Norway’s visa center will start operating in Yekaterinburg on May 10, 2012, the online portal TourBusiness reports. Norway’s Embassy in Russia signed an agreement with VFS Services LLC Russia that entitles the latter to accepting and processing applications for all visa types. ‘The Embassy has seen a record-setting number of applications over the last few years. Last year, our visa section issued 30,236 visas, which was the largest figure among all of Norway’s foreign representations in terms of applications submitted and visas issued. The agreement will result in considerable expansion of

Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights agency) offered some comment on the lethal whisky poisoning caused by a bottle of Hankey Bannister purchased at Krasnoye & Beloye store at 9 Manevrovaya St. in Yekaterinburg. ‘Central Yekaterinburg Department of Rospotrebnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region division informs Yekaterinburg dwellers that a nineteen-year-old woman died from alcohol poisoning at a sauna located in the city’s Zheleznodorozhny District. She had some Hankey Bannister whisky,’ the agency reports. ‘A bottle of Hankey Bannister was bought at Krasnoye

Russian Railways Public Company’s Senior Vice President Valentin Gapanovitch presented the first Russian technologically innovative locomotive with an asynchronous traction drive called SinaraHybrid (TEM9N) at Rizhskiy Railway Station in Moscow, Russian Railways’ press service reports. The presentation of the loco was made on the eve on the international conference on converging the technical regulation systems within the Round Table of Russia and the EU Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The loco was designed by CTM Innovational Development Center (a member of Sinara Transport

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court postponed the hearing of MDM Bank against Uralchermetavto and Avtoland Sever till May 14, 2012. The bank insists that the companies pay it over 206m RUR. ‘After the court had announced it was about to start looking into the evidence, it turned out that the plaintiff never provided a single written proof of its case, either in the original or in the properly authorized copies. This circumstance makes considering the case difficult: the case lacks any evidence whatsoever. The plaintiff submitted its claim electronically; therefore all the evidence was placed

Uralburmash’s stockholders decided not to pay any dividend for 2011 in the course of the annual general meeting, the company reports. It was reported that the company made 912,950 RUR worth of net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) last year. The retained net loss (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) amounted to 431,270 RUR. This means that the enterprise’s retained net profit came to 481,670 RUR on January 1, 2012. The plant reports its shareholders agreed with the BOD’s recommendation to direct the retained profit into the

Uralmedstroy (UMMC) is calling off its claim against Castorama RUS from Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court, the papers relating to the case available via the court’s website state. Now the two parties got involved in the legal proceedings prior to the opening of Castorama store in Yekaterinburg. The developer insisted that Castorama RUS pay them 5.16m RUR.

The net profit of OAO Vympelcom, one of Russia’s largest wireless carriers, decreased by 20.8% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011. The figure, calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards, came to 14.47bn RUR, the company reports. At the same time, the company’s revenues rose by 10% and came to 65.65bn RUR.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2012. It appears that Sverdlovsk Region Traffic Administration and TransSibUral’s partnership violates the existing law in some respects, the response of Ural Public Prosecution Authorities for Transpiration to Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly’s Duma deputy Andrei Alshevskikh states. ‘An investigation was carried out regarding your query on Sverdlovsk Region Traffic Administration allegedly lobbying the interests of TransSibUral, the structural division of Central Traffic Administration and a subsidiary of Russian Railways, in what regards freight

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2012. Bank Yekaterinburg intends to place itself on the list of the newly insolvent Cardinal TechnoPlus’s creditors. It was reported to UrBC that the application for determining the scale of the creditors’ claims has already been submitted to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court judge in charge of the bankruptcy case. The application for declaring Cardinal TechnoPlus insolvent was placed with the court by the company’s liquidator E. Tsyganova. The reason for placing the application was that the amount of creditors’ claims which the debtor did not contest exceeded

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2012. France, Iran, and Byelorussia are going to present their country stands at the international industry and innovations forum/exhibition Innoprom that will be held in July for the third time this year. This year’s forum is expected to feature over 400 businesses from Russia, the United States, Germany, Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, Iran, and Turkey. Many enterprises decided to present their stands on a larger scale this year compared to last time. For one, Siempelkamp, the wood processing, nuclear, and casting machinery manufacturer, will expand its

