The division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) in Ural Federal District conducted some inspections aimed at checking the compliance of Klyuchevsk Ferrous Alloys Works (based in Dvurechensk) with the environmental protection and industrial safety regulations. Rostechnadzor’s press officer reports these inspections proved that the plant violated the existing environmental legislation. The enterprise’s maximum admissible discharge quotas did not take into account some of the emission sources; to make matters worse, the equipment employed there

‘The heating season is expected to start in Yekaterinburg on September 15, 2007. Heat will be gradually turned on during ten days; all the socially important buildings such as kindergartens, schools, maternity clinics, and hospitals will be the first to be supplied with heat,’ the spokesperson for Mayor of Yekaterinburg Konstantin Pudov said to UrBC. ‘On the whole, things look good, even though it’s true that we have a few problems with the dwellings that used to belong to the military department but have recently been handed over to the municipal authorities. The city, for one, was given

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met the management of Tractor hockey club on the first day of the All-Russian hockey championship. The spokesperson for the Governor reports coach Andrei Nazarov and the club director Isaac Valitskiy made a report on how the team was getting ready for the new season in the super-league; in addition, Mr. Sumin was invited to the club’s first game against Saint Petersburg-based SKA hockey club. Mr. Nazarov and Mr. Valitskiy asked if it was possible to restore Tractor’s training camp located near Lake Smolino. The Governor approved of this idea and asked

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 64.85% (from 203.657 million RUR to 71.586 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

Severnaya Kazna reports through its online representation that it is once again experiencing problems providing customers with access to their Internet Bank and Client Bank services. ‘Some of our users were unable to use the programs on Friday, August 31, 2007. We managed to locate the problem at about 4.30 PM and can assure everyone that the bank’s online services are to be available in full by 1 PM on September 3, 2007,’ the bank’s press release states.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to state-owned for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 23.34% (from 6 million RUR to 4.6 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

‘The slow-rate 1.5-storey-a-month construction of the third section of Antey Business Center that our customers are talking about has been caused by the irregularity and insufficiency of the monthly financing that was supposed to be supplied by these customers. In fact, they would often provide the money without trying to comply with the terms of our agreement. For our company, this Antey project is a thing of the past; we believe we have done our share of work, and any further comments are simply unnecessary,’ Metalline’s PR Manager Evgeniya Selischeva said to UrBC. ‘However, there still

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ demand deposits and investments in Plato Bank went down by 16.16% (from 1.622 million RUR to 1.36 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

MegaFon, Russia’s major mobile operator, started its new promotion campaign on September 1, 2007. The company is going to give out 100 Mercedes Benzes as prizes to 100 customers within the course of 100 days. Their press officer reports if you want to take part in this prize hunt, you need to send a blank text message using number 1000. Each such message gives you ten points; apart from that, each participant will be sent text messages containing some questions, and if you answer them correctly, you may score additional points. The more points a participant scores, the greater his or her

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Tyumenenergobank valid for up to 30 days went down by 57.52% (from 153 million RUR to 65 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Universal Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 47.17% (from 12.303 million RUR to 6.5 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

The value of net assets of Energy – Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 6.4% between July 30, 2007 and August 30, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 5,193,726.6 RUR on July 30, 2007 to 4,858,705.41 RUR on August 30, 2007.

‘If Israel makes it possible for the Russian citizens to enter the country without any visa or at least makes it easier to get one, the influx of travelers is bound to increase dramatically,’ Director of Elita Travel Natalia Oborina said to UrBC. ‘There are very few people going to Israel at the moment. Many tourists have to give up the idea because of the need to collect enormous amount of papers and having to wait for a long time for the visa to be processed. This was the reason why our company stopped coordinating group tours to Israel. People who do go are normally those who have

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in AGROPROMBANK Credit valid for 31 to 90 days went down by 10.9% (from 343.046 million RUR to 305.5 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

‘Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Antimonopoly Service declared that Uralsvyazinform (one of the region’s leading landline and mobile communication providers) had violated the existing advertising law twice; the first offence had to do with the terms and regulations of carrying out promotion campaigns (Article 5, Part 3, Para 15); the second one was related to failing to produce the essential information on the kind of a prize offered for buying a particular product,’ Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of Federal Antimonopoly Service Sergey Volkov said to UrBC. The whole thing

‘Our agency does not deal with any of Bank Uralsib’s mortgage schemes,’ Director of Sedmoy Etazh real estate agency Yuri Shamov said to UrBC. He said this bank’s mortgage offers just didn’t enjoy much demand as far as their customers were concerned. ‘We’ve never suggested that our customers use this bank’s offers; on the other hand, not a single customer has ever come up with queries about Uralsib’s mortgages. Anyways, our company is not even very well aware of what these mortgage offers are like,’ Mr. Shamov observed. In the meanwhile, the number of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks that deal in

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of state-owned for-profit organizations’ deposits in Uralsib went down by 57% (from 14 million RUR to 6 million RUR) in January-July 2007.

Nicom Auto reports it has bought 25% plus 1 share of AMUR car factory. According to Vedomosti newspaper, this announcement was made by the company’s GD Vladimir Franke in the course of Interauto Exhibition on August 30, 2007. The transaction is supposed to be completed this fall; Mr. Pavel Chernavin has already confirmed these terms. The price of the transaction has been kept confidential, yet some analysts claim it’s going to come to something like $5m, since AMUR car factory does not have any welding fabrication or paint spray processing facilities. AMUR car factory (whose controlling

‘Even by the end of August, many housing maintenance and utilities services still haven’t paid their natural gas bills issued as early as last year. The case hasn’t changed much over last month, and all the services still owe us 1 billion RUR altogether,’ the spokesperson for Uralsevergas Oleg Vlasov said to UrBC. ‘At the moment, there are twenty-nine municipalities in Sverdlovsk Region that are serviced by companies with over five-million-ruble debts. Our greatest debtors (as of August 28, 2007) are Nizhniy Tagil, with its 238 million RUR worth of debt, Ivdel, with its 105 million RUR worth

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ investments and demand deposits in Plato Bank went down by 11.22% (from 1.622 million RUR to 1.44 million RUR) in January-July 2007.