UrBC, Moscow, August 24, 2010. B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University is to get a state subsidy for innovational development, the Russian Federation Ministry of Education’s portal says. The Urals-based university was chosen as one of the winners of a tender targeted at selecting the innovational infrastructure development programs alongside with fifty other universities from thirty-six federal constituencies.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 24, 2010. ZAO Chelyabinsk Boiling Machinery Plant has been declared a dishonest supplier by Primorskiy division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. The reason this decision was taken was that the plant won a 14.85-million-ruble boiler-supplying tender run by Nakhodka city council but backed out of delivering the boiler and the accompanying machinery.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 6, 2010. OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) produced 1,642,000 tons of goods with high added value in the first half of 2010 compared with 968,000 tons in the first half of 2009. These figures include 556,000 tons of cold-rolled sheets, 680,000 tons of fourth-level processing, and over 400,000 tons of Mill 5000 manufactured products. This means that 32% of all the goods delivered by the company to consumers were goods with high added value. ‘This was made possible due to the launch of Mill 5000 which makes plate iron for large-diameter pipes. What is

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 13, 2010. OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came up with a financial performance report (compiled in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) for the second quarter of 2010. The company’s revenues rose by 26% in the second quarter of the year compared with the first quarter of 2010 and amounted to 53.117 billion RUR. MMK says the increase in revenues has to do with greater sales volumes and the rising average prices. The average price of 1,000 kg of MMK’s produce went up by 15.1% in the second quarter of 2010 against the first quarter and reached

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 17, 2010. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and OAO Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) signed an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation. The partnership project presumes that both companies’ engineers will coordinate their efforts in the field of new tubing products design. The tubes are to be manufactured in ChTPZ Vysota 239 department shop. Besides, the engineers will work on new alloys and materials with pre-programmed mechanical properties for MMK Mill 5000. Both MMK and ChTPZ are also planning to work together with a number of leading

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, August 23, 2010. OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on its cold roll Mill 2000 within the framework of the corporate investment project on putting up a cold-roll facility. The new mill is primarily meant for the production of high quality cold-rolled and zinc-coated products for the automobile industry as well as for home appliances manufacturers and the construction business. The estimated capacity of the cold roll facility comes to 2 million tons of goods a year. The workers have already started assembling the technological

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2010. M.Video consumer electronics and home appliances chain store says it won’t be ready to set up a new outlet in Yekaterinburg any time before 2012 or 2013. The company currently runs six stores in Sverdlovsk Region’s capital, with the last one launched in ComsoMALL Trade & Entertainment Center; this area of this new hypermarket comes to about 2,500 sq m. The opening required 55 million RUR worth of investments.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2010. The municipal court of Muravlenko, Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region, returned the verdict of guilty on an individual entrepreneur Ilnar Kantuganov. The man was convicted for committing computer information offenses, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of the Russian Federation General Prosecutor’s Office. It was detected that in November 2008, Kantuganov used certain software programs to get illegitimate access to the data contained in the protected memory sections of SIM cards issued by OAO Uralsvyazinform. He then set up an illegal

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2010. ‘The number of tours booked this summer went up by an average of 30% compared with a year earlier. The most popular destinations have already sold out, but it’s still too early to sum the season’s gains up: travelers who prefer the high-class vacations usually take some weeks off in September when the ‘family tourism’ is on the decrease. Nevertheless, this summer’s bookings make it clear that Turkey has remained the top destination for the majority of local holiday-makers. On the other hand, Egypt, normally the second most popular vacation place, was

