URSA Bank and MDM-Bank’s ATM networks are now operating under the same range of tariff schemes and offers. The holders of Visas and MasterCards issued by either of the banks can now get some cash in all of their ATMs without any commission. The new offer was launched in June, with both banks’ processing centers united into a single technological system, URSA Bank’s press officer reports. URSA Bank’s ATM network comes to 785 machines in the Urals and Siberia. The addition of MDM-Bank’s machines will expand the network to 2,000 units throughout the country, thus making the united network

Serov investigative authorities (operating within the local division of the Russian Federation public prosecution authorities) have recently completed their inquiry into the accident that led to contamination of the River Turya, the spokesperson for the authorities reports. The authorities carried out a detailed investigation of why the River Turiya, Sverdlovsk Region, had turned red. It was detected that the area around UC RUSAL Bogoslovskiy smelter’s slurry pipeline got contaminated because the pipeline had leaked. So, some of the slurry was washed down into the river with melt-water,

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Russian Railways Public Company signed their Cooperation Agreement for 2009. According to MMK’s PR Department, the agreement aims to create some mutually beneficial cooperation between the parties involved in the field of their transportation, production, financial, and investment policies. Russian Railways Public Company has promised to handle the delivery of all of the plant’s produce in accordance with the latter’s applications. The plant’s Management Company, in its turn, promised to operate the rolling-stock with care and to supply Russian

Ural Federal District’s Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out an investigation that revealed some large-scale theft of Sverdlovenergosbyt’s funds. It was detected that in the course of payment transactions with other companies and while paying off the non-existent electricity supply debts, some 160 million RUR were transferred into various bank accounts and then stolen from the company. As a result, this state-private joint stock company incurred considerable losses. The law-enforcement agencies have already instituted legal proceeding; the criminal lawsuit involves a

On June 13-18, 2009, MegaFon Ural’s Sverdlovsk Region-based customers will be able to register with other operators’ networks. The offer has been launched by the company because of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRIC summits in Yekaterinburg. During the summit period, MegaFon Ural suggests using manual network search for registration and choosing the tariff schemes.

‘We had to lay a claim with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court against STKS Nedvizhimost and Vodyanoy because these companies are the guarantors of a loan UniCreditBank gave to STKS, and the loan is not being paid off,’ the spokesperson for UniCreditBank explained to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is now looking into the claim laid by UniCreditBank against STKS-Nedvizhimost and Vodyanoy; the plaintiff insists that the defendants should pay them 163,205,903.41 RUR and on having the defendants’ mortgaged property arrested. ‘We have shown our willingness to

The number of people applying to with Nizhniy Tagil employment center in search of a job has reached 10,200 people over the five months of 2009. The number of people registered with the center came to 5,300 people on June 1, 2009, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the State Employment Service reports. These figures largely depend on the state of events at Uralvagonzavod, the city’s industrial giant. The plant’s management declared earlier that they were going to send over 20,000 workers on forced leaves. In the meantime, the number of people who’ve been able to find a suitable job came to 4,100

Ural Plant RTI’s annual general meeting held in Yekaterinburg recently resulted in the decision to pass all kinds of share dividends for 2008, mainly because of lack of profit last year. It was also decided that the BOD members and the board of auditors would have to make do without any annual bonuses as well.

The Byelorussian delegation managed to achieve a lot and to make plenty of interesting proposals during their visit to Chelyabinsk Region, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin said after meeting the Byelorussian officials. The delegation consisted of the Ministries of Industry and Trade’s representatives and heads of Byelorussia’s leading enterprises. The group of officials was headed by Trade Minister Valentin Chekanov. During their stay, they visited the region’s enterprises in order to build up on the existing ties and to find the new ways of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Moskommerzbank Commercial Bank had to make some changes in its Charter after closing its subsidiarires in Tyumen and Chelyabinsk. In accordance with these changes, the bank now runs branches in nine Russian Federation constituencies, with no subsidiaries whatsoever in Ural Federal District.

