Bank Koltso Urala opened its 50th Russia-based office recently. This outlet is located in Orsk, Orenburg Region and is now the bank’s sixth office in this region. The new outlet is situated near an amusement park at 22 Lenin St and offers Orsk dwellers consumer loans, deposit schemes, bank cards, money order services or other kinds of payments, and exchange of currency. Legal entities can also have a settlement account opened there, enjoy the benefits of loans to businesses and sole traders, and use the appealing deposit offers as well as many other banking services. We are glad that it is in

Sverdlovsk Region’s retail chain stores agreed to comply with the request of Governor Alexander Misharin regarding the sale of certain food items at low prices to cater for the needs of the economically vulnerable citizens, heads of the chain stores and the food processing enterprises informed the regional Minister for Trade, Food, & Services in the course of a recent meeting, the Governor’s press office reports. Very soon, large retail companies will be offering Gubernatorsky bread, sausages, and other food items at special prices. Both the food manufacturers and the retailers join the

Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry admits that it is impossible at the moment to simplify the existing visa regimes for Russia and Great Britain, the Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. According to the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, the current British visa requirements, including extended waiting periods, are a source of numerous problems for tourists. However, there is no reason to hope things can change any time soon. ‘Britain is not prepared to sign any simplified visa regime agreements with Russia just now,’ Lavrov announced via his account at Twitter.com. In

This year’s millionth passenger traveled on board Ural Airlines’ plane today. The company keeps welcoming its special passenger increasingly earlier each year: in 2010, the millionth passenger traveled with Ural Airlines in August. This has to do with the fact that Ural Airlines’ passenger turnover rose by 20%, so this year we expect it to exceed two million people for the first time in our history,’ the airline’s press service reports. This year’s millionth passenger was Tatiana Berdyugina, who went on vacation to Sochi with her kids Juliana and Yaroslav. The company presented her with Wings

The customs of the Ural Customs Administration area transferred 15.346bn RUR to the federal budget in the second quarter of 2011, which was nearly 4.5bn more than in the first quarter of the year, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. All in all, the local customs handed over 26.227bn RUR to the state treasury in the first half of 2011. The money coming in from the imported goods duties amounted to 22.533bn RUR, whereas the money coming in from the export duties reached 3.13bn RUR.

Sverdlovsk Region is currently one of Russia’s fastest-growing regions in terms of agricultural produce. The agricultural output growth index comes to 109.9, thus making the region Russia’s 6th fastest-developing constituency in this respect, the Ministry for Economic Development’s online report on the economic, financial, banking, and social situation in the Russian federal constituencies in January-May 2011 says. Among the country’s top five most agriculturally successful regions are Chukotka Autonomous District, Novgorod Region, Novosibirsk Region, Tver Region, and Voronezh Region. As it

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development celebrates its SME lending program’s sixth anniversary this year. All this time, the terms of the program have been getting better to meet the market requirements. The program also keeps developing alongside the customers’ businesses, so some new loan offers and special bonus solutions have been created. The program now comprises a wide range of loan schemes aimed to meet the small and medium enterprises’ various needs. Loans are available in most Russian regions where the UBRD runs its offices, that is, in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions,

Otkrytiye, a brokerage business, presented its totally new, know-how, classic fundamental trust management strategy called China’s Shares to the Russian qualified investors. This is a unique product that has no counterparts on the Russian market at the moment, Otkrytiye’s press service reports. The new strategy presupposes investing the money in the shares of Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (one of the world’s top ten bourses in terms of capitalization). The currency used in this portfolio is the Hong Kong dollar, a hard currency traded at 7.75 to 7.8 to one U.S.

Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Capital Construction & Land Use Vladimir Kritsky chaired a meeting on the road construction in Yekaterinburg in 2011, the spokesperson for the city council reports. The most important project under discussion was the junction next to Moskovskaya Gorka, which was started in 2010. This year, the junction is expected to be fully completed and launched alongside two driveways. One of the driveways is meant for the drivers to go down from Moskovskaya St to Posadskaya St and the other one is meant for the drivers to go up the highway from Bolshakov St.