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2010. ‘This summer, customers have been buying more tours that last year; in fact, the number of bookings soared by a third. Still, we haven’t managed to go back to the sales figures of the year 2008 yet,’ Director of OOO Inna-Tour Inna Averyanova said to UrBC reporters. ‘Turkey and Egypt are still the most popular tourist destinations this year, as always, with Egypt becoming a virtually all-year-round vacation place. This year, the Egyptian hoteliers made every effort to provide good service, good food, and so on. Turkey, on the other hand, turned out to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 23, 2010. In January-June 2010, Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) carried out 167 inspections of local companies selling margarine, mayonnaise, vegetable oils, and other fat and oil-based products. Compared with the first half of 2009, the amount of faulty goods dropped by more than three times, Rospotrebnadzor’s press service reports. The above-mentioned inspections included lab tests run on 124 samples of oil and fat-based foods, of which 18 samples (or 6.5%) were found unsatisfactory in terms of the existing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 20, 2010. Renova Group announced it was going to introduce a single natural gas network operator in Sverdlovsk Region. The statement to this extent was made by member of the company’s Supervisory Board Evgeniy Olkhovik during his meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin. Olkhovik also said Renova was willing to set up a few large power-generating facilities in the region, the spokesperson for the Governor reports.

UrBC, Moscow, August 20, 2010. OAO AKB Metallinvestbank is no longer a shareholder of OAO Trubodeatl, the bank reports. Metallinvestbank used to own 5.87% of Chelyabinsk-based company’s shares.

UrBC, Moscow, August 20, 2010. OOO KB Renaissance Capital is closing down a number of subsidiaries in some Russian regions; the decision was taken by the bank’s only stakeholder. For one, the bank’s representations in Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Saratov, Omsk, Ryazan, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, and Ufa stopped operating recently. In fact, Renaissance Capital had closed several other branches earlier, including the ones that used to run in Yekaterinburg and Perm.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 19, 2010. The volume of private individuals’ deposits at OAO Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank came to more than 12.5 billion RUR this summer. The figures have actually grown by nearly 3 billion RUR, or over 30%, since the beginning of the year. The bank’s Retail Development Director Maya Kantor feels this is the expected result of the company’s performance. ‘The beauty of Gubernskiy Bank’s deposits lies in their simplicity and their clear terms. These things attract new customers and increase the number of our investors,’ Kantor says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 19, 2010. Anton Solovjev was elected President of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development. Such was the decision made by the bank’s stockholders at the general meeting. For many years preceding this promotion, Anton Solovjev was employed in the capacity of the bank’s Vice President and Financial Director. At the same time, the general meeting did not bring any changes in the structure of the stockholders, the bank points out.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch discussed the prospects of upgrading the region’s healthcare reform with his deputies and members of the regional Cabinet. Two large-scale meetings took place in Moscow last week. The meetings, chaired by Head of the Russian Federation Government Vladimir Putin and Health & Social Welfare Minister Tatiana Golikova, were dedicated to the upcoming living standards and healthcare improvements. Thus the agenda of the meeting run by Mikhail Yurevitch covered issues related to upgrades of medical establishments in the region, the spokesperson for

UrBC, Moscow, August 19, 2010. Moscow’s public prosecution authorities for law-compliance in the field of air and water transportation placed eight claims against Avianova Airlines and one claim against Sky Express with Moscow Arbitration Court, Kommersant reports. An Avianova representative says all the claims have to do with flights delayed in July because of the reasons allegedly unrelated to the airline itself. Sky Express refused to provide any comments on the prosecution authorities’ claims prior to receiving the official notice. As a matter of fact, this summer these carriers delayed a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 19, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) placed all the materials related to the poor sanitary condition of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport with the regional public prosecution authorities, the division informed Sutyazhnik, an NGO. Rospotrebnadzor’s regional division told Sutyazhnik that the quality of atmospheric air in the area affected by discharges does not meet the existing hygienic requirements. For one, the ethyl benzene content in the air exceeds the norms by 2.4 to 5.6 times; these data are stated

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 19, 2010. The extraordinary general meeting of OAO Uralmashzavod stockholders held in Yekaterinburg resulted in the decision to raise the company’s authorized capital with the help of an additional issue of 82.05 million shares with face value of 0.5 RUR each. The shares will be offered for 51 RUR a share via closed subscription to OAO Gazprombank, ZAO Gazprombank-Asset Management, Gazprombank-Machine-Building Trust Management Fund, OOO Trion, OOO Aquilon, OOO Ronex, OOO Trade, and ZAO Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation.