UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2011. MEGA’s Yekaterinburg mall will soon get a new extension to the already existing building. ‘They are currently considering the technical options available,’ says Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev at a press hour. Konteev reminded the attendees that about 1.5 million people came to MEGA every month. The extension will probably be completed within the next two or three years. MEGA currently houses IKEA, OBI, and Auchan.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2011. The tickets for flight from Yekaterinburg to the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary/Carlsbad by Czech Connect Airlines a.s. are now being sold at a price that is higher than that originally promised by the carrier. It has been reported to UrBC that the cheapest tickets are available for ?405. Now the company had claimed earlier that the tickets would cost ?335 plus the fuel fees. Czech Connect Airlines a.s announced a week ago it was planning to operate scheduled flights from Yekaterinburg to Karlovy Vary starting March 23, 2011. The flight is expected to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2011. Yekaterinburg city council forbade 73 Malyshev St. condominium to cut down the trees of a local park to reconstruct Passage Mall. ‘The mall’s design is now being finished. The point is to build more floors, introduce more space and a new architectural solution as well as products range on offer in the mall,’ Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev announced at a meeting with the local reporters. Now according to Passage Mall reconstruction project that is now available online, the building might take up a stretch of park in Square 1905. ‘We insist

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2011. The public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region are now investigating the cutting down of trees and the building jobs in Repin St. and Zoologicheskaya St. in Yekaterinburg. The authorities are checking whether the land allotment was legitimately provided for this activity. Forum Group intends to put up a retail park in the city’s Verkh-Isetsky district. The developer wants to build 113,000 sq m worth of shopping space and expects to cut down over 1,100 trees for the purpose. However, the company refused to explain whether it has a permission to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2011. ‘The locals planning to take some time off and go to Egypt are naturally worried about the insurgencies there. We keep on getting calls from customers who ask to be explained what’s going on there. Nevertheless, there is no need to be concerned right now, as the trouble only involves Cairo at the moment, while the touristy areas like Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh, and other places are nice and quiet. This is what those who have just come back from Egypt report, too,’ Director of Zima-Leto Travel Agency Olga Gulyar told UrBC. Egypt is now faced with mass

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2011. Starting March 22, 2011, OAO Ural Airlines will be offering its customers a new flight to the Czech Republic, namely, a flight from Yekaterinburg to Karlovy Vary and back. Tickets are already available in all the booking offices as well as via the carrier’s website www.uralairlines.com. ‘At least a third of all tourists flying to the Czech Republic during the high season goes to Karlovy Vary, so the flight will certainly enjoy good demand. As usual, we offer special prices on the new direction,’ Ural Airlines reports. The cheapest deals come at ?299 plus

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2011. Ural Airlines has been expanding the range of price offers on its Moscow-bound flights and therefore making the cheapest tickets for flights from Yekaterinburg to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport even less expensive. Starting January 26, 2011, one can buy a ticket to fly from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and back for only 8,200 RUR (4,100 RUR if you only need to fly one way). The price rate does not depend on the date of departure or arrival. Tickets are available vie the airline’s online booking office at www.uralairlines.com as well as in the booking offices of

