Sverdlovsk Region is currently one of Russia’s fastest-growing regions in terms of agricultural produce. The agricultural output growth index comes to 109.9, thus making the region Russia’s 6th fastest-developing constituency in this respect, the Ministry for Economic Development’s online report on the economic, financial, banking, and social situation in the Russian federal constituencies in January-May 2011 says. Among the country’s top five most agriculturally successful regions are Chukotka Autonomous District, Novgorod Region, Novosibirsk Region, Tver Region, and Voronezh Region. As it

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development celebrates its SME lending program’s sixth anniversary this year. All this time, the terms of the program have been getting better to meet the market requirements. The program also keeps developing alongside the customers’ businesses, so some new loan offers and special bonus solutions have been created. The program now comprises a wide range of loan schemes aimed to meet the small and medium enterprises’ various needs. Loans are available in most Russian regions where the UBRD runs its offices, that is, in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions,

Otkrytiye, a brokerage business, presented its totally new, know-how, classic fundamental trust management strategy called China’s Shares to the Russian qualified investors. This is a unique product that has no counterparts on the Russian market at the moment, Otkrytiye’s press service reports. The new strategy presupposes investing the money in the shares of Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (one of the world’s top ten bourses in terms of capitalization). The currency used in this portfolio is the Hong Kong dollar, a hard currency traded at 7.75 to 7.8 to one U.S.

Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Capital Construction & Land Use Vladimir Kritsky chaired a meeting on the road construction in Yekaterinburg in 2011, the spokesperson for the city council reports. The most important project under discussion was the junction next to Moskovskaya Gorka, which was started in 2010. This year, the junction is expected to be fully completed and launched alongside two driveways. One of the driveways is meant for the drivers to go down from Moskovskaya St to Posadskaya St and the other one is meant for the drivers to go up the highway from Bolshakov St.

An interregional session of Russia’s industry ministers will be held in Yekaterinburg during the international industrial innovations exhibition INNOPROM 2011 on July 14-15, 2011. The idea was proposed by Sverdlovsk Region Vice Premier and Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov and Tatarstan Minister for Industry & Trade Ravil Zaripov, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s press service reports. The ministers intend to consider their regions’ industrial cooperation potential and to visit the region’s flagship enterprises in Yekaterinburg, Pervouralsk, and Nizhniy Tagil. Russia’s

Sverdlovsk Region’s Public Prosecutor Yu. A. Ponomarev is now personally monitoring the situation in Sagra, a village in the vicinity of Verknyaya Pyshma, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office reports. A large-scale ethnic disturbance occurred in the village next to Yekaterinburg on July 1, 2011. One twenty-eight-year-old Yekaterinburg resident was killed. About thirty people, most of them of Azerbaijan origin, took part in the clash. They were armed with knives, sticks, chains and firearms. The conflict was caused by serious difficulties between the villagers and a gypsy family of

The Turkish Cabinet decided to let Russian citizens stay in their country without a visa for up to sixty days rather than just thirty days permitted before. This decision will be valid through December 31, 2011, Turkish Airlines reports. Meanwhile, an agreement on cancelling visa requirements was signed by Russia and Turkey on April 17, 2011, which meant that Russians coming to Turkey could stay there without a visa for up to thirty days. Those who intended to stay longer had to get a visa or a temporary residence permit, which meant having to produce a lot of papers and waiting for a long

The world oil prices went up considerably at the close of business yesterday. At London-based ICE, for example, the August futures involving Brent (a North Sea oil mixture) rose by $2.22 and reached $113.61 per barrel. The price of a barrel of Light Sweet increased by $1.95 and remained just a little short of $100, at $98.89. Analysts believe the oil prices climbed because investors feel more optimistic about the U.S. further economic development, as the country’s industrial orders index jumped recently. Besides, now that the Eurozone is struggling with Greece’s debt problems and Portugal’s

On July 4, 2011, the court put off the hearing of the claim laid by a number of Yekaterinburg dwellers against Aeroflot till July 14, 2012, one of the plaintiffs Dmitri Yelkin reports. The citizens insist that the airline compensate them for a cancelled flight. The havoc at Moscow’s airports shortly before New Year had to do with anomalous weather conditions in the area. The airports were forced to delay and call off flights, and passengers were stranded on the airport premises for days, waiting for their flights to take off. Aeroflot cancelled over two hundred flights over those few days.

