Academic district of Yekaterinburg, one of Sverdlovsk Region’s top priority investment projects that is implemented with the support of Governor Alexander Misharin and the region’s government, has been visited by Caroline Wilson, Minister Counsellor (Economic and Trade Investment) of British Embassy, and the UK Consul-General in Yekaterinburg James McGuire The visitors had a look at the new apartment buildings in Quarter 2 and at the new security system and the public services infrastructure in the area. The diplomats also went to see the construction site of Quarter 5 that is to be

I’d like to point out the performance of Ural Airlines. This company’s management is extra-careful about ensuring the passengers’ safety, and there is a reason this carrier was called Russia’s best airline in terms of aviation fleet maintenance in 2009 by the European Commission,’ Urals’ public prosecutor for transportation Pavel Kukushkin said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. The prosecution authorities inspected a number of airlines recently, finding a great number of passenger safety violations in many of them as a result. ‘Ural Airlines employs true professionals, who look

A hung ceiling collapsed at NewYorker outlet of the second floor of MEGA Mall in Yekaterinburg at 12:45 PM today, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies reports. No one was hurt. NewYorker outlet was shut down; the causes of the accident are being investigated. Yekaterinburg MEGA Mall houses the hypermarkets IKEA, Auchan, and OBI.

Ural Airlines is now helping Russian tourists leave Egypt. The company is now only going to operate chartered flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Hurghada and back and from Domodedovo to Sharm El Sheikh and back to Domodedovo. Starting today, under the agreements with the customer of the flights, they will only be collecting tourists to get them home. No tourists are allowed to fly to Egypt. The earliest return flights will be operated on February 3, 5, and 6 from Sharm El Sheik and on February 6, 9, and 13 from Hurghada. The decision to call off Egypt-bound flights is valid for all

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a decree on the transfer of federally owned shares of OAO Koltsovo Airport to Sverdlovsk Region. The shareholding in question comprises 34.56% of the company’s shares that are to be handed over within the course of six months. The President’s official website states the decision was taken in order to enhance Sverdlovsk Region’s air transportation efficiency and to attract investments needed for the construction, full-scale reconstruction, and upgrade of the airport facilities. For one, the share transfer is supposed to attract at least 32 billion RUR

One of the world’s largest hypermarket chains dealing in household goods and remodeling appliances Castorama intends to set up a 10,000-square-meter hypermarket in Yekaterinburg at the end of 2011 or early in 2012. The construction on the site located in the north of Yekaterinburg next to METRO’s third extension will probably start within weeks, says Vice Mayor Viktor Konteev’s press officer Ilona Starodubtseva. Castorama actually first announced it was planning to arrive in Yekaterinburg about three years ago, but all this time it was finding the right location that was preventing the

A batch of Maustaja Oy-manufactured Kevyt majonessi X-tra mayonnaise containing fractions of glass was detected in Finland; the mayonnaise in question comes in 450-gram packs. 3,324 items with the expiry date July 3, 2011 and July 4, 2011 were delivered to Russia by the Finnish company Inex Partners Oy. Food stores and caterers dealing in or using mayonnaise foods in Yekaterinburg are to report the absence of Kevyt majonessi X-tra in their stock to Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) immediately. This means they also have to inform Rospotrebnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region

Linde Uraltechgaz underwent some changes in its shareholder structure recently. One BOD member Vladimir Samozdra, who used to own a 9.28% shareholding in the business, is no longer a stockholder. The same is true of Maria Kilimnik, whose shareholding used to amount to 12.71%. At the same time, Linde Aktiengesellschaft raised the number of Linde Uraltechgaz shares it owns to 71.99%. Uraltechgaz and Linde AG set up their joint venture in 2007.

Alfa-Bank will soon go through a reorganization in the form of a merger with Bank Severnaya Kazna. It was decided at the BOD meeting today that the issue would be considered at Alfa-Bank’s extraordinary general meeting. The EGM has been scheduled for March 22, 2011. The shareholders will also have to discuss the ways of informing creditors and the Bank of Russia about the upcoming reorganization and to make changes in the company’s Charter. The Board of Directors decided that the bank’s ordinary shares can be bought out at 1,112 RUR apiece.

