Following the meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Industrial & Agricultural Policies & Nature Management Committee, a decision will be made at the next Duma meeting regarding the sale of the shares the region has in Evropa and Uspensky Shopping Centers. The Duma meeting will take place on September 21 or 22, and it is at this meeting that the decision regarding the sale will be made,’ the Committee Chairman Vladimir Mashkov told UrBC. Now in 2010, the Duma deputies refused to sell the Duma’s shares in the shopping centers since the price was, in their opinion, too low. The share in

Rostelecom came up with an official presentation of its new company brand that took 12m RUR to develop. According to Rostelecom’s Commercial Director Pavel Zaitsev, the company members will unite under a single bran by the end of the year. However, certain brands, like Utel, for example, will operate as co-brands until September 2012,’ Zaitsev told Kommersant.

Rosaviation committee in charge of allowing airlines to operate scheduled international flights rejected the applications submitted by Donavia and Orenburg Airlines, Kommersant reports. The officials explained the reason for their decision was that both carriers belong to the fourth (and the worst) risk category in terms of financial performance indicators. Rosaviation demanded that Aeroflot act as a guarantor for Donavia and Orenburg Airlines’ debts.

Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin promised to the Vice Premiers of Byelorussia and Kazakhstan that Russia’s Industry & Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko would deal with the issues relating to the Customs Union and would leave the Ministry, a few government officials informed Vedomosti. According to these officials, Khristenko is already getting ready to hand his responsibilities over to the new minister and has been negotiating for a new agreement on the Customs Union Committee for a few months now. The official is expected to chair the Committee’s board. Vedomosti’s informants

Banks operating in Sverdlovsk Region keep infringing upon their customers’ rights, Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights and well-being watchdog) Sergey Kuzmin announced at a press conference. We believe that, among other factors, the reason for this is that people have grown more aware of their rights. They know what the violations consist in and they know where to apply,’ Kuzmin explained. There is virtually not a single bank in the region that wasn’t found guilty of this or that infringement. Rospotrebnadzor has a black list of banks that infringe

Euroset intends to stop managing the mono-brand Vertu mobile phone boutiques, Vedomosti refers to Euroset President Alexander Malis and the newspaper’s own sources as saying. It has been reported that the decision was caused by the fact that the luxury phones market is stagnating at the moment, as the well-to-do customers opt for the more functional smartphones. Euroset opened its first mono-brand Vertu boutique in 2004 and currently runs three shops. Seven more boutiques are managed by Vertu’s exclusive German distributor Wital. The latter introduced four boutiques in Russia over the last

Buying Ural Airlines’ tickets abroad is now much easier. On September 15, 2011, the air carrier joined the BSP IATA system in Israel, so passengers can now book and buy tickets for any of Ural Airlines’ flights in any booking office in Israel, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines offers direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Tel-Aviv every Wednesday. The company has interline agreements with the Israeli carriers El Al and Israir, which means transit passengers can buy a single ticket for all the flights, coordinate convenient connections, and travel without having to worry about

BNP Paribas Vostok, the daughter enterprise of one of Europe’s largest banks BNP Paribas, is about to strike a deal with Sberbank and so is closing all the business directions except for express loans, Banki.ru reports. It has been reported to Marker that the bank suggests its customers withdraw their deposits before the end of their term, by October 1, 2011. What is more, BNP Paribas is rumored to be planning to close down most of its outlets before the end of the year. Since last week, it has become impossible to open or to top up an existing deposit at the bank. Other services like opening

Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin is expected to sign Yekaterinburg’s application for the World Universal Exhibition Expo 2020 during the 10th International Investment Forum Sochi 2011 this Friday, September 16, 2011. Now Russian President Dmitri Medvedev decided that it should be Yekaterinburg that will become Russia’s candidate city for hosting Expo 2020. The Urals’ capital has already witnessed plenty of major international events. Yekaterinburg hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRIC summits in 2009 and was chosen to host the Russian-German summit last year.

