Direct air communication with Georgia has been restored after a few years’ break. Starting August 24, 2011, Ural Airlines will operate direct flights from Moscow to Kutaisi and back and from Yekaterinburg to Tbilisi and back. Planes will leave Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday, and flights at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg will depart every Wednesday. The cheapest tickets for the Moscow-Kutaisi flight are available for ?155 for a one-way trip, and the cheapest one-way tickets for Yekaterinburg-Tbilisi flight come at ?175.

An inspection carried out by Nizhniy Tagil division of Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities for the environment revealed that RMK-NTMK, its former Director-General I. Perfilov, and Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) itself had violated the existing environmental legislation. Therefore legal action was taken against the first two offenders, with charges based on Article 8.2 of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (non-compliance with the environmental and sanitary-epidemiological regulations regarding the collection, storage, use, deactivation,

Russian law-enforcement authorities closed the criminal case involving a Siemens employee, the company says in its quarterly report. As has been reported earlier, the Russian authorities carried out an investigation based on a suspicion that the budget money had been misused through offering Siemens a contract for the delivery of medical equipment to Yekaterinburg in 2003-2005. On July 5, 2011 the inquiry involving a Siemens employee was closed, with all the charges dismissed,’ Interfax quotes the company as reporting. In November 2007, Siemens representative for Sverdlovsk Region Lev Dubnov

Yekaterinburg-based Umax-Center was declared a dishonest supplier by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service recently. The reason for this decision lay in the fact that the company had won a tender but backed out of signing a contract with Sverdlovsk Region Government Car Fleet for the delivery of 790,850 RUR worth of winter tires.

Ural Interregional Territorial Air Transport Administration allowed Chelyabinsk Airport to host passenger aircraft Sukhoi SuperJet 100 on its premises, the airport’s press service reports. The airport ground crew have already undergone the special training to get certified for Sukhoi Superjet 100/95 ground services, while the airport has also provided documentary proof of having the necessary equipment available.