Istanbul-Yekaterinburg flight operated by Turkish Airlines has been delayed. The airline hasn’t been able to state the exact arrival time yet. Now the flight was supposed to have arrived in Yekaterinburg at noon today, but was actually called off.

The project on the introduction of a nanotech center on the premises of Ural Scientific & Technological Institute in Yekaterinburg won in the second open-to-all contest coordinated by Rosnano State Corporation. This means that the project can hope to receive the corporation’s financing. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov, the center aims to deal in the development and commercial application of nanotechnologies with the help of the most advanced nanotech machinery. The minister explained the project’s total budget amounted to 1.7 billion

Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport neither let any planes land on its runways nor allowed any aircraft to take off from its premises from 9:00 PM on November 28 to 2:00 AM on November 29, 2010 due to unfavorable weather conditions. The heavy snowfall and a strong wind reduced visibility in the airport area down to 150 meters and the friction coefficient of the runway was lower than the officially permitted limit of 0.3, all of which caused considerable flight delays. Twenty-four flights were delayed on November 28 alone: thirteen planes arrived late and eleven aircraft’s departure was put off.

The international raring agency Standard & Poor's reconsidered its rating outlook of the Russian Home Credit & Finance Bank recently, promoting it from Negative to Stable. At the same time, the bank’s contractor long-term and short-term credit ratings were affirmed at B+ and B, respectively. ‘An improved rating outlook reflects our feeling that the bank’s financial performance indicators grew to look better within the recovering operating environment on the Russian market. For one, Home Credit & Finance Bank’s has been enjoying some positive business development dynamics

Transaero-operated flights from Bali and Phuket to Yekaterinburg have been delayed, Koltsovo Airport of Yekateirnburg’s interactive announcement board states. The plane operating Denpasar-Yekaterinburg flight that was to have arrived at the airport at 1:20 AM on November 30, 2010 will only land in Yekaterinburg at 10:15 AM. The plane from Thailand, which was to have landed at 8:00 PM on November 29, 2010, will now land in Yekaterinburg at 2:50 AM on November 30, 2010. In both cases, the delay has reportedly been caused by the late arrival of the aircraft in the respective airports in Bali and

The Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Perm Territory division imposed a million-ruble fine on Sberbank of Russia’s West-Ural branch for abusing the bank’s monopoly on the local market. The Service stated earlier that Sberbank of Russia’s West-Ural branch had violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 7) of the Federal Competition Protection Act. The offense consisted in the bank abusing its dominant market position through introducing unreasonably high fees for the opening of and administration of an account (with no e-banking services provided) for legal entities. Such pricing policies were

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on November 10, 2010 that OOO City Motors should undergo bankruptcy proceedings; this decision resolved case А60- 36174/2010-С11, Kommersant reports under its Insolvency Announcements heading. Yuri Shabalin, a member of the Siberian Guild of Anti-Crisis Managers, was appointed the company’s trustee for the time being.

Rosbank is going to coordinate the issue of Sverdlovsk Region’s 2010 bonds, the region’s Finance Ministry reports. Quite a few organizations competed for this task in a tender, including VTB Capital, Troika Dialog Investment Company, the Bank of Moscow, Promsvyazbank, Bank URALSIB, and Svyaz-Bank. All of these companies, with the exception of Promsvyazbank, also took part in the preceding tender announced on August 31, 2010; however, that tender was called off. Now Sverdlovsk Region intends to go through with a bond issue that will be worth up to 2 billion RUR and will remain in circulation

An ad hoc committee consisting of the experts from Russian Railways, the Department of Emergencies, scientific research institutes, and some relevant governmental bodies has been set up to estimate the likelihood of some further soil sagging at Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ Berezniki railway station in Perm Territory. The whole trouble started when a freight train’s automatic brakes went off at Berezniki station of the Berezniki-Perm electrically operated section of the road at 04:55 AM (Moscow time) on November 25, 2010. The examination of the train revealed the sagging of the surface

‘It’s possible that Russia’s chief doctor responsible for sanitation issues Gennady Onischenko will decide to impose a ban on passenger flights to the Dominican Republic as soon as tomorrow, November 26. This has to do with an outbreak of cholera in the neighboring Haiti. Yekaterinburg travel agents dealing in tours to the Dominican Republic are now waiting for the tomorrow’s news to come,’ General Director of Mir Travel Company Sergey Buzko announced at a Coordination Committee for Foreign Travel’s recent meeting. ‘The Dominican Republic is a very popular place at the moment, given

