Ural Federal District Arbitration Court supported the ruling of Chelyabinsk Region Arbitration Court regarding Baltika Beer Company’s subsidiary Baltika Chelyabinsk. The court agreed that the defendant would have to pay a 4.6m fine for the negative impact the company makes on the environment, the press service of Rospirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) in Chelyabinsk Region reports.

SKB-Bank came up with the performance figures for the first half of the year. All of the bank’s performance indicators have gone up; for one, the bank’s assets rose by over 3.6bn RUR in July alone, and now comes to more than 85.8bn RUR (in comparison with only 61.6bn RUR in July 2010).

The growth of Stockmann’s Russia-based stores’ revenues is not as fast as it used to be, Interfax refers to Stockmann Group as reporting. In July, the Russian Stockmann stores’ revenue growth was 58.5%. As for the revenues of the Group’s other Russia-based stores Lindex and Seppala, these went up in July as well. However, the company is not willing to disclose the exact figures regarding these stores’ growing output or the absolute figures for Russian revenues. Stockmann Group’s total revenues rose by 8.6% in July and reached ?147.1m. However, last month’s growth rates were slower than those

Alfa-Bank introduced two separate positions of Chairman of the Supervisory Board and of the Managing Director (Rushan Khvesyuk used to do both jobs). The proposal to this extent was presented to the Board of Directors, Alfa-Bank’s press service reports. Rushan Khvesyuk will still be Alfa-Bank’s main Managing Director, whereas Andrei Sokolov, who is currently the bank’s First Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, will become Chairman.

Sverdlovsk Region’s prosecution authorities and Yekaterinburg Economic Offense Division of the Internal Affairs Department closed down a backstreet casino called ‘The Golden Orchid’ that was located downtown, on the fourth floor of the Voznesensky Hotel at 52 Mamin-Sibiryak St. The casino operated under the sign that read ‘Architectural & Construction Licensing & Quality Center’ in Room 402. There were some gamblers in the room at the time of the raid, as well as about thirty staff members (stickmen, bartenders, and security guards). Most of the visitors to the casino happened to be

The net loss of Malyshevskoye Ore Administration reached 2.31m RUR in the first half of 2011 (it was calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards). The company’s revenues rose by 24.3% and amounted to 216.254m RUR. The company reports the increase in revenues was brought about by the growing production and sales outputs.

Ural Airlines flew this year’s millionth passenger in July, which was a month earlier than last year and points to the dynamic growth of the company’s performance indicators. Ural Airlines rendered its services to 326,575 people in July altogether, which exceeded the figures for July 2010 by 43%. This was possible due to an increased demand for summertime flights; the passengers were most interested in international flights from Yekaterinburg to Barcelona, Saloniki, Burgas, and Tivat.

Rimera (the oil and gas division of ChTPZ Group) will soon deliver its O&G machinery to Lithuania for the first time. In late July, the company signed an agreement with the Danish-Lithuanian JV Minijos Nafta for the delivery of Alnas-manufactured electric-centrifugal pumps meant for oil production onto the joint venture’s oil deposits. The first shipments are expected to be processed this August. The signing of the agreement and the first steps towards its implementation will allow Rimera to expand its delivery network onto the European market and to strengthen its ties with the other

An arms exhibition is about to open in Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, with over three hundred participants presenting about 3,000 exhibits and 350 full-scale specimens. The 8th international arms, military vehicles, and munitions exhibition called Russian Defence Expo Nizhniy Tagil 2011 will impress the visitors with its one hundred wheel/track vehicles, Sverdlovsk Region’s Vice Premier and Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov said at a recent exhibition coordination committee meeting. Foreign enterprises were encouraged to take part in the event, and over a hundred

TNK-BP applied to Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Government Foreign Investment Control Committee, asking for a permission to buy a stake in Itera Oil & Gas Company, a source in the know of the situation told RBC. TNK-BP’s press service reports the company is currently negotiating for a number of options in the field of its natural gas division development. Among the options considered are some joint projects with Itera, and the petitions to this extent have indeed been placed with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Government Foreign Investment Control Committee. The

UTair Airlines made 80.83m RUR worth of net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) in the first half of 2011, the company’s report states. This is 30% lower than before. The revenues came to 20.75bn RUR, which was 18% better than earlier.

