Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service allowed Microsoft to buy Skype, the owner of a popular Internet-based telecommunications service, the FAS’s press service reports. ‘The agency looked into Microsoft International Holdings B.V.’s application to acquire the rights over Quick.Ru and Skype Communications S.AR.L.’s business activity and decided to approve of it,’ the press service says. Now Microsoft Corporation went through with the purchase of Skype as early as mid-October, but the formal completion of the transaction in Russia was postponed until the FAS would accept the deal. Meanwhile,

Igor Kim, who, with a number of co-investors, became the owner of Barclays Bank a month ago, started reorganizing his new business. Since the new proprietors are not prepared to make up for the bank’s losses by capital inflow as the British parent enterprise Barclays used to do every year, the bank will start with cutting down on expenses. For one, about a quarter of the employees will be made redundant, while the pay of the remaining staff will be cut by 20%, Kommersant reports. Serious personnel changes began at the bank as soon as the new owners arrived in late October, a few of Barclays’s

Rezhnickel Production Association dumped 24,600 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 4.9% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Rezh. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service conducted an in-office audit of Yekaterinburg-based Uktus Airport. The inspection revealed some violations of the Russian Federation law, so the company was ordered to eliminate these and to take measures to prevent such violations from happening in the future. The audit was carried out by the Issuers Control Department of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service’s Ural Federal District division.

NOMOS-Bank reduced its shareholding in Khanty-Mansiysky Bank down to 7.79%. The bank used to own a 31.31% stake in this Urals-based bank before.

A worker was killed at UC RUSAL’s Bogoslovsky smelter on the night of November 25. The twenty-six-year-old alumina department employee was found dead, Vecherny Krasnoturyinsk reports. ‘The worker was killed under unclear circumstances at the furnace-charge section of the smelter’s alumina department. An ad hoc committee was set up by the enterprise to look into the causes of the accident. The committee comprises some representatives of Rostechnadzor (the state technological, nuclear, and environmental safety agency),’ UC RUSAL reports. This is actually the second time a lethal accident has

Ural Airlines is launching one more scheduled flight from Chelyabinsk. Starting December 5, the air carrier will be operating flights from Chelyabinsk to Moscow, the company’s press office reports. These Moscow-bound flights will be offered daily, with the departure times fitting very conveniently the needs of the businesspeople: the plane leaves Chelyabinsk Airport at 8:00 AM and leaves Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 10:05 PM, which means one can enjoy a full working day in the capital. The cheapest tickets are available for 4,500 RUR (one way).

SP Katur-Invest dumped 210 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 4.9% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Verkhnyaya Pyshma. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Fifteen airports located in Ural Federal District will be reconstructed, with 23bn RUR to be allocated for the purpose by 2015, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Evgeny Kuivashev announced at a recent meeting of the economic policy committee. There are twenty-eight airports in the district altogether, seven of which are international ones, nineteen of which are regional ones, and two of which are just local ones. ‘Our most important task is to develop the short-haul and local air transportation services, this is why the Russian President’s

UralElectroMed dumped 610 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 14.2% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Verkhnyaya Pyshma. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov feels that the region has a unique set of aluminum production facilities, with enterprises operating stably from Severouralsk to Kamensk-Uralsky. However, the processing and production of aluminum are made complicated by the fact that there are no hydroelectric power stations in Sverdlovsk Region, so the energy-intensive aluminum production is costlier in terms of electricity bills here than in other parts of Russia. ‘I believe that UC RUSAL’s management should invest in its own energy

Piastrella dumped 220 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 4.2% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Polevskoy. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

UC RUSAL created tension in Krasnouralsk on purpose, in order to exert pressure on the authorities, as the company hopes to make the electric power prices go down in this way, Chairman of Severouralsk division of Russian Miners’ Independent Trade Union Valery Zolotarev told UrBC. ‘RUSAL might go to court and fight for lower prices for as long as one year, but nothing would come out of it. This has happened before. It is easier for the company to increase the social tensions to force the authorities to pay attention to the problem. This is what is actually happening right now,’ Zolotarev

TNK-BP is once again thinking of buying the assets of the natural gas distributor GAZEX, Kommersant reports. TNK-BP’s Executive Vice President for Natural Gas and Electric Power Supply Mikhail Slobodin announced that the company keeps negotiating for the purchase of GAZEX from IES Holding. It is not quite clear just what TNK-BP might buy, since it was Gazprom that had already reached an agreement on buying the company’s energy assets in the summer. Gazprom’s division Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Moskva is to be involved in this transaction. In fact, the company already bought a 14.2% shareholding in

Polevskoy Cryolite Plant dumped 2,700 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 51.8% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Polevskoy. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

BMW’s largest provincial car-selling and maintenance center is opening in Yekaterinburg today. The construction of this specialized motor show center was fully financed by Bank Koltso Urala; the center will welcome its customers in Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetsky district at 69 Metallurgov St, the bank reports. According to BauerHof (BMW’s official dealer) representatives, the three-storey building that houses the new center was completed in strict compliance with the legendary brand’s corporate standards and meets the German concern’s high demands.

A subsidiary of one of Russia’s largest online stores Ozon.ru opened in Yekaterinburg recently. The company explains the decision to set up a branch in Yekaterinburg had to do with a 40% increase in the sales in the provinces, Kommersant reports. According to Ozon.ru’s press service, the Yekaterinburg subsidiary of the online mega-market is actually a hub. ‘The hub will consolidate all the orders coming from Ozon’s primary warehouse in Tver; the orders will then be streamlined along their destinations. This particular node is responsible for the entire territory of Ural Federal District,’ the

Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives is planning to complete the construction of the department for manufacturing Lastochka (Desiro Rus) electric trains by August 2012, the enterprise’s BOD Chairman Evgeny Kopeyin said in his interview to Interfax-Ural. ‘The department is to be put up by next August. Along with the construction process, the site will be fitted with the necessary equipment, this equipment will undergo start-up and commissioning, and employees will be trained to operate it. In fact, we are actually creating a new electric trains-manufacturing plant on the

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) announced it had signed an agreement that provides for the purchase of a 100% stake in the Australian Flinders Mines Limited (Flinders) for 0.30 Australian dollars per share. This comes to 554m Australian dollars for 100% of shares (with a clause regarding all the issued options and special rights). Flinders Board of Directors decided unanimously to accept MMK’s offer and to suggest that the company’s stockholders follow suit. Now Flinders’ main asset is the iron ore project PIOP in Pilbara, Western Australia. Under the JORC standard, the company’s

A.K. Serov Metallurgical Plant dumped 36,000 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 46.8% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Serov. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.