929 flights will be operated from Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport during the holiday season, between December 25, 2011 and January 15, 2012. This includes 635 domestic flights, 294 international flights, 903 scheduled flights, and 27 chartered flights. The greatest portion of the international flights will be operated to Egypt (26 flights to Hurghada and 20 flights to Sharm El Sheikh), the Czech Republic (32 flights to Prague and 6 flights to Carlsbad), the United Arab Emirates (22 flights to Dubai and 8 flights to Sharjah), Thailand (21 flights to Bangkok and 5 flights to Phuket), and China

The stockholders of Uktus Airport intend to increase the company’s authorized capital. This is going to be one of the issues on the agenda of the annual general meeting scheduled for January 23, 2011. Now under Sverdlovsk Region’s public property management program for 2012 and the plan for 2013-2014, Sverdlovsk Region Government is planning to buy 200m RUR worth of Uktus Airport’s shares.

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press officer Evgeny Kharlamov explained the facts behind First Deputy Head of Government Mikhail Maximov signing a governmental decree. ‘Mikhail Maximov is going to sign the regional government’s decrees while Anatoly Gredin is absent. This was the case on December 17, for example, when Maximov signed the decree regarding the state guarantees offered by Sverdlovsk Region to OAO Ural Exhibition Center in 2011. Anatoly Gredin was away on business in Moscow at that moment,’ Kharlamov said. In fact, Sverdlovsk Region provided Ural Exhibition Center with

160 Russian railway stations will be fitted with the wireless Internet connection in 2012, Russian Railways’ press service reports. At the moment, twenty Russian railway stations can boast a Wi-Fi connection: the ones in Moscow, Moskovsky and Finlyandsky ones in Saint Petersburg, and the ones in Vologda, Nizhniy Novgorod, Vladimir, Cherepovets, Arkhangelsk, Yaroslavl, Pyatigorsk, Rostov, and Sochi, RZhD Partner reports. It is also reported that, in order to improve customer service for passengers and visitors to the railway stations, the baggage rooms have been converted to automated mode

The shareholdings of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank and of the insurance company Yugoria that currently belong to Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region will be placed on the list of assets to be privatized in 2012, the region’s State Property Management Department informed Interfax. ‘The date of the auction aimed at selling the shares of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank will be announced in the first quarter of 2012; the auction aimed at selling Yugoria’s shares will take place approximately in April or May 2012,’ the Department said. The state-owned shareholdings of Khanty-Mansiysky Bank and Yugoria were initially

This year, the representatives of Titanium Valley Management Company coordinated over three hundred meetings with companies and enterprises based in Western and Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada which could become potential residents of the special economic zone. Among the most important events of this kind were taking part in such exhibitions as Hannover Messe in Germany, MIPIM in France, Titanium in the U.S., and Innoprom, Russian Expo Arms, and MAKS in Russia. Most of the promotion activities are expected to take place in 2012, when infrastructure work begins

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up a web page with Google+, the new social network provided by the world’s best-known search engine. The address, now hosts photographs and videos about the bank as well as information on the bank’s services and links to popular products. In fact, the bank already runs two groups in Vkontakte, one group in Odnoklassniki, and a Twitter account. The regional SMM market experts speak very highly of the launch of the bank’s projects in the social network Vkontakte. According to a research done by the digital data agency DeltaClick (called Top

The number of violations of the antimonopoly legislation in the field of telecommunications is now on the rise in Sverdlovsk Region, Head of Russia’s Antimonopoly Service Sverdlovsk Region division Tatiana Kolotova said at a press conference. Kolotova pointed out that the increase in the number of offenses was due to Rostelecom. ‘We had to process four or five suits involving this company this year,’ the official added. In addition to telecommunications, power engineering, heat supply industry, and railway shipments are also common areas of the antimonopoly legislation abuse. ‘Every year,

Ural Airlines has received a letter of gratitude from Sverdlovsk Region Government once again; the letter was sent to thank the company for taking part in charity work, its great social responsibility, and providing immediate help for the financially challenged Russians in 2011. The benefactors’ awarding ceremony took place at the end of Charity Days coordinated in Sverdlovsk Region on December 6-21, 2011, Ural Airlines’ press office reports. ‘Your charity work promotes the revival of Russia’s great moral traditions,’ the letter from Sverdlovsk Region Government, Sverdlovsk Region Union of

Radio Equipment Plant placed a claim against Bank Inteza with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. According to the materials of the case, the claim amounts to 1.28m RUR.

