Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court supported the ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division regarding OAO MRSK Urala and OAO RSK as valid and legal, the spokesperson for the FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division reports. The division declared on September 9, 2009 that OAO MRSK Ural and OAO RSK violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. ‘The offense consisted in the two companies colluding in such a way which resulted in inflicting disadvantageous terms of access to RSK’s electricity network and electric power supply upon GSK-50. The

Transaero Airlines’ Yekaterinburg-Hurghada chartered flight will take off with an eight-hour delay. The company reports this has to do with the airplane’s engineering malfunction. ‘Because of this, the plane couldn’t leave the airport at the designated time. A reserve aircraft is expected to arrive in Yekaterinburg now, with the departure set for 5:20 PM,’ Transaero says. The carrier’s flight UN949 was supposed to have taken off at 9:40 AM. The passengers have already checked in.

Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) section division (managed by OOO NLMK-Sort) sold 686,000 tons of metal goods to customers in the first half of 2010; this was 5% less than in the first half of 2009. According to the company’s official report, the 14% drop in the rod-shaped reinforcing bar sales (these went down to 375,000 tons) was made up for by the growing sales of other products. For one, the enterprise sold 82,000 tons of coil-shaped reinforcing bars (which was 42% more than a year earlier), 38,000 tons of wire rods (which was 15% better than a year earlier), and 104,000 tons of

President of LORAN High Style Group and the owner of KEF Restaurant Valeriy Loran denied the alleged sale of the eating house. ‘It’s true that the rumors regarding the sale do pop up every now and then, but I do not understand their origin. People say a lot of different things nowadays, but these are just rumors. The premises of the restaurant are now rented, but the restaurant itself has not been sold,’ Loran said to UrBC. KEF Restaurant is a premium class eating house that serves Oriental, European, and Japanese cuisine and has been operating in Yekaterinburg since 2003.

Ural Airlines offers every visitor to InnoProm 2010 (the Ural International Industry & Innovations Fair) an opportunity to book and buy an airplane ticket for any of the carrier’s scheduled flights as well as to check in right at the company’s stand in Chkalovskiy terminal. The self-service check-in kiosks operate in real time mode; in addition, a test trial is available at the same time, so all the ‘passengers’ can ‘check in’ for a virtual flight. What is more, the airline’s stand provides all the information about the company its customers might be interested in. InnoProm 2010 will be

A fire broke out in Denezhkin Kamen nature reserve, Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor reports. ‘Denezhkin Kamen informed our department of the fire in Quarter 202 at 4: 00 PM on July 15, 2010. According to the preliminary data available, the fire covered the area of some 1.5 hectares. It is, in fact, about three kilometers from the fire area to the nearest body of water. Six nature reserve workers and two automobiles were sent in to fight the fire,’ Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) says. The causes of the emergency are now being investigated; experts are

The Times of India announced recently that the Indian authorities adopted the symbol for the rupee, the national currency, on July 15, 2010. ‘This currency symbol looks somewhat like an R without the vertical line and somewhat like र (ra), the letter of the Devanagari alphabet,’ the newspaper says. The rupee symbol will probably come in use in India within six months’ time and is expected to hit the global market in eighteen to twenty-four months. OOO Koltso Urala Commercial Bank’s Currency Transactions Director Igor Nesterovitch says the graphic currency symbols don’t really have an economic

Deputy Minister for Regional Development Yuri Osintsev visited Academic, Yekaterinburg’s newest district currently still under construction. The official came to the area to see the opening of the Energy Efficiency Center that is created for the exchange of energy-saving experience with the construction companies. Yuri Osintsev spoke very favorably of the local developer’s energy-saving achievements and suggested that they should be introduced in the existing homes as well. ‘We’ll direct some extra money to the housing overhauls in Nizhniy Tagil, Asbest, and Pervouralsk to make sure these

Today the 10th Russian-German St. Petersburg Dialogue Forum finished up with a session where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented their speeches to the audience. The spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region says some reports on the results of the forum were also made by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and the forum’s German co-Chairman, retired Prime Minister Lothar de Messier. The day before, Zubkov encouraged the forum attendees to draw up a list of proposals that could really improve life in both countries. For one, the

The 6th Russian Defence Expo — 2010 exhibition opens in Nizhniy Tagil on July 14-17, 2010.The event is supported by SKB-Bank as usual. This year, over 250 Russian enterprises from twenty-nine Russian regions are expected to take part in the event, and over 200 foreign experts are expected to visit the exhibition. In addition, 250 companies from thirty-five different countries will probably pay a visit – this is 30% more than a year earlier. The exhibition is to be held at the firing ground located by Staratel settlement which belongs to Nizhniy Tagil Metal Testing Institute. Apart from this