Ural Plant EMA reports its net profit slumped by 39.28% in the second quarter of 2011. The company explains this has to do with the growing basic assets repair expenses and the need to build up a bad debts reserve fund.

Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant (a part of Russian Copper Company, based in Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk Region) spent about 8.5m RUR on environmental safety projects in the first half of 2011. For one, two filter presses were replaced with new ones in the industrial waste water purification department, new filter sleeves were installed in the gas-cleaning facility, and new pulse chamber was fitted in the Maerz copper smelting furnace’s gas cooler unit. New filter sleeves were also installed in the copper electrolysis shop. The company expects to direct about 40m RUR to environmental projects in

The trade union of EVRAZ VGOK (Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise) intends to struggle for better working conditions and more labor safety for the daughter enterprises’ workers as well as for their greater social security. Besides, it was decided to try and convince the owners of the business that outsourcing passenger bus transfer services and the carriage-repairing depot is inefficient. These decisions were made at the 26th trade union conference, Russia’s Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union reports. All in all, the quality of interaction between the trade union and the

The rating agency Moody’s demoted Uniastrum Bank’s long-term deposit rating outlook to Negative due to the demotion of the bank’s parent enterprise Bank of Cyprus’s rating, RBC daily reports. The bank’s long-term deposit rating given by Moody’s has been affirmed at Ba3, but the rating outlook has been changed from Stable to Negative. The agency’s analysts report the outlook had to be reconsidered because of the problems faced by the parent company Bank of Cyprus that owns 80% of Uniastrum Bank. The former proprietors Gagik Zakaryan and Georgy Piskov own a 10% shareholding each. Moody’s

Sverdlovsk Region does not need to buy automobiles like the one purchased for Governor Alexander Misharin, with the back-rub-in-the-back-seat option. We have other, more pressing social needs to meet, for example, offer housing to orphans,’ says the regional public prosecution authorities representative Maria Protasova. Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court Justice Maria Toporova refused to sustain the claim laid against the region’s Governor; the case had to do with the purchase of a premium class automobile for him. The prosecution authorities insisted that the purchase of this Mercedes

VUZ-Bank now performs transactions involving the Chinese currency. The bank’s business customers can now enjoy clearing settlements, including exchange of currency, opening and closing of the transaction export and import passes in the Chinese yuans. This means the bank’s customers can make yuan payments to their partners in China promptly and inexpensively. The Chinese economy is now one of the world’s most dynamically developing ones, the Chinese national currency has an important role to play on the global financial market, so there is every reason to believe that the need for yuan

The Russian automobile market’s growth had a dramatic slow-down in July 2011, says the European Business Association that provided the data on the new car sales in Russia. The second half of the year started off with a noticeable growth drop, as the sales only increased by 27% (224,600 cars) against 40% in June 2011. In July, the greatest share of cars (50,500) was sold by AvtoVAZ as usual, yet Lada sales declined by 3% for the first time since the end of the recession. As for foreign automobiles, Chevrolet is still the market leader, with its increase in sales coming to 76% (15,800 cars).

Sverdlovsk Region-based Piastrella was fined for an administrative offense on the securities market; the fine amounted to 500,000 RUR. The decision to this extent was taken by Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service.

A criminal lawsuit is now being processed in Sverdlovsk Region, with charges of labor safety violations resulting in a man’s death. The accident occurred at Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant’s copper-smelting shop at 11:30 PM on August 7, 2011. The copper-smelting furnace was partially destroyed due to violations of the technological procedures, and some molten metal burst out, leaving a forty-nine-year-old dust – and gas-trapping unit operator with severe thermal burns; shortly after, the worker died at the scene of the accident. What is more, some thirty-five-year old furnace operators