Moscow Arbitration Court will resume the hearing of the claim laid by IKEA MOS (Trade & Real Estate) that manages MEGA shopping centers in Russia against the Federal Tax Service on October 11, the Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information (RAPSI) reports. The plaintiff insists that the fiscal body’s claims be declared illegitimate. Now one MEGA shopping center operates in Yekaterinburg. It was reported earlier that IKEA refuses to pay about 500m RUR worth of taxes it does not see as lawfully charged. IKEA denies that the average annual price of the remodeling jobs completed by its

Bank Société Générale’s bank deposit ratings were demoted from Аа2 to Аа3. The long-term rating outlook is Negative, Moody’s reports. In 2011, Société Générale Group completed the merger of its Russia-based daughter enterprises: Bank Société Générale Vostok (BSGV) was merged with Rosbank, while retail-oriented Rusfinance Bank and mortgage-oriented DeltaCredit became its daughter enterprises.

A solemn awarding ceremony of the 7th International Prize Golden Chariot took place in the State Kremlin Palace. Ural Airlines won in one of the categories once again. A gilded figurine of a troika and a certificate of Russia’s Air Transport Leader were presented to the airline representatives by First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Transport Committee Sergey Gavrilov and Director-General of Civil Aviation Administration Directorate-General Tilko Petrov. When selecting the winners, the prize coordination committee took into account a set of criteria such as the stable and safe performance,

Sverdlovsk Region Railways (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) announced the investment program for getting rid of narrow spots on the railroads might not have sufficient financing if the Russian Government decreases freight fares, RZhD Partner reports. Some sections of Sverdlovsk Region-based railroads already have poor traffic capacity, and the problem is getting worse due to the unpredictable traffic of private fleets of freight carriages. Russian Railways cannot provide enough of its own investment funds fully to resolve the infrastructure development problems. Besides, the current

Starting today, SKB-Bank’s customers can manage their accounts and bank cards using their mobile phone thanks to the new Bank-on-the-Go service. One can now literally perform various banking transactions on the go – in the street, in one’s car, while going shopping or while having dinner at a restaurant. All one needs is a mobile phone with an Internet connection.

The 18th Arbitration Court of Appeals supported the ruling of Chelyabinsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service; the latter made Chelyabinsk International Airport pay a 138,500-ruble fine for setting exceedingly high prices for the short-term automobile parking services, Interfax-Ural refers to the spokesperson for the FAS’s Chelyabinsk Region division as reporting.

The bonds of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (totaling to 10bn RUR) can now be traded at MICEX. The bank intends to launch the BO-01 and BO-02 bonds (each series is worth 2bn RUR) and BO-03 and BO-04 bonds (each series is worth 3bn RUR) via public subscription. The bonds will be in circulation for three years, with six semiannual coupons. The funds thus obtained will be directed to financing the bank’s primary activity and to diversifying its resource base.

In order to cope with its financial troubles, the French group Société Générale intends to lay off employees of its daughter enterprises. In Russia, the group is going to make 2,000 employees of the recently merged Rosbank redundant. Rosbank chose not to provide any information as to which departments and what particular clerks will have to go.

Ural Federal University was featured in the list of the world’s top five hundred universities, a higher education research agency called Quacquarelli Symonds reports. UFU was the first among federal universities and the sixth best among Russian ones. As for the Top700 list, thirteen Russia-based universities were featured there.

The T-90C tank presented at the recent arms exhibition in Nizhniy Tagil has many faults, head of Russia’s Armed Forces General Staff Nikolai Makarov told RIA Novosti. The General feels that, so far, the only component of good quality is the tank turret. During the exhibition, the tank was examined by Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin. The T-90 turret deserves great respect; it is comparable with the best foreign counterparts and is even better than those in some respects. The tank itself, however, is something that needs to be worked on in the nearest future. The plan intends to

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) shipped a batch of weldless pipes to Gazprom needed for the marine underwater pipeline of Kirinskoye natural gas deposit on the island of Sakhalin, the company reports. The delivery comprises weldless line pipes with strength class X65 (for the ground part of the pipeline) and SMLS 450 FD (for the underground part) and outer three-layer polypropylene coating made at Taganrog Metallurgical Plant and Volzhsky Pipe Plant. The produce is meant for the construction of Kirinskoye natural gas deposit that Gazprom is currently developing within the framework of