Under the recently signed septilateral agreement, Sverdlovsk Region is going to get more than 14 billion RUR worth of investments, the region’s Governor Alexander Misharin announced at the close of the Russian-German Energy Forum on July 15, 2010. In the course of the forum itself, the top executives of UMMC Holding and Siemens AG made detailed reports on their companies’ current and future projects. UMMC Holding’s General Director Andrei Kositsin said, for instance, that his company was planning to put up two coal stations. One of them, Demidovskaya thermal power plant, will be located in

InnoProm 2010 exhibition and forum starts in Yekaterinburg on July 15, 2010. Over 500 enterprises and organizations from twenty-five different countries are expected to participate; the exhibition will be opened by Russian Vice-Premier Igor Sechin. The agenda of the forum provides for a number of official ceremonies, some debates and presentation sessions, business meetings and coaching workshops. Some round table discussions and plenary sessions are also expected; they will be attended by heads of large Russian and foreign companies and will be dedicated to ways of launching innovations in

Rosselkhoznadzor (the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service) imposes a temporary ban on the import of animal products from fourteen Finnish companies on July 23, 2010. This ban touches upon six plants of Russia’s largest dairy foods supplier Valio, RBC reports. Apart from Valio, the ban also applies to Ingman Ice Cream, a well-known ice cream manufacturer. The limits were imposed because the Russian inspectors found a number of violations at the Finnish enterprises when they examined them. No more details about the problems are given by the Service. The Finnish media say

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch presented a report at the governmental committee on regional development’s meeting in Volgograd. The meeting was chaired by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; the Deputy Prime Ministers Igor Shuvalov, Dmitriy Kozak, Alexei Kudrin, and Sergey Sobyanin were also present, as were the Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin and Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina. The discussion largely dwelt upon the construction industry’s desperate need to cut on the administrative barriers. Mikhail Yurevitch spoke about the state

Ural Airlines is now going to indicate the amount of VAT paid by the customers on every airplane ticket automatically. ‘This means all companies that send their employees on business trips can have the VAT reimbursed if they provide the tax services with the necessary papers, namely, airplane tickets or e-ticket itinerary receipts,’ says Ural Airlines’ Commercial Director Kirill Skuratov. “This service only used to be available in the company’s booking offices when the clerks had to enter the amount of VAT manually,’ he adds. ‘The reimbursement of this tax payment comes to quite a

‘It was decided under the current education reform that several leading universities should be singled out and receive the better part of the state aid. Now the Association of Russia’s Leading Universities was set up to ensure communication among these colleges. The statutory meeting took place early in June,’ Rector of Ural Federal University Viktor Koksharov announced at a press conference held in the course of Saint Petersburg Dialogue Forum in Yekaterinburg. ‘The Association’s first session will be held on October 14-15, 2010. The agenda of the meeting will cover issues related to college

Expert RA, a rating agency, affirmed OAO Bank Monetniy Dom’s credit rating at B++, Acceptable solvency level. The rating was mainly affirmed because the bank hasn’t borrowed a lot of money from large organizations: as of April 1, 2010, only 4.4% of the bank’s gross liabilities was borrowed from ten creditors. Also, the agency’s analysts think favorably of the great share of long-term liabilities the bank has: over 47% of the company’s liabilities, in fact, have to be paid back in more than 180 days. Finally, Monetniy Dom can boast good instant and current liquidity of Н2 = 91.8% and Н3 =

The Central Bank of Russia might cancel the license that allows OAO MezhPromBank to deal in banking activity due to a number of formal reasons. According to RIA Novosti, the bank reconsidered the quality of its lending portfolio on July 13, 2010 and declared almost 100% of its loans were bad ones. This means MezhPromBank has to create additional reserves, which will lead to capital inadequacy and violate the legal requirements set for the Russian banks. In this case, the Bank of Russia will have to cancel the bank’s license automatically. Now MezhPromBank was first unable to pay off its 32

The 6th International Defence Expo is to be held in Nizhniy Tagil State Arms & Military Equipment Exhibition Center of Nizhniy Tagil Metal Testing Institute on July 14, 2010. The idea behind the exhibition is to demonstrate the industrial achievements in new designs and technologies, to help the companies expand their sales markets, and to promote the companies’ produce at home and abroad. This year, over 250 Russian enterprises from twenty-nine Russian regions are expected to take part in the event, and over 200 foreign experts are expected to visit the exhibition. In addition, 250

Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment fund co-owned by Alisher Usmanov, bought ICQ, the instant messages service, from AOL, Interfax reports. DST announced earlier that the two parties agreed on the price of $187.5m. According to Kommersant, the compromise was reached on July 8, 2010. In fact, the U.S. law-enforcement agencies protested against selling ICQ to the Russian fund, since they believe ICQ is one of the main means of communications used by East-European crime groups.