Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court accepted for processing the application submitted by Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines; the company wants Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation to be declared bankrupt, a court representative told Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information (RAPSI). The date for considering the application has not been set yet. Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines deals in the production of a full set of machinery (gear-cutting, gear-broaching, gear-grinding, gear-lapping, controlled rolling, and hardening machines) needed to manufacture angular and hypoid

The Federal Air Transport Service (Rosaviation) annulled Dagestan Airlines’ aircraft operator license, the service reports. ‘The fact that Dagestan Airlines’ aircraft operator license has been annulled is not going to inconvenience the residents of and visitors to the Republic of Dagestan. Such companies as Kuban Airlines, Tatarstan Aviation Company, RusLine Aviation Company, and VIM-Avia Aviation Company are already operating or will very soon start operating flights to Makhachkala Airport. This will, in its turn, create additional preferences for the development of the airport itself,’

‘The volume of foreign investments made into Chelyabinsk Region in January-September 2011 rose by nearly 8% in comparison with January-September 2010 and reached about $2.7bn. In current prices, the fixed investments into the region’s large and medium enterprises came to 77.1bn RUR, which was 9.6% more than in January-September 2010. Over a half of these investments came from the enterprises’ own funds and were invested in large-scale projects, including the reconstruction of Mill 2500 at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, the construction of Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing

As a member of Life Financial Group, VUZ-Bank came up with a special iPhone application called Life Banking. The bank made this gift of the new remote banking services to its customers as iPhone 4S is hitting the Russian market: on the night between December 15 and December 16, the official sales of Apple smartphones began in Russia. ‘We strive to offer our customers handy solutions and modern financial tools that make life easier, increase one’s confidence, and become a part of one’s image. Our experts, who were guided by the ‘fashionable/hi tech’ rule, created a clear and convenient

The rating agency’s press release states that Rosbank’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa2/Prime-2) and the bank’s priority unsecured debt in national currency rating (Baa2) are placed on the Rating Watch. Moody’s will also reconsider Rusfinance’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa3/Prime-3) and the bank’s priority unsecured debt in national currency rating (Baa3) as well as DeltaCredit’s long- and short-term ratings for deposits in foreign and national currency (Baa2/Prime-2).

Poland’s visa center will open in Yekaterinburg soon, the representatives of the Polish embassy in Russia told reporters in the course of their visit to Yekaterinburg. ‘We understand that there is no point in setting up a Polish consulate in Yekaterinburg at the moment, the city does not particularly need it. We have already got representations in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Irkutsk, and Kaliningrad, and we are not planning on opening any more for the time being. However, we did decide to set up a visa center. This will make our job easier and reduce the waiting lines. This also means that

Chelyabinsk Region trilateral social and labor relations regulating committee met to declare the results of the contest called Collective Wage Agreement Is the Basis of Protecting the Workers’ Social & Labor Rights. The contest is held on a yearly basis in order to promote and improve on regulation of social and labor relations through collective agreements, to enhance the efficiency of the negotiating practices and to facilitate the making of mutually advantageous decisions in the social and labor field. The collective agreements are graded in accordance with the following basic

Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov reports that the region’s foreign trade turnover reached over $5bn in three quarters of 2011, which comes to 60% of all the foreign trade transactions in the region over the given period. The figures are expected to go up by the end of the year. Sverdlovsk Region keeps getting more and more foreign representations in the area. This year, the honorary consul of the Republic of Slovakia and the plenipotentiary representative of Kazakhstan’s Trade Representation in the Russian Federation were

The amount of fine imposed on Metro Cash & Carry for violating the Trade Law will be determined by Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Andrei Kashevarov at the beginning of 2012, RBC daily reports. The German chain store was found guilty of discriminating against its fish suppliers in November 2011.

Under the ruling of Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities for the environment, a former worker of SUAL-Kremniy-Ural will be paid 40,000 RUR in compensation for the moral damage. The worker lost 40% of his working capacity due to a professionally acquired disease. Claims to protect the interests of ten more people have been drawn up as well. It was detected in the course of an inspection targeted at checking SUAL-Kremniy-Ural’s compliance with the environmental legislation that the company, which uses ore thermal furnaces not equipped with gas-purification facilities, thus dumps

TransCreditBank is going to conduct an auction aimed at selling a 3.5% shareholding in Ural Transport Bank (UralTransBank) that currently belongs to Russian Railways, the online resource RZhD Partner reports. The decision to sell the said shareholding was made by the Russian Railways BOD on August 30, 2011. The opening bid has been set at 36.8m RUR, the next bid must be at least 1.2m RUR higher, and all the following bids must be at least 1m RUR higher.

