A spoliation attempt was made at Ekaterininskiy Privoz market today. ‘At six AM, some officers of the court accompanied by security guards, entered the market forcing our security guards out,’ Director of Ekaterininskiy Privoz Trade Center Sergei Kharlov reports. By nine o’clock, all the equipment, including two hoisting cranes and three long-length lorries had already been placed within the market territory. The market authorities had managed to summon the police and all of the security staff a little earlier, though.. ‘We just had to prevent the officers of the court from taking any further

47 public catering facilities providing room for 1,927 people were built in Yekaterinburg in 2005, which is seven facilities and 386 seats more than had been planned, reported Svetlana Pimenova, Head of Public Catering Department of Yekaterinburg Public Administration Commodities Market Committee. According to Ms Pimenova, 4 facilities fit for 84 people started operating in the city hotels (as opposed to scheduled 14 facilities fir for 844 people) and 21 facilities fit for 1,305 people are now available inside a number of trade centers.

First Public Mineral Oil Quality Control Laboratory based in Ural Standardization, Metrolo gy and Certification Center started operating in Yekaterinburg, GD of Uraltest Federal State Unitary Enterprise Valentin Sursyakov said to the agency’s representative. According to Mr Sursyakov, the laboratory was opened soon after the winter break. The cost of equipment came to about 10 million RUR. Among its clients are some public surveillance bodies that take mineral oil samples at the local and regional filling stations. ‘Sadly, we receive lots of complaints about the oil quality from the drivers,’

‘Starting January 1, 2006 Tagilvodka JSC does not produce anything due to the absence of excise labels demanded by the amendments to the State Regulation of Ethyl Alcohol, Strong Liquor and Spirit-Based Drink Production and Turnover Act. The new bill also demands that the enterprise install some equipment in order to place the bar code onto the labels, but no equipment has been delivered so far,’ Accountant General of Tagilvodka JSC Oleg Silin said. As Mr Silin reports, the winery will not start operating again until February 1, which makes the budgets incur losses of 500,000 to 600,000 RUR

Austrian Airlines are going to set up their subsidiary in Yekaterinburg, with the official presentation taking place in the Atrium Palace Hotel on January 19. President of Austrian Airlines Group is expected to be present. As the spokesperson for Koltsovo Airport told the agency’s representative, Austrian Airlines will be performing Yekaterinburg-Vienna flights starting April 2006.

1,199 open-air trade units were operating in Yekaterinburg on January 1, 2006, as was announced at the Commodities Market Committee sitting headed by Deputy Mayor Chair Viktor Konteev. 74 units were dismantled in 2005, 25 are currently under the court investigation and 174 units are expected to have been dismantled by the end of 2006. Alongside with the dismantling, some renewal projects are being implemented: 48 open-air trade units were renovated in 2005 (as opposed to the scheduled 52) even though the authorities note that the quality of the work leaves much to be desired. 73 units are

Sverdlovsk Regional Public Institution of Road Management announced the results of the contract auction that took place on December 12, 2005. Bids were offered for the privilege of capturing a state contract on management of highways maintained through the regional budget over the months of January to June 2006. Sverdlovskavtodor Federal State Unitary Enterprise happened to be the winning bidder and now has a strip of Perm-Yekaterinburg bypass, which is an 841002,000 RUR contract, and the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen highway (25th to 147th km), which is a 152982,000 RUR contract, at its disposal.

‘We’ve lost some hundred thousand dollars due to cancelled and delayed flights, Sergei Busko, GD of Mir Travel Company, reported during today’s press conference. ‘We had to look for other ways of making sure our clients arrived safely to their holiday destinations, we also had to cover all the trip and accommodation expenses while a suitable rearrangement was being adjusted. Our losses can be described as tremendous but not devastating, and it’s now the company’s top priority to recover financially,’ Mr Busko said. ‘We managed to arrange our clients’ trips through other flights, and some of

According to Yulia Fedorova, Koltsovo airport spokesperson, two Moscow carriers applied for regular flights between Moscow and Yekaterinburg in the end of 2005. ‘However, the decision on whether to give them any slots hasn’t been arrived at yet. Such flights are currently performed by three airlines, and two more carriers mean the arrival of fierce competition, especially given that large airlines can afford lower-than-the-market prices.’ Ms Fedotova notes that there have also been applications from some foreign carriers, an Austrian airline (scheduled to start operating in April 2006), a

According to the spokesperson for Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant, BN-600, a power generating unit, was working at power rating level and fully met the electricity-generating requirements for all of 2005. There hadn’t been any safety or limit violations either, and the rare gas activity breakthrough in December comprised 0.2% of the upper limit. The radiation level in the town of Zarechniy and the power plant site was not any bigger than usual and fluctuated between 4 and 20 microroentgen per hour, which is believed to be typical of Russia. The corresponding figures for Beloyarskoye

