Ural Airlines has recently offered a promotional price for Yekaterinburg-Beijing-Yekaterinburg flights; the tickets are now available for only ?300 (all fees and charges included). The flight is operated two times a week on a modern and comfortable A 320 aircraft. The flight timetable is as follows: The plane takes off in Yekaterinburg at 8:20 PM on Wednesdays and Sundays and arrives in Beijing at 4 AM on Thursdays and Mondays. The return plane leaves Beijing at 5:15 AM on Thursdays and Mondays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 9:25 AM. ‘The agreements existing between Ural Airlines and some

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to let UniCreditBank claim the money owed to it by STKS-Nedvizhimost. The court actually declared on August 10, 2009 that STKS-Nedvizhimost should undergo bankruptcy proceedings. On September 3, 2009 the company asked the court to reconsider their case since some new factors were at play. On October 2, 2009, their claim was sustained and the call for bankruptcy proceedings cancelled. Now UniCreditBank did not ask to be put on the list of STKS-Nedvizhimost’s creditors while the court was reconsidering the latter’s case. The bank only placed its

‘M.Video’s retail sales output amounted to 57.552 billion RUR (VAT included) in January-September 2009, which was 5% better than in January-September 2008. In the meantime, the sales of many other consumer electronics chain stores dropped by 11%,’ the spokesperson for M.Video Company reports. ‘As for the third quarter of 2009, our retail sales declined by 7% in comparison with a year earlier, while the other stores’ sales volumes decreased by 20% against the second quarter of 2009 due to the current recession,’ the spokesperson notes.

Barclays Bank (a member of Barclays Group) opened a representation in Yekaterinburg. According to Barclays Bank Chairman and Commercial Director Evgeniy Retyunskiy, their new representation will only employ two people for the time being, and they will only deal in offering loans to large and medium enterprises. At the same time, the bank is willing to help big businesses to get their debts to other banks restructured. Retyunskiy admitted, however, that the bank did not have a unique selling proposition at the moment and was planning to carry on implementing the standard banking market

‘Sverdlovsk Region Federation of Trade Unions has been keeping an eye on Uralvagonzavod. So far, nobody has got an answer to the question of what is going to happen to this defense industry giant’s workers on January 1, 2010,’ the Federation representative says. ‘To make sure people have got jobs, the state (our company’s primary proprietor) must ensure enough orders for the railway machinery. In case the state cannot afford to use the plant’s full capacity, Uralvagonzavod’s trade union just cannot agree to large-scale redundancies unless there appears an employment scheme designed by the

The net profit of MDM-Bank reached 1,383,000,000 RUR in September 2009 against 232 million RUR in August 2009, the bank’s press officer reports. The profit was calculated in accordance with the Russian accounting standards. The bank’s own funds have reached 59.9 billion RUR by October 1, 2009, while its capital adequacy coefficient came to 16.6%, which was .93% better than a month earlier.

‘The problem related to the proposed introduction of dry ash handling at Reftinskaya power plant has not become any clearer by now. We have suggested cooperating and sharing our data with the plant’s management, but they said they were not at liberty to accept any offers of this sort and said that we should try appealing to the Board of Directors of Enel OGK-5, the plant’s owner. In the meantime, not a single Reftinskaya power plant executive made any effort to help our application reach this Board,’ Chairman of the International Socio-Environmental Union’s Sverdlovsk Region division Vladimir

The Economic News Agency has been asked by Nezavisimaya Gazeta to do a regular research on how efficient the performance of private and public sectors and government deputies is in terms of lobbying projects favorable for certain interest groups. The lobbying in question is the so-called civilized one that does not imply any bribe offers. The latest update on the research was done in September 2009 using the usual method: a few scores of experts had to rank the lobbying efficiency of about 240 candidates using a five-point scale. Among the candidates were entrepreneurs, politicians, and

The number customers of who enjoy using SKB-Bank’s online service popularly known as Couch Bank has exceeded 6,000 people by October 14, 2009, the bank reports. The Couch Bank customers can use the service to transfer rubles into the other banks’ accounts as well as into SKB-Bank’s accounts (this includes both one customer’s various accounts and the accounts of several different customers). They can also get account statements and detailed updates on all the account transactions and are informed about the bank’s deposit and loan offers. ‘It’s very convenient to subscribe to the Couch Bank

