds of products. The better part of the problems detected

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch visited the local town of Zlatoust on May 25, 2010 and looked at the place’s most remarkable landmarks. For one, the Governor could see a church under reconstruction, a monument dedicated to P. Anosov (an outstanding Russian engineer and director of Zlatoust armory), and Bulat plant’s exhibition center. Mikhail Yurevitch also visited the town museum and had a look at the cold steel arms exhibition; all of the objects on display were produced by Zlatoust craftsmen. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Yurevitch was greatly impressed

MMK Management Company’s First Vice President for Strategic Development & Metallurgy Rafkat Takhautdinov says he is positive the produce of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) cold roll Mill 2000 will be very popular with the Russian car manufacturers. According to MMK executive, the enterprise’s management had some thorough market research done prior to launching the project. The research findings made it clear that such a unique facility is quite needed. ‘All the car makers are looking forward to this mill’s produce, especially because the foreign automobile manufacturers who run

OAO NOMOS-Bank is not going to pay any dividends on preference registered shares or ordinary registered shares for the year 2009. This recommendation was given by the bank’s Supervisory Board to the company’s stockholders, who will have to turn in their votes at the upcoming AGM on June 23, 2010.