UrBC, Moscow, January 26, 2011. Toyota Motor Corporation will have to call off 21,730 Avensis items in Russia within the framework of its worldwide product recall campaign that involves a total of 1.3 million cars. The automobiles are being called off due to a fuel injection problem, RIA Novosti was informed by OOO Toyota Motor. These are the automobiles with 2- and 2.4-liter gasoline engines produced between August 23, 2002 and September 9, 2008 that will have to be called off. ‘Our campaign is of an advisory nature, not a single case of a breakdown caused by a fuel injection problem has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2011. Square 1905, a shop run by DNS chain store, closed down in downtown Yekaterinburg. DNS is a nationally wide retail chain that specializes in sales of computers and digital appliances. The company runs nine stores in Yekaterinburg. According to the company’s Advertising Department, the shop in Vosmoye Marta St. was closed down because there was no way for it to expand. The company reports they are going to reopen the outlet in a new location in mid-February 2011; however, DNS store’s new address was not provided just yet.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2011. Russia’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Yuri Trutnev confirmed the list of Russian enterprises that make a negative impact on the environment and must be subject to environmental surveillance by the state. Orders were signed in eighty-three federal constituencies, including Sverdlovsk Region, the Ministry’s press officer reports. For one, METRO Cash & Carry was featured on the list.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2011. Russia’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Yuri Trutnev confirmed the list of Russian enterprises that make a negative impact on the environment and must be subject to environmental surveillance by the state. Orders were signed in eighty-three federal constituencies, including Sverdlovsk Region, the Ministry’s press officer reports. For one, Uralsvyazinform, a telecommunications provider, was featured on the list.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, January 27, 2011. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) raised its steel output by 19% last year compared with a year earlier; the output figures thus reached 11.419 million tons, the company reports. MMK’s commodity output rose by 17% and reached 10.245 million tons. Last year, MMK made 3.448 million tons of goods with high added value, which was 44% better than in the year 2009. MMK Group’s share of metal products with high added value came to 38% of its total annual output (against 31% in 2009) and to 42% of all the metal goods produced in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2011. ‘People living in the vicinity of A.K. Serov Metallurgical Plant are expected to face significant health risks due to the impact of nitrogen oxide and fine dust,’ Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) announced in the course of a committee meeting. The meeting was dedicated to the introduction of sanitary protection areas around industrial enterprises. ‘The division gauged the health risks for the inhabitants of Sverdlovsk Region’s environmentally unfriendly towns; the accumulated risk of cancer that an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 25, 2011. Ural Customs goods turnover involving the countries of the CIS dropped by 2.9% last year compared with a year earlier, that is, down to $4.7bn. On the other hand, the turnover of goods delivered to and from the far abroad rose by 18.6%, up to $18.4bn, Ural Customs Administration’s press officer reports. The decrease in the goods turnover involving the countries of the CIS had to do with the lowered export volumes to Kazakhstan (these went down by 43.2%) and import volumes from Kazakhstan (these declined by 20.1%), even though the amount of goods exported

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2011. ‘The year 2010 can be seen as a successful one. Toyota Center Yekaterinburg Vostok’s sales went up by 20% on average compared with the year 2009,’ the company’s director Sergey Vassilyev told UrBC. Vassilyev reports Toyota makes are very popular with Yekaterinburg customers, as they are throughout the entire country. Last year’s top three best-selling makes were Toyota Corolla, Toyota Rav4, and Toyota Camry. ‘The new Toyota Highlander that hit the market in the last quarter of the year aroused great customer interest. Russia’s automobile market is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region State Employment Service Department came up with a list of companies that went through with large-scale layoffs in 2010. For one, Serov Metallurgical Plant made 2,580 people redundant due to decreased amount of work to be done. 1,700 people had to leave Ural Electro-Chemical Works for the same reason. 477 people were laid off at Sredneuralsk Copper-Smelting Plant because the company had improved on its management structure, and 660 people left Uralasbest due to decreased production output. Also, 387 people were made redundant at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2011. Russia’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Yuri Trutnev confirmed the list of Russian enterprises that make a negative impact on the environment and must be subject to environmental surveillance by the state. Orders were signed in eighty-three federal constituencies, including Sverdlovsk Region, the Ministry’s press officer reports. For one, Seversky Pipe Works was featured on the list.

Betfor, a concrete goods plant owned by LSR Group, finished last year off with 31.59 million RUR worth of net losses, the company’s official report says. Now a year earlier, the plant’s net loss amounted to 80.24 million RUR. Betfor reports its net losses were smaller in 2010 than in 2009 because of increased product sales volumes and reduced outgoings.

A Yekaterinburg-based customer of Home Credit & Finance Bank managed to have a number of terms contained in the bank’s agreements declared invalid by the court. The court ruled that the customer’s loan agreement was invalid in that it charged a commission of 1.725% a month for the issuance of a loan, a commission for topping up one’s loan account, and that the bank made it compulsory for the borrowing party to get insured against an accident and pay 8,912 RUR for it. The bank will now have to pay B., the plaintiff, 8,910 RUR – the insurance fee, as well as 24,178.7 RUR – the commission

Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) completed its unscheduled inspection of Sinara Pipe Plant that was aimed at checking the plant’s compliance with two earlier orders. As it turned out, the company failed to fulfill one order, with a new order issued for the enterprise. Two Rosprirodnadzor experts were sent to take part in the investigation carried out by Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities upon the request of Ural Federal District’s division of Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office; the inquiry is targeted at verifying the