Academic, Yekaterinburg’s newest district, needs to have its Krasnolesye St reconstructed in the area of Amundsen St and Chkalov St. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Urban Development, Transportation & Environment Evgeny Lipovitch visited the district to look into the situation in the field, the city council’s press service reports. It is reported that the length of the road under construction is 1.89 km. Before the reconstruction began, Krasnolesye was a two-way street with only one lane in each direction. Now the city council officials decided to widen the road and build three

Ural Airlines Planning Department experts have already calculated that the company’s passenger turnover will exceed one million people on July 7, 2011, the air carrier’s press service reports. The lucky passenger is supposed to check in for the Yekaterinburg-Sochi flight (departure time 12:55 PM) or the Yekaterinburg-Anapa one (departure time 12:30 PM). All the passengers on this flight will be treated to a performance, and children will be given nice presents. So far, the airline’s performance indicators for 2011 are over 30% better than those for the first half of 2010, which is the reason

Following the order of Russia’s Prosecutor-General, Counselor of Justice Dmitri Chulichkov was appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office reports. Dmitri Chulichkov graduated from Ural State Academy of Law and started work as an investigation officer in Yekaterinburg Chkalovsky district prosecutor’s office in 1998. Following this, he was senior investigation officer in Yekaterinburg Chkalovsky district prosecutor’s office, senior investigation officer in Yekaterinburg prosecutor’s office, and Deputy Prosecutor of Verkhnyaya Pyshma. In

This year’s rainy summer is yet another reminder of the fact that it is necessary to do some reclamation work at the old solid consumption waste landfill in Karabash, Sverdlovsk Region, Russian Copper Company says. The landfill was sealed in 2010. The first section of the new solid consumption waste landfill was opened in Karabash last year in order to help solve the town’s numerous environmental problems. The new landfill facility meets all the modern environmental standards and is fitted with the necessary machinery. Even the first section of this ‘green construction’ should be enough to

The Eurogroup (that is, the euro zone) finance ministers approved of the plan to offer Greece a ?12bn tranche before July 15, 2011; this is part of a EU and IMF loan worth a total of ?110bn that the parties involved agreed upon last year. Analysts report the fifth loan trance became possible after Greece’s parliament adopted the anti-crisis economic action plan on June 29. Bank Koltso Urala Project & Analysis Director Dmitri Suplakov says any allowances offered to Greece at the moment can only serve as a temporary stopgap to relieve the country’s sick economy. The current situation is so

France is willing to settle the question of visas for the Russian subjects before the end of the year and to start offering them long-term visas, France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppé announced at a press conference where he spoke alongside his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, RIA Novosti reports. During our talks, I voiced France’s wish to settle the visa issue as soon as possible. We confirmed our willingness to give up on the short-term visas, and I believe the process can be completed by the end of this year,’ M. Juppé said.

The number of poor people in Russia went up by 4.8m, or 26.5% compared with the end of 2010. The population’s actual monetary income decreased by 5% in May 2011 against May 2011 as well, Rosstat reports. The number of people whose income amounts to less than the living wage rose by 2.3m, or 11.2% in comparison with January-March 2010. The total figure now comes to 22.9m people. Remarkably, things are deteriorating particularly fast in the year 2011: the number of poor people rose by 4.8m, or 26.5% against last December. At the same time, the living wage has been going up as well. This figure

Russian industrial enterprises came up with their requests for the innovation developers, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s press service reports. The agenda of the upcoming industrial exhibition INNOPROM 2011 covers an innovations contest where the developers are expected to present their projects and services aimed at meeting the industry’s current needs. The contest will proceed in two stages. First, the industrial enterprises are to come up with their request, and next, the developers are to present their innovational solutions. The best projects selected by experts will be offered to

The international financial group Société Générale completed the consolidation of its Russian assets, with the Bank of Russia providing Rosbank with the documents which confirm Rosbank’s reorganization through its merger with Bank Société Générale Vostok (BSGV). According to Société Générale Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Bernardo Sanchez Incera, the consolidation of the group’s Russia-based assets is going through in compliance with the earlier plan.

The Bank of Russia’s BOD approved of the plan for Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation’s involvement in the prevention of bankruptcy for the Bank of Moscow. The plan provides for a number of measures aimed at eliminating the circumstances that cause the bank’s financial instability and at making sure the bank can operate healthily. For one, the Bank of Moscow’s authorized capital will be raised by 100 billion RUR with the help of VTB Group’s investor organizations. Deposit Insurance Agency will also provide the Bank of Moscow with a collateral-secured loan worth 295 billion RUR for a

Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation took BSGV off the list of the deposit insurance system members because, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the bank stopped operating as an individual organization and merged with AKB Rosbank. The same is true of Bank Neftyanoy, which was liquidated by the court’s decision. This means 906 banks are involved in the deposit insurance system at the moment.