Philips announced the opening of a representation in Yekaterinburg recently. ‘What we see as the key component of this representation’s business strategy is the development at the local level of all the three sectors our company comprises: Lighting Solutions, Healthcare, and Consumer Goods. This will allow us to create a very comfortable and inspiring working environment for our partners, distributors, and Philips customers in the area. In addition to building and improving on our ties with distributors and retail chains, Philips is also planning to develop the maintenance and after-sale

SKB-Bank’s outlet started operating in Vladivostok, the capital of Maritime Territory. In fact, the bank’s new office in Khabarovsk was opened shortly before this. The Far Eastern office is located in downtown Vladivostok, on the shore of the Golden Horn Bay at 30 Semenovskaya St. The office welcomes customers from 10 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturdays, with no lunch breaks. ‘SKB-Bank now runs offices on the coasts of seven seas and three oceans. The Pacific, for one, will get new offices in Magadan and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the nearest future,’ the bank reports.

Igor Vorobyev is no longer the BOD Chairman of Revdinsky Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Plant. This decision was taken by the plant’s Board of Directors. Rishat Gayanov was elected the new Chairman.

Kaliningrad Region’s Minister for Industrial Policy Dmitri Chemakin did not confirm the reports that Kaliningrad Amber Combine would be registered in Sverdlovsk Region, Komsomolskaya Pravda-Kaliningrad reports. ‘Certain rumors did reach me, but no official statements have been made so far,’ the Minister said. ‘The amber combine is owned by the federal authorities, so they are to have the last word in this case. The position of the Russian Federation Finance Ministry’s has not been announced yet. I cannot imagine how the combine might not be registered with us,’ Chemakin said. Acting Governor

The analytical think tank AlfaStrakhovaniye conducted a research on the sales of new cars in Russia, and Yekaterinburg in particular, in the first nine months of 2011, and came up with a rating of the best-selling brands. In January-September 2011, 62,890 new automobiles were sold in Yekaterinburg, which was 70% more than a year earlier. The sales reached a peak in June. Lada proved the most popular brand in Yekaterinburg: 11,320 cars have been sold since the start of the year, which amounts to 18% of all the cars bought in the city over the given period. In addition, Lada’s sales in

Starting December 15, the telecommunications carrier MegaFon is to switch to the new basic rates for international roaming services in Europe, including the European part of the CIS and Turkey. The carrier launches a single Eurorate for all the Russian subscribers and charges them 6 RUR or 16 RUR per minute, depending on the destination of the call. The rates for roaming data transfer and text messages have also been reduced dramatically, the company’s press service reports. These changes in the roaming rates proved the most considerable in the last few years: the price of an incoming call

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps putting up the second extension to its cold-roll facility. The facility with the capacity of 2m tons of goods a year is meant for the production of high quality cold-rolled and galvanized rolled products for the automobile industry as well as for household appliances manufacturers and for the building industry. According to MMK PR Department, over 1,400 people are employed at the construction site every day. The assembling of the technological equipment is 70% complete by now. The equipment relating to the continuous annealing aggregate is being

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2011. Ural Airlines, one of Russia’s top six largest air carriers in terms of passenger turnover, and Cologne Airport are launching a new direct flight from Cologne to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. Flights will be operated from Cologne every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; starting June, flights will be available five times a week. All of these will be operated using the comfortable Airbus A320 planes with fully equipped business class and economy class sections. The cheapest tickets are available for ?80 for economy class and ?350 for business class (one way).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 12, 2011. Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for the eleven months of 2011. Most of the air carrier’s performance figures went up impressively in comparison with a year earlier. In November 2011, the airline operated a total of 1,680 flights, which was 32% better than last November. This figure included 593 international flights, 704 domestic flights, and 387 flights around the CIS. The number of passengers who used Ural Airlines in November 2011 came to an impressive figure of 198,370, which was 72% more than in November 2010. The actual passenger