Transaero Airlines stopped selling any tickets for Egypt-bound flights, the company’s GD Olga Pleshakova told Russia 24, a TV channel. The General Director explained that tickets for Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh flights became unavailable as early as Sunday, January 30, 2011, ITAR-TASS reports. ‘From legal viewpoint, a carrier cannot refuse a passenger who shows up at a check-in counter with a ticket in their hands, since no official evacuation of Russian citizens was announced and Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh airports have been operating as usual. The number of passengers willing to go

The software piracy rates recorded in Ural Federal District are much lower than Russia’s average figures, Microsoft’s monitoring findings reveal. About 20% out of 3,229 retail outlets inspected in ninety-four Russian cities are offering their customers unlicensed software in one form or another; pirated software was also found preinstalled in 11% sales outlets. As far as Ural Federal District goes, the piracy rates dropped considerably against last fall’s monitoring results and are still lower than Russia’s average figures. 15% of the Urals-based computer stores are offering or recommending

RusRating is calling off the credit rating of BNP Paribas Vostok (A-, with Stable rating outlook), the agency’s website reports. The reason stated for calling off the rating is that the existing agreement between the agency and the bank has expired.

Yekaterinburg Customs transferred 12.9 billion RUR to the Russian budget in 2010, which was 1.1 billion RUR greater than in the year 2009. The turnover of goods within the Customs area went up by 22.2%; the freight turnover rose by 8.2%, with 11.5% more of cargo manifests processed by the customs officials. In addition, the number of agents involved in foreign economic activity increased by 5% and reached 1,814 legal entities, Ural Customs Administration’s press officer reports. Now with the lifting of border restrictions between Russia and Kazakhstan the foreign trade turnover went down by

Dexter has cancelled its flights’ arrival at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport yet again. For one, the airline called off flight 9612 from Perm that was to have arrived at 8:20 AM. Flight 9628 from Tyumen is also delayed; the arrival time was originally set for noon. What is more, flight 9627 to Tyumen, with the original departure time set for 9:35 AM, was called off. The air carrier cancelled a few flights at the end of 2010. Koltsovo Airport then explained the flights had been called off due to lack of passengers.

CIT Finance Investment Bank is withdrawing from the Russian provinces at the moment. It has been decided by the company’s BOD that the bank’s offices will be closed throughout the first quarter of 2011 in the cities of Belgorod, Chelyabinsk, Izhevsk, Kaliningrad, Kirov, Krasnodar, Magnitogorsk, Omsk, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Taganrog, Tver, Tyumen, and Volgograd. In the end, representations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg apart, CIT Finance will run outlets in seven more cities: Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, and Surgut.

The American company Guess that cancelled its cooperation agreement with the Russian distributor LVB (part of JamilCo) last year is now planning to introduce its own retail stores in Russia in a speedy way. It has been reported to Vedomosti that Guess intends to launch ten stores in major shopping malls in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan this year. The new stores will be opened by the company’s Russian representation LLC SuperStar under a variety of brands: Guess Jeans, Guess by Marciano, Guess Accessories, Guess Footwear, and Guess Kids. Guess worked with

Quite a few travel agents have decided by now that their tourists will go to Egypt in accordance with the schedule. Meanwhile, the tourists are split into three groups: the first group is going ahead with their plans; the second one won’t go and is now entitled to a full refund; the last one is trading these tours in for some other destinations like Thailand of the UAE with a bit of extra money to pay,’ Director of Inna-Tour Inna Averyanova told UrBC. In the meantime, Russia’s Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policies and Rostourism announced that selling tours to Egypt under current

Avianova won’t be operating any flights from Saint Petersburg to Yekaterinburg between March 8, 2011 and October 30, 2011, Interfax reports. It was earlier announced on the carrier’s website that Avianova gave up on the idea of making Saint Petersburg-based Pulkovo Airport its second HQ since the airport was unable to offer the airline the financial terms that would be appealing enough. This is why, Avianova reports, the company had to reconsider its plans relating to keeping its current flights to Saint Petersburg or introducing some new ones.

‘We are currently considering expanding our MEGA store in Yekaterinburg, but no final decisions have been made yet. This is why it’s too early just now to speak of specific deadlines or plans,’ CEO MEGA Yekaterinburg Lilia Nenasheva told UrBC. Now the company’s expansion plans were announced by Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev last week. ‘They are now looking into the technical options available. The extension is supposed to be built within the next two to three years,’ the official said. MEGA currently hosts IKEA, OBI, and Auchan.

Ural Airlines started offering its customers tickets for summertime flights recently. On February 1-28, 2011, one can enjoy a discount on tickets to all the destinations in the South of Russia as well as tickets for international scheduled flights to be operated between May 1, 2011 and September 30. 2011. Those who prefer to spend their summer vacations abroad will find Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and China particularly appealing.