Ural Airlines offers the Great Patriotic War veterans a free flight to one of the Russian cities that served as the battle scenes in the course of the war and back home. The airline has offered this opportunity to the war veterans for the sixth time this year. This offer is targeted specifically at people who cannot afford to see their wartime friends, fellow soldiers, and relatives or return to the memorable sites. The company is well aware of the special nature of such flights and bears in mind the age and health conditions of the unusual passengers. This is why Ural Airlines offers special

The freight electric locomotive Granite No. 002 (2ES10 Series) traveled from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Pervouralsk with a 7,000-kg train attached to it. Senior Vice President of Russian Railways Valentin Gapanovitch and the General Director of Ural Locomotives (Sinara Group) Alexander Saltayev made the trip in the driver’s cabin, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The new freight loco with an asynchronous traction gear of the 2ES10 Series is unique not only to Russia but also to the entire 1520 area. This model is particularly strong and enjoys enhanced locomotive power. Despite its

Nothing extraordinary can realistically be expected to happen in the special economic zone Titanium Valley in Sverdlovsk Region within the first few months of the decision to set it up, President of Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Dmitri Pumpyansky announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. On the one hand, it’s great to have a location with clear logistics links where some new production site can be situated. This also means new jobs and new business opportunities. On the other hand, the Union’s council has already mentioned that nothing out of the ordinary

Ural Airlines operated 4,030 flights in January-March 2011, which was 39% better than in January-March 2010, the company’s press service reports. For one, the carrier operated 810 international flights (a 31% increase against 2010), 2,372 domestic flights (a 37% increase against 2010), and 848 flights within the Commonwealth of Independent States (a 51% increase against 2010). In March 2011, the airline operated 1,300 flights, which exceeded the figures for March 2010 by 27%. The company’s press service explains that this growth has to do with the launch of new international and domestic

Yekaterinburg Customs came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2011. 88.8% of all the goods ($1.3m worth of products in terms of turnover) came from or went to the far abroad, 11.1% of goods ($162.8m) came from or went to the member states of the CIS. 26.4% of foreign turnover’s worth ($388m) was imported and 73.6% ($1.1bn) was exported. The freight turnover reached 553,700 tons, with the countries of the far abroad receiving 75.3% of the total freight turnover volume (417,000 tons) and the member states of the CIS getting 24.7% (136,700 tons). Both the goods turnover and

Cargo Airlines Instanbul-bound flight was cancelled at Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport. Flight MNB 973 was to be operated at 12:15 PM local time today. However, the flight was called off for unstated reasons. The flight was to be operated on an Airbus A300-600F.

A member of the Russian Academy of Architecture & Construction Sciences (RAASN), Russia’s deserved architect, and the chief architect of UralNIIProyekt Institute Gennady Belyankin spoke against the construction of the Radisson SAS Hotel at the intersection of Malyshev St and Krasnoarmeyskaya St. in Yekaterinburg at a recent urban development council’s meeting. The project developer Atomstroycomplex promises to finish the building off by the end of 2013. Moreover, the director of Demidov Creative Workshop Boris Demidov suggested making the building lower and simpler. The idea of putting up

Starting April 16, 2011, Ural Airlines will be operating flights to Egypt once again; these will be available from Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg, the carrier’s press officer reports. ‘Egypt is an open destination now, so no problems are expected there. All our A321 airplanes take off in Yekaterinburg fully loaded. We will build up on this market again,’ the press officer says. Yekaterinburg-Hurghada flights will be operated twice a week; the flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Hurghada will start on April 29, 2011 and will be available three times a week. Flights from

Head of Rospotrebnadzor (the state federal watchdog) Gennady Onishchenko calls for Alfa Bank Chairman of the Supervisory Board Rushan Khvesyuk’s resignation, RBC daily reports. The official insists on this because the bank has numerously failed to meet Rospotrebnadzor’s demands. As for the banking business, I cannot remember any preceding cases when a resignation of the management was insisted upon, but this does not mean there were actually no such cases,’ says Consumer Rights Protection Director of Rospotrebnadzor Oleg Prusakov.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service Sverdlovsk Region division inspired and coordinated a set of measures aimed at disclosing legal offenses in the field of illegal employment of foreign workers at the construction site at 39 Mira St. This is a well-known place of guest workers’ clashes that once nearly ended up in a mob fight. The inspection of the site was carried out with the region’s public prosecution officers, the police force from the Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs, and a number of labor inspectors. The officers found a number of Uzbek, Tajik, and