Koltso Urala Commercial Bank issued its 100,000th bank card recently. This ‘record-breaking’ card was made for one of Uralelectromed’s workers in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. The employee will now use it to receive the monthly salary payments, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘We did not plan for this card to be issued specifically in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, but it’s certainly nice that the special card was issued in Yekaterinburg’s satellite town. In fact, the salary-paying scheme Uralelectromed and Koltso Urala are working on is one of the bank’s largest card-issuing projects,’ the press officer

Uralfinprombank’s BOD Chairman Ildar Gubayev sold a portion of his share in the bank’s authorized capital, so he now owns a 22.66% shareholding rather than the 58.35% of shares he had earlier. This transaction has meant that L. Levkina and M. Tulyakova, both of whom bought a 17.85% shareholding, are now Uralfinprombank’s new shareholders.

‘Since the demand for air travel is expected to go down this winter, Lufthansa is going to operate fewer flights, especially domestic and European ones,’ the spokesperson for the airline reports. The company’s new timetable provides for 12,406 flights a week, which is 7.4% less than the 13,402 flights operated every week in the winter of 2008. The winter timetable 2009/2010 comes into effect on October 25, 2009 and will be used through March 27, 2010. During the winter season, Lufthansa will operate flights to 191 different destinations in seventy-eight countries (against 194 destinations in

Bank Petrokommerz lost 231.15 million RUR in the third quarter of 2009, whereas only a quarter earlier, it made 259 million RUR worth of profits. The bank says the losses were brought about by the need to build up n the bad debt reserves and the dropping loan interest income (which, in its turn, had to do with the shrinking lending portfolio).

Promsvyazbank suffered some losses in the third quarter of 2009. In the previous quarter, the bank’s profit reached 3,378,330,000 RU, whereas in July-September 2009, the bank’s losses amounted to 3,236,619,000 RUR. Promsvyazbank explains this had to do with the need to set up the bad debt reserves.

The shareholders of Dezha-Invest will probably decide in the course of an extraordinary general meeting that the company’s General Director Alexander Kolesnikov should resign before the end of his term, while the sole executive body’s powers should to be vested with Kontakt-Group. This decision has already been made by the company’s Board of Directors. Dezha-Invest’s EGM has been scheduled for November 13, 2009; it will take place in Yekaterinburg. Alexander Kolesnikov was appointed the company’s General Director in May 2009 when he succeeded Vladimir Derbenev.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to consider KAB Bank Société Générale Vostok’s claim on October 13, 2009. The bank insists that PSM-Gidravlika (the asset of Anatoly Pavlov) be declared bankrupt. The bank placed its claim with the court on September 8, 2009. The trustee in bankruptcy will probably be selected among the members of Volga Region Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy Noncommercial Partnership. The court will also look into the claim laid by Sberbank of Russia’s Oktyabrskiy outlet No. 1794 against PSM-Gidravlika and Pnevmostroymashina on September 7, 2009.

The net profit of NOMOS-Bank dropped by 47.9% in the third quarter of 2009; it decreased from 48 million RUR in the second quarter of the year down to 25 million RUR in July-September 2009. The bank says its profits went down because of the growing reserve and cushioning expenses.

The net profit of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank nosedived by 40.477 million RUR, or 34.8% in July-September 2009. The figures declined from 116.311 million RUR in the second quarter of the year to 75.834 million RUR in the third quarter. The bank reports the decrease in net profits was caused by increasing expenses related to loan and security reserves; what is more, they had to spend more on the already-issued securities.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin directed 20.7 million RUR to the City of Chelyabinsk, of which 10.5 million RUR will be used to partially cover the poorer city dwellers’ housing bills. 6.1 million RUR is to be spent on the monthly allowance to homeroom teachers. Finally, 3 million RUR will be invested in hi-tech medical assistance. The money has already been transferred into the City of Chelyabinsk’s bank account, the spokesperson for the Governor reports.

BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov adopted a plan aimed at improving MMK Group’s management. In order to do away with excess managerial positions, to cut down on the number of administration levels, to spend less on the Group’s management, and to make this management more efficient, MMK decided to set up Administrations that will replace the earlier Directorates streamed along various production and organizational activities. The only old positions to survive are those of the Managing Director, the Commercial Director, the Sales Director, and the