July 30, 2013. The police detained a person suspected of large-scale theft of alumina from the premises of Bogoslovsky smelter. The suspect in question happens to be the director of one of the enterprise’s departments, the press service of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry reports. The suspect was interrogated on July 26 in the course of an inquiry relating to large-scale theft of alumina from the premises of Bogoslovsky smelter. On July 27, the alleged offender was arrested for the time of the inquiry procedures. The police officers from the local division of

July 30, 2013. The reconstruction of the federal highway between Perm and Yekaterinburg might become a frozen project. Russia’s Defense Ministry does not grant the road developers permission to cut down trees in the vicinity of Zvezdny, a restricted entry administrative territorial unit, even though the ministry had allowed the builders earlier to put up an overhead road and the driveways leading to it. As the Defense Ministry is not reacting to any queries, the contractors might not be able to meet the commissioning deadline, Kommersant-Prikamye reports. Permdorstroy, the company that is

July 30, 2013.Ural Airlines and Koltsovo Airport coordinated the first-ever joint spotting session in Yekaterinburg as a way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of civil aviation industry, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘On July 23-26, Ural Airlines’ aircraft and Koltsovo Airport had cameras pointed at them all the time. Every day at dawn, whatever the weather, spotters could make interesting and exciting shots of the takeoff and landing as well as of the servicing of the aircraft. The best vantage points were set up for hundreds of photographers from all over the country. The survey

July 30, 2013. The prices on the new homes market in Yekaterinburg rose by 6.5% over the last three months. According to the spokesperson for Ural Chamber of Real Estate, this price increase has to do with the fact that the number of finished or nearly finished buildings rose over the given period; besides, certain apartment buildings sold particularly well. ‘As a result, the new homes market split into two groups different in terms of quality. The first group comprises ‘weak’ projects where the pricing policy does not change for four to six months and more regardless of the stage the

July 30, 2013. OboronGeoGroup, a company set up to develop the resource base of Russian Chrome 1915, is now applying for insolvency, Kommersant refers to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court as reporting. The enterprise was set up to develop Zhizhinskoye-Sharomskoye chromium deposit, but the project was frozen due to its economic inexpediency. OboronGeoGroup produced and sold 13,000 tons of ore, but all the jobs were stopped in late 2012 when it turned out that the actual amount of chromium in the deposit was less than expected,’ RosSpetsSplav’s press center explained. The chromium content in