UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Oleg Chupakhin, a research supervisor from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch’s Organic Synthesis Institute feels very pessimistic about the future of the Russian science within the walls of Ural Federal University. The academician says the university is simply unable to process all the money directed to science, for one, UFU keeps laying off its scientists on a large scale. ‘So, they set up Ural Federal University and promised enormous funding. However, no one can guarantee that things will work out there. Our Ural State Technical University

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo International Airport rendered its services to 2.54m passengers in the three quarters of 2011, which was 23% better than in the three quarters of 2010. The international passenger traffic rose by 17%, the number of people on domestic flights increased by 23%, the number of those flying around the CIS jumped by 54.6%. 15,060 flight departures were processed, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 30.8%. ‘Most of Koltsovo’s passengers are those on domestic flights, including the flights operated within the framework of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Under Order No. 62-11-1308/pz-i dated October 6, 2011 of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service Ural Federal District Division the issue of Sverdlovsk-Region based EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant’s ordinary registered paperless shares was halted.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. The plans of the French hypermarket Auchan to set up more stores in Yekaterinburg are still unclear. Former Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced as early as 2007 that a hypermarket would soon be opened in every district of Yekaterinburg. The area of each of the seven hypermarkets was supposed to have come to 10,000 to 15,000 sq m. ‘Sverdlovsk Region has already obtained the permission of Auchan representatives to put up this number of stores,’ Rossel said at the time. ‘Given the way things stand, I just ask you to trust us. As soon as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. The reconstruction of Yekaterinburg-based MEGA shopping mall will last for three years, at least, MEGA-Yekaterinburg CEO Lilia Nenasheva announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg today. ‘The initial reconstruction stages will remain unheeded by the customers. We’ll start with the infrastructure and technical systems upgrades and then we’ll move on to the commercial components,’ she explained. ‘When the renovations are complete, the mall will look different both on the inside and on the outside. Its colors and interior will be changed. For one, at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. ChTPZ Group representatives are to take part in the 19th Kazakhstan International Oil & Gaz Exhibition (KIOGE) 2011 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on October 5-8, 2011. About 450 O & G and metallurgical companies from twenty-five different countries are going to join the event; KIOGE 2011 is aimed at presenting the enterprises’ production facilities and sharing advanced technological experience. ChTPZ cooperates closely with Kazakh industrial enterprises and joins KIOGE on a yearly basis.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. The current divisions of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights agency) inspected fifty-two tourist companies in nine months of 2011 (compared with fifty-four a year earlier). The agency had 9,677 agreements signed by the companies with travelers examined by a board of experts to make sure the agreements comply with the existing regulations, the agency’s press service reports. Violations of the existing regulations were detected among the following companies: a sole trader named S. V. Melikyan, a sole trader named T. S. Antonova (Lady Travel Agency).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. Starting October 10, 2011, Avianova will no longer operate flights to or from Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport, the airport’s press service reports. ‘Avianova passengers with tickets for flights to be operated from Koltsovo International Airport are informed that, according to the air carrier’s official announcement, the airline stops operating any flights there from 2:01 AM on October 10, 2011 Yekaterinburg time,’ the airport reports.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 6, 2011. Ural Airlines’ first scheduled international flight bound for Vienna took off in Chelyabinsk, the airline’s press service reports. The solemn launch ceremony was carried out by First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Sergey Komyakov, Deputy Director-General of Ural Airlines Alexei Fomin, Chelyabinsk Airport Director-General Vladimir Reunov, and some representatives of the South-Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry, tour operators, and reporters. Passengers on this flight were offered some nice gifts at the check-in. The region, the air carrier, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. ‘If liabilities keep increasing in value, the cost of loans will keep rising as well. The way I feel it, banks will choose a different strategy. Rather than launching a drastic rise in interest rates, they will simply set limits on their loans. So, we are going to see a dramatic drop in the lending portfolio growth dynamics due to these limitations. There will also be a small increase in the interest rates, a very careful one, since the banks have learned from their past experience that this could lead to trouble,’ says MDM Bank’s Chairman Oleg Vyugin at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) had its premium threaded joint casings ТМК FMC inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit for Gazrpom Neft. The insertion operations were assisted by experts from TMK Premium Service. Inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit was a production casing of 276 TMK FMC casings produced by Taganrog Metallurgical Plant. This was the first time TMK Premium Service rendered such services to Gazprom Neft.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. VUZ-Bank recently introduced a new design for its bank cards, to be used on MasterCard Standard cards. The main theme of the new design is the fruit one. The new bank card, featuring oranges, complements the already existing plastic debit cards offered within the Life Classic range that feature nature themes like Fire, Green Leaves, and Raindrops and can be used as a universal legal tender as well as to take money out of ATMs, pay through online terminals, and make purchases over the phone and on the Internet.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region Railways (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) handled 92.7m tons of shipments in nine months of 2011, which was 3.4% more than in nine months of 2010. According to the data available, the company shipped 21.6m tons of oil (an 8.8% increase against last year), 9.5m tons of ferrous metal ore (a 7.1% increase against last year), 6m tons of non-ferrous metal ore (a 0.4% drop), 1.9m tons of cement (an increase of 10.4%), 15.7m tons of building materials (plus 6.5%), 1.1m tons of coke (an increase of 12.9%), 900,000 tons of stone coal (plus

