Rossiyskaya Gazeta came up with a rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of consumer loans in the first half of 2007. According to the data the newspaper provided, Russian banks offered their customers a total of 583 billion RUR worth of loans in January-June 2007. Uniastrum Bank, for instance, provided its borrowers with 346.7 million RUR worth of non-collateral loans in the first half of the year, which falls short of the figures for January-June 2006 by 13.5%.

The division of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ural Federal District reports the local militiamen conducted 1,745 inspections aimed at protecting finances allocated for the implementation of top priority national projects in January-July 2007. These inspections revealed 113 offenses that have already resulted in 99 criminal lawsuits, including 31 cases related to the National Health Project, 24 cases related to the National Education Project, 43 cases related to the National Housing Project, and 15 cases related to the National Agriculture Project. 43 cases have been classed as

'The construction of the third part of ANTEY Shopping Center had to be stopped for the time being, at least this is true of the visible part of the process. The decision to stop it was made because, as it turned out, we don’t have a construction permit and could be faced with a large fine if we ventured to go on building,’ founder of ANTEY Business Center Andrei Gavrilovskiy said to UrBC. The third part of the center was supposed to have been commissioned in 2008, the company’s official website reports. The total area of the new extension was expected to come to 108,470 square meters and

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Interregional Bank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 40.7% (from 23.6 million RUR to 14 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta came up with a rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of consumer loans in the first half of 2007. According to the data the newspaper provided, Russian banks offered their customers a total of 583 billion RUR worth of loans in January-June 2007. Agroprombank Credit, for instance, provided its borrowers with 385.3 million RUR worth of non-collateral loans in the first half of the year, which falls short of the figures for January-June 2006 by 22.47%.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UIC Bank to natural persons for 1 to 3 years went down by 53.9% (from 27.811 million RUR to 12.828 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Ural Airlines and Yekaterinburg branch of Vympelcom (aka Beeline) looked at the success of their joint project known as Cell Retail aboard Ural Airlines that was first launched about a year ago and is available on all of the carrier’s flights. The airline’s press officer repots the project is mainly targeted at offering extra services to Beeline subscribers who choose to use Ural Airlines as well. While in flight, passengers can purchase 100-, 250-, and 500-ruble phone cards and Beeline subscription packages. ‘We keep updating the range of passenger services on regular basis; some of these

SKB-Bank evaluated its performance in the first seven months of 2007. The bank’s net assets have increased by over 11.7 billion RUR and amounted to 25.1 billion RUR on August 1, 2007, the bank’s press officer reports. SKB-Bank’s loan portfolio exceeded 17 billion RUR on August 1, 2007 compared with only 9.3 billion RUR a year earlier. The volume of the finances the bank has managed to attract nearly doubled against last August and reached 22.6 billion RUR, with the better part of the money (6.8 billion RUR) coming from natural persons. SKB-Bank’s own resources came to 2.898 billion RUR and

Following the decision taken by RAO UES of Russia Board of Directors on April 27, 2007, what was formerly known as the Urals and Volga Interregional Network Company is to be named the Urals Interregional Network Company now. The company has also acquired an English name - something it did not use to have before, the spokesperson for the new enterprise reports. This means that re-structuring the whole system of the interregional power distribution networks has resulted in setting up a new large Ural company that will unite the electric networks of Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Kurgan Regions as

RAO UES of Russia held a BOD meeting that resulted in a decision to suggest that Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company gets reorganized through creating a separate sales agency. This was actually the first procedure related to re-structuring the company and helping it meet the requirements imposed by the Federal Law 36 as of March 26, 2003 regarding the separation of activities pertaining to natural monopolies and those that can be classed as potentially competitive, the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company reports. The new sales agency YekaterinburgEnergoSbyt is to be

The Interregional Territorial Technological and Environmental Safety Department of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) in Ural Federal District reports their inspections revealed a number of violations in terms of Sverdlovsk Region authorities getting ready for the heating season 2007/2008. For one, Uktus Company never got a license entitling it to handle the explosion-prone productive facilities; Polevskoye and Sverdlovsk Utilities Systems (both of which are based in Polevskoy) haven’t got enough trained and certificated employees; the towns of Degtyarsk, Zarechniy, and

The Interregional Territorial Technological and Environmental Safety Department of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) in Ural Federal District reports 99 people got hurt in industrial accidents in the first half of 2007 compared with 191 people in January-June 2006. Ten fatal accidents have been reported since the beginning of the year, as well as two accidents involving a group of people, with one victim actually getting killed. 54.5% of the victims were aged 50-59, 27.3% were 40 to 49 years old, 9.1% were aged 20-29, and 9.1% were aged 30-39. All of them were male; the job of

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to natural persons for 91 to 180 days went down by 72.5% (from 4.311 million RUR to 1.184 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

The volume of loans offered by SKB-Bank to small businesses has by now exceeded 2 billion RUR. Since the special Loans to Small- and Medium-Scale Businesses Program began one and a half years ago, SKB-Bank has already provided its customers with 5,000 loans worth approximately 2,000,000,000 RUR, the bank’s press officer reports. SKB-Bank has also been working on setting up more offices dealing in services to small and medium-scale businesses since the beginning of the year and can now boast subsidiaries in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region as well as other parts of Russia. SKB-Bank’s loans

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 31 to 90 days went down by 64.9% (from 1.988 million RUR to 697,000 RUR) in January-July 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Metcombank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 12.4% (from 227.798 million RUR to 199.504 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

The Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 72.6% (from 43.16 million RUR to 11.816 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to natural person for 91 days to 180 days went down by 100% (from 1.002 million to zero) in January-July 2007.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin is expected to chair a cabinet meeting on August 15, 2007. The agenda of the meeting covers issues like approving of the region’s budget for 2008, medium-term financial planning for Chelyabinsk Region in 2007-2010, and the region’s socio-economic development strategy in 2007-2020. Some changes will also be made in terms of the regional laws on the budgetary processes in Chelyabinsk Region, on guardianship practices in the region, and on the regional education. Changes in the law on Chelyabinsk Region Obligatory Medical Insurance Fund budget are

The spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company reports the company has already sustained over 1 million RUR worth of losses owing to cable ruptures. Twenty instances have been recorded since the beginning of the year, with the last one occurring on August 4, 2007 and creating a major power cut in Kirovskiy district of Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company lays the blame upon the builders who do various construction jobs in places with large amount of cables without bothering to get an agreement from Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company’s experts, or