EVRAZ Holding is undergoing a re-branding campaign at the moment. The company gave new names to a number of its Russia- and Ukraine-based assets, adding the name of EVRAZ to the earlier denominations. The holding member companies’ shareholders voted for the new official names of the following enterprises: EVRAZ Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (EVRAZ VGOK), EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (EVRAZ KGOK), EVRAZ Nakhodkinske Commercial Sea Port (EVRAZ NMTP), EVRAZ United West-Siberian Iron & Steel Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK), and EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel

The duty free shop of Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg still sells no strong drinks. At the moment, the only things available for sale are cognacs that come at about ?1,000 a bottle. The strong drinks disappeared from the duty free shop’s windows as early as March 2011. Neither the airport nor the shop itself can provide any comments, so it’s not clear if and when the drinks will reappear in the shop. UrBC found out that the assortment problems may have to do with an expiring license allowing the shop to sell alcohol.

Ural Federal District’s division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service issued order #62-11-396/pz-i on April 13, 2011 that allowed Sverdlovsk Region-based Uralbiofarm not to disclose or provide information in accordance with Article 30 of the Federal Stock Market Act.

RBC.Rating’s analysts came up with the rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of unsecured loan issuance in 2010. The analysts report the total volume of such loans offered by Russian banks to their customers in 2010 was almost twice as big as that for the year 2009. The lending portfolios of the overwhelming majority of Russian banks featured in the rating grew considerably. SKB-Bank topped the list of banks with the greatest unsecured loan portfolio increases in 2010. Its portfolio grew from 4.9bn RUR on January 1, 2010 to 15.5bn RUR on January 1, 2011. The increase reached 220% in the

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service declared the regional Healthcare Ministry guilty of violating the Competition Protection Act. The legal proceedings were instituted on the basis of the data provided by Russia’s Investigative Committee as to the ministry buying some medical equipment at overpriced rates in 2008. The winner was Technointorg that offered Toshiba computer tomographs for the total price of 191.19m RUR. The applications were also placed by Stomax (with the offer of Siemens tomographs for 170m RUR) and Unix Medical Company (with the offer of GE

Starting today, the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s illustrated magazine on new gadgets and devices Ispytatel will be available electronically, the company’s press service reports. The magazine readers can now enjoy the paper version and the iPad one. This is Russia’s first project on a digital version of a magazine for mobile phone users; the idea was implemented by the telecommunications operator specially for the Russian iPad owners. Starting today, the Ispytatel app will be available via App Store free of charge. The magazine features tests on the most popular mobile phones, tech

The international rating agency gave Evraz Group S.A. unsecured bond issue of $500m B+. This issue’s rating meets the credit rating of Evraz itself. The IDR comes to 4, which marks the average debt compensation expectations (30%-50%) in case of default. According to Standard & Poor's, the money to be obtained through the issue is mainly intended to refinance current debt. The agency’s hypothetical scenario provides for the possibility of the company’s weakening paying capacity due to steadily low steel prices, shrinking production output, restructuring, and pay rises. ‘The scenario

UniCredit Bank reports its net interest yield dropped greatly in the first quarter of 2011. The company explains the 33% decrease in the first quarter of the year against the last quarter of 2010 has to do with the declining currency operation profit and commission revenues as well as the need to increase the possible loan loss reserves.

In the year 2010, the plant’s profits coming in from pipe and scrap metal sales rose to 73,517m RUR, which was 60.5% better than in the year 2009; this increase in profits was mainly brought about be the increased large-diameter pipe, OCTG and seamless pipe sales; furthermore, LDP prices rose last year as well. The increase in the price of LDPs, OCTG, and seamless and welded industrial pipes came to 36%, 5%, 21%, and 28%, respectively, in comparison with the shipping prices of 2009. The sale prices rose because the raw materials grew more expensive and because the plant’s order portfolio came

Ural Instrument-Making Plant is going to get a new management team. The plant’s stockholders decided to vote for the early resignation of the company’s GD Georgy Vassilyev at the extraordinary general meeting on June 25, 2011. According to the agenda of the EGM, the meeting is expected to result in the election of the new General Director. The shareholders can propose their nominees before May 24, 2011.