‘Vodyanoy hasn’t been faced with any specific claims so far. We did act as a guarantor of STKS at the time, so all the problems might have stemmed from this company’s possible debts,’ Director of Vodyanoy chain store Alexander Mokhov said to an UrBC reporter. Meanwhile, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is now looking into the claim laid by UniCreditBank against STKS-Nedvizhimost and Vodyanoy, insisting that the defendants should pay them 163,205,903.41 RUR and on having the defendants’ mortgaged property arrested. The preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 8, 2009. ‘I’m not sure

The threat of 24,000 redundancies will probably make the workers of Nizhniy Tagil-based Uralvagonzavod appeal to Head of Russian Federation Government Vladimir Putin, Trud says in the report on the country’s so-called only enterprise-based towns like Pikalevo, Baikalsk, Zlatoust, and some others. According to the newspaper, 17,500 of the plant’s workers are still being put on forced leaves.

‘Uralstroy-1 application for the start of bankruptcy proceedings was placed with the court by Uraltverdosplav, to whom the former owes about 4.5 million RUR. The company was assigned a trustee in bankruptcy for six months, which is the longest period provided by the law for the proceedings of such sort. However, these six months should be enough for us to finish our latest housing project known as Vysokiy Bereg,’ the General Director of Verdict Debt Collector Agency Eduard Demyanov explained to UrBC. ‘I found out that head of Uralstroy-1 Sergey Sorokin has a villa in Canada (which he was

URSA Bank fully retired its third three-million-ruble bond issue on June 4, 2009 and made 143.61 million RUR worth of coupon payments on the issue, with interest rate determined at 9.6% a year (which thus amounted to 47.87 RUR per bond), the bank’s press service reports. URSA Bank launched this three-million-ruble bond issue on June 8, 2006; the bonds were to be in circulation for three years. The issue was coordinated by Gazprombank and Citibank.

‘On May 18, 2009, we were informed that Ramada Hotel had been fully completed, so our experts carried out the final inspection of the building three days later. Some grave violations were detected in the course of this inspection; these were related to hygienic regulations, fire safety, and construction standards. Our experts thus declared that the building was actually not ready to be commissioned,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Administration for State Construction Surveillance representatives said to UrBC. According to the Administration, the finishing work of the interior was also not complete; nor

Ural Airlines started offering its customers the tickets for its new scheduled Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight on June 5, 2009. The first flight to the Chinese capital is to be operated on July 1, 2009. The non-stop flight will be performed on an A 320 airplane two times a week. The Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight’s departure time is 8.20 PM every Wednesday and Sunday; the arrival time is 4 AM on Thursday and Monday, respectively. The plane operating the Beijing-Yekaterinburg flight takes off at 5.15 AM on Thursdays and Mondays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 9.25 AM. The departure and arrival times

Bank VEFK-Ural’s trustee in bankruptcy has been faced with 1264.1 million RUR worth of claims laid by 489 creditors. The claims of 379 creditors (worth 1182.3 million RUR altogether) have been acknowledged; this figure includes the claims of 86 top-priority creditors (whose claims amount to 9.9 million RUR). The trustee in bankruptcy is currently considering the papers presented by 109 creditors (with claims amounting to 68.8 million RUR); 13 million RUR worth of claims has already been rejected. The information as to Bank VEFK-Ural’s bankruptcy proceedings is carried by Oblastnaya Gazeta.

The shaft man killed at UC RUSAL’s Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) Cheremukhovskaya mine actually died of asphyxia, the investigative authorities reported recently. ‘Evgeniy Provalniy was killed by the mined rock collapsing right upon the victim while he was busy scaling. The man died of mechanic asphyxia, as his neck and chest were strangulated by the rock,’ the authorities’ press release states.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Migration Service is not going to accept any foreign passport applications during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The spokesperson explains this has to do with the possible difficulties the city dwellers might have getting around Yekaterinburg on June 15-17, 2009. Nevertheless, the applications for the new-generation passports will be accepted on June 12-14, 2009; those who’ve placed their applications earlier will also be able to obtain their passports at the office.

‘A fatal accident occurred at Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) last night, the victim being a thirty-nine-year-old highly skilled miner. The tragedy was probably caused by the fact that RUSAL is currently trying to cut down on all kinds of expenses, including those associated with labor safety. There were only four rather than six bolt clamps on the site of the accident, which resulted in the mined rock collapsing right upon the miner,’ SUBR Chairman of Independent Trade Union Valeriy Zolotarev said to an UrBC reporter. ‘RUSAL has been treating its workers harshly lately. The performance