The first section of the electrolysis facility at UC RUSAL’s Bogoslovsky smelter is expected to be fully dismantled by May 9, 2012. However, some sources at the plant think this might also happen earlier, namely, before April 1, 2012, Uralsky Rabochiy reports. UC RUSAL decided to shut down the older electrolysis series that are not fitted with any gas-purification units. Governor Alexander Misharin announced he could not agree with the company management’s decision to close down the facility, as this will result in massive job losses. In the meantime, the company claims that the aluminum

Adore Creative was designated to prepare Yekaterinburg EXPO 2020 application video; this news was confirmed to Kommersant’s Review supplement by Chairman of the application support committee and Russia’s Deputy Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov. ‘This company created a number of presentation clips whose emotional charge helped win votes for Russia. This company has been doing business with the global leaders for years, with Reebok, Pepsi, Sony, and The Walt Disney Company, for example,’ the official said. ‘We’d like to hope that their products for EXPO 2020 will be of highest

The subsidiary of OGK-2 Serovskaya hydroelectric power station dumped 36,300 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 47.2% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Serov. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Ural Airlines came up with a special offer on the anniversary of Chelyabinsk Region’s founding date, the company’s press office reports. The region as a federal constituency recently turned seventy-eight years old. The airline is now putting on sale the tickets for its Vienna-bound flights. The launch of direct flights from Chelyabinsk to the European capital was Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch’s idea, so the expansion of the carrier’s international flights network is supported by a partnership agreement between Ural Airlines and Chelyabinsk Region Government. Between

Rosgosstrakh’s strategic research center came up with the results of its Bank Brands survey that measured the on-the-spot awareness of a particular brand. Those surveyed were asked, ‘What banks do you know?’ The percentage was calculated on the basis of the total number of responses. In addition to Russian banks, a number of foreign banks operating in Russia were also featured in the survey. In comparison with the year 2010, the number of people aware of the Austrian Raiffeisenbank declined from 10% to 7%; that of respondents aware of the U.S. Citibank decreased from 5% to 4%, and the number

Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service completed a scheduled on-site inspection of Tyumen Commercial Agroindustrial Bank. The inspection resulted in the agency’s order for the bank to stop violating the Russian legislation and to take measures to prevent such violations from happening in the future.

Ural Asbestos Ore Mining & Processing Plant dumped 5,900 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 73.2% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Asbest. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

MDM Bank reports that an agreement has been reached that leaves Igor Kim without a stake in the bank’s capital. The bank’s BOD Chairman Oleg Vyugin said that the negotiations also resulted in the agreement to sell a 100% shareholding in LTB Bank (MDM Group’s former member) to Kim. The bank’s Board of Directors and its leading stockholders supported the transaction.

Russian Chrome 1915 dumped 1.3m cubic meters of wastewater last year, which amounted to 4% of all the harmful water discharge in the town of Pervouralsk. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Ural Airlines started working on a pilots’ training center: the first stone and a symbolic gold coin were laid in the foundation of the new facility on the premises of the air carrier on November 21. The company’s Director-General Sergey Skuratov said in the course of a solemn ceremony that the assembling of all the machinery will start as soon as February 2012, and the center will be launched in early April. The building, which will be 14.5 meters high and will have the area of 700 sq m, will be fitted with two cockpit mock-ups that fully reproduce the actual cockpit of an aircraft. One unit

‘We do not know even the preliminarily established cause of the emergency landing. It might actually have been the case that the sensor was simply faulty.’ S7 Airlines’ press service informed RIA Novosti. The news of the emergency reached the Ministry of Emergency at 8:55 AM Moscow time. The critical sensors of Boeing 737 flying from Nadym to Moscow suddenly went on, so the plane had to perform a landing in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. No one was hurt. An ad hoc committee is going to look into the causes of the incident. The plane is known to belong to Globus Aviation Company (a member

VUZ-Bank was given the 121st position on the list of Russia’s Top500 most profitable banks that was carried by RosBusinessConsulting recently. The bank’s pre-tax profit amounted to about 190m RUR as of October 1, 2011. According to RosBusinessConsulting, the Russian banks’ total profit set a record in the nine months of 2011 by already exceeding the figures for the entire year 2010. The total pre-tax profit of 500 banks reached 463bn RUR at the end of 2010 and over 486m RUR in January-September 2011.

68,929 new passenger cars were sold in Yekaterinburg in ten months of 2011, which was 26,710 cars, or 63%, more than in ten months of 2010, Auto-Dealer Yekaterinburg reports. 7,618 passenger cars were sold in the city in October 2011, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 2,311 cars, or 44%. October proved the best month of the year since June, when 8.142 automobiles were sold in Yekaterinburg. Considerably more cars are still being sold in Yekaterinburg than in Russia on average: in Russia overall, car sales increased by 43% in January-October 2011 and by only 27% in October. Lada

Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant dumped 3,000 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 35.1% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Revda. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Projects presented by groups from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg were selected as winners of the fourth (and the last) open contest for the creation of nanotech centers coordinated by Rosnano, the infrastructure and education programs foundation. Thus the full list of nanotech centers to be set up in Russia under the auspices of Rosnano is finalized, the company reports. Among the winning projects are the ones presented by Moscow-based T-Platform, by Saint Petersburg-based Leningrad Region economic development and investment activity committee, and by Yekaterinburg-based Ural

Under the order of Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service No. 62-11-1532/pz-i dated November 18, 2011 the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based UBT-Uralvagonzavod’s ordinary registered uncertified shares was halted.

Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant dumped 4,600 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 54.5% of total atmospheric discharge in the town of Revda. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report is based on the information provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental surveillance agencies as well as by the state-run environmental protection authorities and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

The international rating agency called off Svyaz-Bank’s long- and short-term deposit ratings in both the national and the foreign currency (B1/Not Prime) as well as the bank’s financial stability rating (E+2), Interfax reports. The ratings were recalled for business reasons, the agency’s press release says.

UC RUSAL offered a few comments on Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin’s statement regarding the company’s Bogoslovsky smelter. ‘RUSAL is not closing down the electrolysis production at the plant. Aluminum will still be produced using the upgraded Series 6 facilities. The decision to make the old electrolysis shop more efficient was caused by the surveillance authorities’ order to shut down the series that were not fitted with gas-purification units. This is why a portion of the staff were offered jobs in the alumina department, in Series 6 facilities, and at the environmentally

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin did not agree with the decision made by UC RUSAL’s management regarding the closing down of electrolysis facilities at Bogoslovsky smelter, which would leave many people without jobs. ‘The Urals can boast unique aluminum production facilities that are both self-supporting and competitive. Given the region’s developmental potential, we are now doing our best to cut the cost of electricity here,’ the Governor said. ‘All these remarks as to something being ‘above the prime cost’ have to do with the quality