SV Group/Technosila’s bankruptcy application will be considered by the court on January 21, 2011, Moscow Arbitration Court ruled, Mally.Ru reports. SV Group first declared itself insolvent on July 28, 2010; the application was not processed at the time because some of the files hadn’t been organized in accordance with the existing requirements. Technosila’s second bankruptcy application, placed with the court on September 24, 2010, was also left unheeded. The company has actually been undergoing bankruptcy proceedings since July 2010; the company, which owns Russia’s third largest electronic

The authorized capital of OAO Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation has been increased by 5 billion RUR through an additional issue of ordinary registered non-certificated shares. The decision to go through with a share issue was made by the company’s sole stockholder. The shares were offered at 1,000 RUR apiece. These will be bought by Rosimushchestvo on behalf of the Russian Federation.

‘We won in all the court cases involving Metro Cash & Carry, but the story hasn’t come to an end yet,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions told UrBC. The German chain store actually clashed with the local trade unions after Metro’s Yekaterinburg stores management tried to prevent the organization of a corporate trade union there. Another problem apparently consisted in violation of the workers’ right to a compensation for the harmful working conditions. ‘The chairman of Yekaterinburg Trade Networks trade union Alexander Brusnitsin met Metro Vice President in

OOO Staffleasing is no longer a shareholder of OAO Uralmashzavod; the company used to own 32.2% of the Yekaterinburg-based plant’s shares. At the same time, the shareholding of ZAO Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation went up from 60.32% to 92.52%.

‘On Saturday, November 20, 2010, flight FZ901 from Dubai to Yekaterinburg operated by FlyDubai had to go through with an emergency landing in Samara because the landing strip in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg had been made unavailable by snow; moreover, the conditions for braking on the strip were classed as ‘bad’. For the sake of the passengers and the crew’s safety, it was decided not to try to land in such weather conditions,’ FlyDubai’s press service explained to UrBC. ‘As it happens, the aircraft crew found out upon their arrival in Samara that they had exceeded the officially

The international rating agency gave SKB-Bank’s BO 04 series bonds B2 on the rating scale, with Stable rating outlook. Any other bond issue that might follow this one will be given the same rating by Moody’s unless some dramatic changes occur in the bank’s overall credit rating, the agency reports. Moody’s analysts see SKB-Bank’s good position on Sverdlovsk Region and other Russian constituencies’ banking services market as a rather positive thing. They also think favorably of the bank’s clear-cut development strategy and a wide range of products on offer.

Following a request from Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities, the regional division of the Federal Drug Control Service inspected X5 Retail Group’s Carousel hypermarket in Park House Mall in Yekaterinburg and found the store was selling mobile phone holders with images of marijuana printed on them. The officers of the Service confiscated fifteen unsold items and then had them subjected to an examination by a board of art critics. The experts came to the conclusion that the mobile phone holders with images of marijuana leaves on them can be classed as a means of advertising and

‘The city of Yekaterinburg proves to be one of our most effective business development directions in Europe,’ Bart Buyse, General Director St Petersburg and Russian Regions at Lufthansa German Airlines said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. The airline reports their passenger turnover increases faster in Yekaterinburg than it does in Moscow or Saint Petersburg, which makes the former one of the three top cities for Lufthansa. Lufthansa executive said during the conference that Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg has all the potential needed to become a hub, but its transformation

The construction of Russian Magnesium plant in Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region, has recently been halted, Chairman of the regional House of Representatives’ Economic Policies, Budget, Finance, & Taxes Committee and BOD Chairman of Tagilstroy Holding Alexei Chekanov told MK-Ural. ‘Tagilstroy Trust was involved in the construction as a contractor, but the project has been frozen for the time being for a number of reasons. I find the situation regrettable, as Russian Magnesium would have created new jobs in Asbest and would have ensured more tax payments. I believe the project has to be seriously

McDonald s is planning on adjusting the menus in its Ural outlets to the local culinary tastes, Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev announced at a meeting with the local catering business representatives today. ‘I’ve spoken to their managers and explained to them that not taking the local tastes into account can actually be seen as a lack of respect. The fast food chain needs to have its menu choices modified in accordance with the local preferences, so McDonald s management now intends to introduce some novelties in the assortment of food items,’ Konteev said.