The Federal Public Assets Management Agency (acting on behalf of the Russian Federation) became the owner of a 7.4% shareholding in E.S. Yalamov Ural Mechano-Optical Plant Production Association. Prior to the transaction, the Russian Technologies State Corporation used to hold a 100% stake in this Yekaterinburg-based plant. ‘An additional share issue was launched in May 2009. We went through with this issue this January, so now we have got a new shareholder, Rosimuschestvo,’ the plant’s Securities Director Yuri Bushmakin told UrBC.

Ural Airlines is launching a special offer on its Gyandzha-Saint Petersburg flights. Starting February 1, 2012, the price of a one-way ticket will only come to ?70, the air carrier’s press service reports. A 50% discount is also available on children’s tickets. What is more, a passenger can now check in bags weighing up to 40 kg altogether free of charge; this new regulation applies both to economy and business class passengers. Tickets are available via the company’s website www.uralairlines.com or in the booking offices. The flights are operated using Airbus A320 aircraft.

X5 Retail Group’s supermarket Karusel is closing down its Magic Card loyalty program in Yekaterinburg. The customer cardholders’ bonus points are now written off their cards when a purchase is processed at the till as the cashiers explain no points can be accumulated any longer. They do not give the reason for the program wrap-up, however. Karusel started selling its loyalty Magic Cards in Yekaterinburg slightly less than two years ago, on April 12, 2010. Shortly before the start of the sales (in late March) Karusel’s Yekaterinburg-based supermarkets in Park House and Alatyr Shopping Centers

UralSib Management Company and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development announce they signed an agency agreement that will allow the bank’s customers to invest their funds in UralSib’s unit investment funds. UralSib Management Company is thus to offer the UBRD’s customers eight unit investment funds open to choose from: UralSib First Fund, UralSib Conservative Fund, UralSib Professional Fund, UralSib Russia’s Metals, UralSib Oil & Gas, UralSib Energy Prospect, UralSib Infrastructure & Telecommunications, and UralSib Russian Finances.

A land allotment where a Buddhist temple is being put up illegally by the believers’ community of Kachkanar pertains to Quarter 27 (Unit 11) of Kachkanar division of Kachkanar forestry fund (Verkhoturskoye ranger district) and is owned by the state, Sverdlovsk Region’s Natural Resources Minister Konstantin Kryuchkov explained to UrBC. Meanwhile, president of the Diamond Way Buddhist Center of the Karma Kagyu Lineage in Kachkanar Alexander Berezin appealed to the media on behalf of the local Buddhist community, who have been working on their Shadchupling Monastery on Mount Kachkanar,