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2012. EXPO 2020 Yekaterinburg Application Committee launched its EXPO 2020 Ambassador project recently. This means domestically and internationally recognized representatives of the artistic, cultural, political, business, and educational communities will be supporting Yekaterinburg’s campaign for hosting EXPO in 2020. The ‘Application Ambassador’ is a voluntary and non-profit status. The ambassadors will mainly have to spread the ideas and the values of the universal fairs in general and of EXPO 2020 Yekaterinburg Project in particular. This year, over thirty

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2012. According to Tyumen Customs’s statistics, the foreign trade turnover in the customs area exceeded $504m in the first quarter of 2012. 94.4% of all the transactions involved the countries of the far abroad, and 5.6% involved the CIS member states. Imports reached 18.8% of total foreign trade turnover, while exports came to 81.2%, Ural Customs Administration’s press service reports. Tyumen Customs area’s top foreign trader partners were Turkey (its share in the total foreign trade volume came to 23.2%), Poland (16.2%), Finland (16.2%), the Netherlands

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2012. Tickets for the final football match of Pirelli – Russian Cup 2011/2012 are now offered for sale in Yekaterinburg. These can be booked at Central Stadium booking offices in Pirogov St. and Pepin St.; the offices are open from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM, with prices starting from 50 RUR, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The final match is to played by Moscow’s Dynamo and Kazan’s Rubin at Yekaterinburg Central Stadium at 5:00 PM on May 9.

UrBC, Moscow, April 26, 2012. Ural Mechano-Optical Plant’s bonds (04 Series, total face value 1.5bn RUR) were offered at MICEX today. The issuer suggested that its investors exchange their 03 Series bonds (distributed among qualified investors in February 2011) for 04 Series publicly traded ones. At the close of business on April 20, 2012, the issuer set the coupon interest rate at 10.5% a year (the profit on the eighteen-month offer comes to 10.78%). The size of bond offering at the acceptable and efficient price for the issuer was 1.2bn RUR. Given the current market opportunities, the

UrBC, Moscow, April 26, 2012. The international rating agency Moody’s adjusted the rating outlook of Promsvyazbank to Negative. The experts took this step because of their concern over the bank’s capital adequacy level and the concentration of risks around the bank’s largest borrowers, RBC daily reports. Moody’s took a new stance on the bank: the outlook on the company’s deposit and credit ratings has been demoted from Stable to Negative. This adjustment is based on the analysis of Promsvyazbank’s financial report for 2011 (drawn up in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards), the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2012. One year ago, Mostostroy 12 was chosen as the general contractor for putting up a bridge across the River Nadym in the course of a tender coordinated by Development Corporation (formerly known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation). The corporation reports the construction began in September 2011, and the bridge is expected to be launched as soon as December 2014. However, the construction process is already ahead of schedule. The supervising companies’ representatives say they are satisfied with both the quality and the tempo of the process.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2012. Uraltransmash came up with a financial and administrative performance report for 2011. The company managed to fulfill its purpose-made goods production plan by 134.9% (thanks to additional contracts on government orders) and its civil goods production plan by 101.2%. Special purpose goods made up 91.4% of all the goods produced, while the share of civil goods did not exceed 8.6%. All in all, the plant was able to meet its target production figures for 2011. ‘It should be pointed out that last year, the sales volume was lower than expected due to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2012. Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg intends to become a co-owner of Nizhniy Novgorod International Airport. The idea of buying the airport’s shares is to be considered by Yekaterinburg airport’s BOD on April 28, 2012. In addition to this, the agenda of the BOD meeting covers issues related to looking at the results of Koltsovo Airport’s financial and administrative performance in 2011, making changes in the company’s business plan for 2012, and taking the on-board catering division out of Koltsovo Airport.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2012. Uralkhimplast held the annual general meeting recently. The shareholders approved of the plant’s annual report for 2011 and the accounting report (including the profit and loss statement). It was reported that the company’s net profit in 2011 exceeded that for 2010 by 5.8 times. Sales volumes went up by 11.1% on the previous year. Still, the BOD recommended that the shareholders vote for passing the dividend for the financial year 2011 and investing it in production development, which the stockholders did. Then, a new BOD was elected, comprising Thomas

UrBC, Moscow, April 24, 2012. The stockholders of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank decided in the course of the annual general meeting to pass the dividend and to leave all the net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) – 929.72m RUR – at the bank’s disposal, the bank’s press service reports. Yekaterinburg Audit-Center was chosen as the auditor for the financial report compiled in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards, while Deloitte & Touche CIS was chosen as the auditor for the financial report compiled in accordance with the IAS. The bank’s key