According to the spokesperson for Sverdlovsknefteproduct JSC, the official dealer of Sibneft JSC (Siberian supplier) in Sverdlovsk Region, the company managed to keep the mineral oil prices at their filling stations stable throughout the year 2005. ‘We believe this is due to a moratorium declared by some oil companies,’ the spokesperson reports. The same is true of Ural Oil Company (TNC JSC), says the company’s representative. ‘We aren’t planning to have the mineral oil prices go up since the wholesale prices have decreased by the end of the year,’ the representative of the company’s Sales

Mortgage Housing Loan Agency JSC introduced a differential interest rate on mortgage credits depending on the scale of the initial payment and loan terms on January 1, 2006. This means that what was previously just one credit type is now going to expand to six different types of loans varying depending on the crediting conditions. Thus, the initial payment of 70% to 50% and 1- to 15-year loan terms determine the rate of 12%. The upper interest rate limit is set at 16% and applies to credits with the 10% to 30% initial payment and a 15- to 30-year term. The beginning of the year was also

Yekaterinburg is going to receive over a billion RUR for road building and maintenance as well as for municipal improvements. 532 million RUR have already been reserved in the city budget. The other half should presumably come from the funds of Sverdlovsk Region Territorial Road Fund. The town council is planning to exceed last year’s output in this sphere during 2006.

‘Delays and cancellations of three Mir Travel Company-booked flights are caused by failing to pay promptly’, Mikhail Churkanov, GD of Transglobal Airline CJSC, announced at today’s press conference. ‘According to our contract with Mir, it had to pay for the flights no later than December 22, 2005. The last payment was only made on December 28 though, and, consequently, we were unable to conduct all the negotiations needed, including those with the host companies,’ Mr Churkanov said. ‘We’ve suffered considerable losses: the exact amount is currently being specified. Yet we intend to transfer

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration is to consider the suit brought by Kamishlovskiy Metalloobrabativayushiy Zavod CJSC (Metalworking plant of Kamishlov) against Eurogreen Financial Investment Company today. As the plant’s spokesperson told the agency’s representative, the reason of suing Eurogreen is its violating the shareholders’ selling privilege (the sales transaction was conducted on October 20). The plant puts special emphasis on seeing the purpose of the suit as bringing in the verdict of the transaction being illicit.

KES Holding sees the state of events in regional consumer power supply caused by some municipalities’ non-payments and deliberate insolvency as critical, goes the company’s press release. Among the debtors are Billing Center PLC (Holding member), Gavan PLC of Rezh, Bazhenovskoye Housing and Comunal Services Unitary Enterprise, Upravleniye municipalnogo zakazchika Unitary Enterprise, and the water supply factories Alapaevskiy Vodokanal PLC, Vodokanal Unitary Enterprise of Nizhneturinskiy District, and Vodokanal Unitary Enterprise of Beloyarsk. According to the release, Billing Center PLC is

‘Transglobal Airline CJSC abided and satisfied its liabilities under the contract with Mir Travel Company. Aircrafts ready to bring the passengers to Salzburg(Austria), Goa(India) and Bali(Indonesia) were ready for departure at Koltsovo airport. Yet Mir Travel Company did not pay for the flights timely: we only had the prepayment, not the full pay. That is why the decision to call them off was made,’ General Director of Transglobal Airline Mikhail Churkanov said to the agency’s representative. According to Mr Churkanov, after January 20 the downtime costs of Transglobal airline will be summed

Sverdlovsk Region Government approved of local wholesale trade development strategy planned up to the year 2010. According to the Governor’s PR department representatives, the trend-setting guidelines for the wholesale trade development had been based on the data obtained trough the branch performance analysis over the last five years. The wholesale trade turnover in Sverdlovsk Region has quadrupled (in price terms) over the years 2000-2005, reaching the point of 600 billion RUR in 2005. The turnover figures for Sverdlovsk Region comprise 60% of the total turnover in the Ural Federal

Federal Tariff Service set upper limits of local tariffs on communal services at 112% for Sverdlovsk Region, 113.1% for Yamalo-Nenetsk Region, 113.5% for Chelyabinsk Region, 114% for Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region, and 120% for Tyumen and Kurgan Regions. Given the regional extra charges, the average price growth in Russia will come to anything between 110% and 122%. The maximum increase that heating tariffs may experience is that of 112% for Sverdlovsk Region (excluding the heat coming from power stations that combine generation of thermal energy with electricity generation). This maximum

On January 1, Reftinskaya and Sredneuralskaya water power plants left TGK-9, a local generating company whose subsidiaries had been up to that moment. They are now going to be managed by OGK-5, a wholesale generating company, TGK-9 spokesperson reports. Both power plants are to function within the framework of the Russian Power System Reform Plan adopted by OGK-5. This new merger of the plants with OGK-5 signifies the final step in designing the company’s structure. OGK-5 is going to take full responsibility in what regards providing Reftinskaya and Sredneuralskaya water power plants