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin signed a decree on setting up a non-profit organization called EXPO 2020 Application Committee. Now it was announced in early August that Yekaterinburg was chosen as the city that will compete with other world cities for the right to host the event. According to the decree adopted by the government, the organization will be in charge of preparing and coordinating all the events related to Yekaterinburg applying as a candidate for hosting the world exhibition and to submitting the application portfolio to the

Intercos-IV (a member of MMK Group) announced some personnel changes. Roman Gan was appointed the company’s CEO; he used to be employed as the plant manager at the car parts manufacturer Benteler Automotive and the midget car manufacturer Sollers Naberezhnye Chelny prior to this appointment. Former CEO and one of Intercos-IV founders Timur Shoshtayev is going to be Counselor to Mr. Gan. ‘These managerial changes fit within MMK Group’s strategy targeted at meeting the needs of the leading car manufacturers that form an auto cluster in Russia’s North-Western region. We are now reaching the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 4, 2011. ‘Russia has great intellectual resources, but its economy is 75% to 80% raw materials-based, which is not a good thing. The country needs alternative innovation projects for its economy to get upgraded,’ Bank Inteza’s BOD Chairman and Head of Inteza Sanpaolo Russian representation Antonio Fallico announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘The Urals are not undergoing the troubles that are as serious as in Greece. There is no unemployment, and you can afford a little more that is absolutely necessary. The currency war does exist, and it will go on.

UrBC, Moscow, October 4, 2011. Moscow Arbitration Court ruled in favor of the decision taken by Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service: the agency did not allow Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC) to take over Revda-based non-ferrous metal processing plant called RZOTzM, the Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information’s representative reports from the court room. UMMC asked the FAS to agree to the company buying 100% of Cyprus-based Shatravan Holdings Limited (the plant’s primary owner), but the agency rejected the application in October 2010, whereupon UMMC took the case to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 4, 2011. It has not been decided yet to what degree and in what ways Bank Inteza is going to join the projects involving the construction of a high-speed Moscow-Yekaterinburg railway link and of an orbital motorway around Yekaterinburg. The negotiations are currently at the budding stage, the bank’s BOD Chairman and Head of Inteza Sanpaolo Russian representation Antonio Fallico announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘There is also the financial aspect to consider, these projects are not about free resources, after all. We still make some money, even

UrBC, Moscow, October 3, 2011. The telecommunications provider MegaFon launched its Content Delivery Network that is currently unique to Russia. The network allows its users to access the global content resources, and one of its applications will consist in broadcasting the winter Sochi 2014 Olympics all over the world, MegaFon’s press service reports. The CDN unites servers located in big Russian cities into a single infrastructure, which makes it possible to speed up data download for end users, prevent holdups during data transfer and possible disconnections and data loss on busy channels,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 3, 2011. Alexander Zhugrin is no longer the director of Refinskaya Power Station (the asset of Enel OGK-5). The station will now be run by Oleg Kosmenyuk, former Director-General of Maikuben West (Kazakhmys Corporation, Kazakhstan). Oleg Kosmenyuk is forty-one years old and was born in Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region. He later studied and worked in Kazakhstan.