An interregional session of Russia’s industry ministers will be held in Yekaterinburg during the international industrial innovations exhibition INNOPROM 2011 on July 14-15, 2011. The idea was proposed by Sverdlovsk Region Vice Premier and Minister for Industry & Science Alexander Petrov and Tatarstan Minister for Industry & Trade Ravil Zaripov, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s press service reports. The ministers intend to consider their regions’ industrial cooperation potential and to visit the region’s flagship enterprises in Yekaterinburg, Pervouralsk, and Nizhniy Tagil. Russia’s

Sverdlovsk Region’s Public Prosecutor Yu. A. Ponomarev is now personally monitoring the situation in Sagra, a village in the vicinity of Verknyaya Pyshma, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office reports. A large-scale ethnic disturbance occurred in the village next to Yekaterinburg on July 1, 2011. One twenty-eight-year-old Yekaterinburg resident was killed. About thirty people, most of them of Azerbaijan origin, took part in the clash. They were armed with knives, sticks, chains and firearms. The conflict was caused by serious difficulties between the villagers and a gypsy family of

The Turkish Cabinet decided to let Russian citizens stay in their country without a visa for up to sixty days rather than just thirty days permitted before. This decision will be valid through December 31, 2011, Turkish Airlines reports. Meanwhile, an agreement on cancelling visa requirements was signed by Russia and Turkey on April 17, 2011, which meant that Russians coming to Turkey could stay there without a visa for up to thirty days. Those who intended to stay longer had to get a visa or a temporary residence permit, which meant having to produce a lot of papers and waiting for a long

The world oil prices went up considerably at the close of business yesterday. At London-based ICE, for example, the August futures involving Brent (a North Sea oil mixture) rose by $2.22 and reached $113.61 per barrel. The price of a barrel of Light Sweet increased by $1.95 and remained just a little short of $100, at $98.89. Analysts believe the oil prices climbed because investors feel more optimistic about the U.S. further economic development, as the country’s industrial orders index jumped recently. Besides, now that the Eurozone is struggling with Greece’s debt problems and Portugal’s

On July 4, 2011, the court put off the hearing of the claim laid by a number of Yekaterinburg dwellers against Aeroflot till July 14, 2012, one of the plaintiffs Dmitri Yelkin reports. The citizens insist that the airline compensate them for a cancelled flight. The havoc at Moscow’s airports shortly before New Year had to do with anomalous weather conditions in the area. The airports were forced to delay and call off flights, and passengers were stranded on the airport premises for days, waiting for their flights to take off. Aeroflot cancelled over two hundred flights over those few days.

Academic, Yekaterinburg’s newest district, needs to have its Krasnolesye St reconstructed in the area of Amundsen St and Chkalov St. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Urban Development, Transportation & Environment Evgeny Lipovitch visited the district to look into the situation in the field, the city council’s press service reports. It is reported that the length of the road under construction is 1.89 km. Before the reconstruction began, Krasnolesye was a two-way street with only one lane in each direction. Now the city council officials decided to widen the road and build three

Ural Airlines Planning Department experts have already calculated that the company’s passenger turnover will exceed one million people on July 7, 2011, the air carrier’s press service reports. The lucky passenger is supposed to check in for the Yekaterinburg-Sochi flight (departure time 12:55 PM) or the Yekaterinburg-Anapa one (departure time 12:30 PM). All the passengers on this flight will be treated to a performance, and children will be given nice presents. So far, the airline’s performance indicators for 2011 are over 30% better than those for the first half of 2010, which is the reason

Following the order of Russia’s Prosecutor-General, Counselor of Justice Dmitri Chulichkov was appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region, the spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office reports. Dmitri Chulichkov graduated from Ural State Academy of Law and started work as an investigation officer in Yekaterinburg Chkalovsky district prosecutor’s office in 1998. Following this, he was senior investigation officer in Yekaterinburg Chkalovsky district prosecutor’s office, senior investigation officer in Yekaterinburg prosecutor’s office, and Deputy Prosecutor of Verkhnyaya Pyshma. In

This year’s rainy summer is yet another reminder of the fact that it is necessary to do some reclamation work at the old solid consumption waste landfill in Karabash, Sverdlovsk Region, Russian Copper Company says. The landfill was sealed in 2010. The first section of the new solid consumption waste landfill was opened in Karabash last year in order to help solve the town’s numerous environmental problems. The new landfill facility meets all the modern environmental standards and is fitted with the necessary machinery. Even the first section of this ‘green construction’ should be enough to

The Eurogroup (that is, the euro zone) finance ministers approved of the plan to offer Greece a ?12bn tranche before July 15, 2011; this is part of a EU and IMF loan worth a total of ?110bn that the parties involved agreed upon last year. Analysts report the fifth loan trance became possible after Greece’s parliament adopted the anti-crisis economic action plan on June 29. Bank Koltso Urala Project & Analysis Director Dmitri Suplakov says any allowances offered to Greece at the moment can only serve as a temporary stopgap to relieve the country’s sick economy. The current situation is so

France is willing to settle the question of visas for the Russian subjects before the end of the year and to start offering them long-term visas, France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppé announced at a press conference where he spoke alongside his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, RIA Novosti reports. During our talks, I voiced France’s wish to settle the visa issue as soon as possible. We confirmed our willingness to give up on the short-term visas, and I believe the process can be completed by the end of this year,’ M. Juppé said.