OOO Progress Universal won the tender aimed at selling a 3.5% stake in Ural Transport Bank (UralTransBank) that belonged to Russian Railways. This information is available from the website of TransCreditBank, the company that coordinated the tender. The asset was sold at the opening bid price of 36.8m RUR.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) reports its premium threaded connections TMK PF have been successfully tested for compliance with the ISO 13679 CAL IV standard in Oil States Industries, an international certification center based in Aberdeen, UK. The center tests the produce of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. The testing was carried out by TMK Premium Service. Subjected to a special qualification test program were threaded connections TMK PF with the diameter of 177.8mm, wall width 10.4mm, and strength grade L80. The testing was done at the order of one of the Middle East’s major

Acting Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Anatoly Gredin greeted the region’s most prominent benefactors and presented them with their awards. The committee responsible for coordinating the charity days declared the Managing Director of Serversky Pipe Plant (Pipe Metallurgical Company, TMK) Mikhail Zuyev the Benefactor of the Year. Since 2007, the enterprise has been donating money to Sinara Charity Fund that is the group’s united charity activity coordinator.

Unilever Rus informed Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service of purchasing a 15.02% stake in Concern Kalina. The shareholding comprises 966,749 ordinary registered uncertified shares of the Russian cosmetics concern.

The agenda of the latest meeting chaired by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Alexander Sidorov covered issues related to the need to normalize things at Ufaleynickel and Rezhhnckel. The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Governmentand Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov. Petrov said that Rezhnickel’s problems would be solved in several stages. ‘First and foremost, the ministry will keep on cooperating with Russia’s Federal Tariff Service regarding discounts on the railway shipment of raw

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service considered the application submitted by Siberian-Ural Aluminum Company (SUAL, located at 10 Zavodskaya St in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Region 623406 and dealing in alumina production) regarding the acquisition of a 100% shareholding in the authorized capital of SUAL Holding Ural (located at 11 Proletarskaya St in Yekaterinburg 620075 and dealing in consultant services). The application was submitted in October 2011 in accordance with Article 28 of the Competition Act; the Federal Antimonopoly Service, guided by Article 33 (part 2, paragraph 1) of the

Issues related to improvements in the field of housing bill payment system were discussed at a recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Government chaired by acting Governor Anatoly Gredin. To ensure the further development of the system, a proposal to rely more heavily on the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard was made.

The special economic zone Titanium Valley was presented in Rome at the 1st international innovations forum called Italy-Russia. Sverdlovsk Region’s Investment & Development Ministry reports that scientists from the University of Rome and representatives of direct investment funds, financial organizations, and export agencies have all taken an interest in the project. They were informed about the potential of this Verkhyaya Salda-based special economic zone as a basis for cooperation between the Russian and the Italian companies. The next day, the project was presented in the course of a

Standard&Poor’s credit rating service reconsidered the ratings of fourteen Russian banks. Under the new methodology, the long- and short-term ratings of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development were raised from B-/C to B/B; the bank’s national scale rating was also promoted from ruBBB+ to ruA-, with Stable rating outlook, the agency reports. ‘While upgrading the methodology, we also tried to take into account the results of our monitoring the banks’ activity in unfavorable banking market and economic conditions brought about by the recession of 2007-2009 and the issue of Europe’s

The Russian carrier MegaFon is now reducing the basic roaming rates for Egypt and Israel, including Palestine. The cost of both incoming calls and outgoing calls to Russia and around the host country is now 33 RUR per minute. The price of data transfer and text messaging has gone down as well, MegaFon’s press service reports. In fact, MegaFon already launched a dramatic rate drop on December 15 on the basic roaming rates for forty-four European countries, including the European part of the CIS and Turkey. The carrier introduced a single Eurorate for all the Russian subscribers to any rate