Kemerov Region division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) laid a claim against Evraz Group’s Evrazruda in order to make the company pay 1.14 billion RUR for dumping its industrial waste from Abagurskaya sintering plant’s tailings pond into bodies of water, RIA Novosti refers to the environmental agency as saying. The preliminary hearing of Kemerov Region Arbitration Court has been set for January 31. 2011. Experts from Kemerov Region division of Rosprirodnadzor carried out an unscheduled inspection of the plant in September 2010 after an emergency release of manufacturing

On February 14, 2011 Moscow Arbitration Court will decide whether OOO Capital Tour’s bankruptcy application is well grounded, RIA Novosti refers to a court functionary as saying to the Russian Agency of Legal and Court Information. Capital Tour’s debts run up to 1.3 billion RUR altogether, including 45 million RUR the company owes to Credit Bank of Moscow. The tour operator’s accounts were frozen by the bank on November 11, 2010. Five days later, the company announced it was having a hard time meeting its tour obligations. Over 8,000 customers happened to be abroad at the time Capital Tours

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on December 22, 2010 that ZAO Avtofrans will have to undergo bankruptcy proceedings, thus closing case А60-25406/10-C14, Kommersant reports under its Insolvency Announcements heading. Evgeny Legalov, a member of Self-Regulatory Organization of Central Federal District Trustees in Bankruptcy Non-Commercial Partnership, was chosen as the company’s trustee in bankruptcy. In fact, the company’s bankruptcy case has been in the court for over a year now. The first claim was laid by OOO UKS Invest; the plaintiff insisted that ZAO Avtofrans had to pay them

To make things even more convenient for its customers, OAO Ural Airlines launched more evening flights from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and back. The new flights will be operated on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. One can take advantage of the special prices offered on these flights: 5,200 RUR for a single trip. Tickets are available in Yekaterinburg booking offices. The airline currently operates up to seven flights from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and back every day. The density of the timetable allows for choosing the best departure time.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation placed an application with Moscow Arbitration Court, demanding that Moscow-based Russian-German Merchant Bank (RGT-BANK) be declared bankrupt, a court representative told Russian Agency of Legal and Court Information (RAPSI), RIA Novosti reports. The Bank of Russia called off the bank’s license allowing RGT Bank to engage in banking operations on December 21, 2010. RGT Bank was set up in 1994 by Ost-West Handelsbank AG (known as VTB Bank (Deutschland) since 2006), Russia’s Central Bank’s daughter enterprise. Six Russian companies dealing in foreign

The net profit of ZAO Globexbank declined by 171.795 million RUR, or 15.06% over a year. The organization’s profits reached 968.62 million RUR in the year 2010 against 1.14 billion RUR a year earlier. The bank explains the drop in its net profits by the need to set up some possible loan loss reserves; this need, in its turn, was brought about by the bank’s efforts aimed at creating a legal entities’ lending portfolio.

This holiday season’s most popular destinations were Egypt, Thailand, and Bali as usual. A sort of myth was formed as early as the fall that made people think very few tours would be available, so the trips were booked two to three months before New Year. The trips were quite expensive even then, but this did not stop the booming sales. By the way, the tour operators actually provided enough tours for the travelers, so one could easily book a trip two weeks before the start of the New Year break, and at a much better price,’ Director of Zima-Leto Travel Company Olga Gulyar told UrBC. ‘Now

Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin is going to be on a planned vacation for presumably about a fortnight starting January 17, 2011. First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Maksimov will be acting Head of Government during Anatoly Gredin’s vacation, the press service of the Governor reports.

Sverdlovsk Region Railways came up with a report on the renovation and development of local railway stations in the year 2010. The railway stations directorate signed a number of cooperation agreements with the governments of Perm Territory (in 2009) and Sverdlovsk Region (on September 2, 2010). In addition, an agreement is about to be signed with the government of Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region. The agreements concern renovation of the local railway stations. The Corporate Communications Department of Sverdlovsk Region Railways (Russian Railways’ daughter enterprise) reports that the

A new class of high-strength, ultra low-carbon micro-alloyed hot-dip-galvanised steel was launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently. The new steel is targeted at a wide consumer audience. The product, which was designed at MMK in cooperation with I.P. Bardin Central Scientific Research Institute of Ferrous Metals Federal State Unitary Enterprise, was given Metal Expo 2010 International Exhibition’s gold medal. ‘High-strength steel has both great strength and paste forming properties. A kind of steel is classified as being high-strength if its yield limit comes to 210 MPa

The value of OAO Bank Severnaya Kazna’s assets dropped by 36.75% in 2010, that is, from 20.41 billion RUR down to 12.91 billion RUR.

OAO Tsifrovoye Televideniye, controlled by its own stockholder, the Ministry for Public Property Management on behalf of Sverdlovsk Region Government, reports the company bought a 99% shareholding in OOO Tsifrovoye Televideniye, a digital TV operator. The news was announced in the course of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin’s meeting with the local war veterans. The point of the meeting was to discuss the preferential prices in 2011 for those digital TV users of the region who were offered the discounts earlier. OOO Tsifrovoye Televideniye renders its services to over 300,000

The world is to wave good-bye to one currency type on January 14, 2011: the Estonian kroon will cease to exist, substituted by the Euro that will now have to be used for any transactions in Estonia. The country actually switched to the euro on January 1, 2011, with two currencies circulating around the country for the following two weeks. But, even if you didn’t have the time to exchange your kroons for euros, there is no need to worry, the Bank of Estonia’s representatives claim: the kroons can still be exchanged without a commission in all of the country’s banks until the end of the year.

Noviy Urengoi public prosecution authorities for transportation inspected OAO Airport Salekhard for compliance with the existing securities legislation and detected a number of problems, Ural public prosecution authorities for transportation’s press officer reports. It was revealed that OAO Airport Salekhard violated the existing law on securities while administering its stockholders register. For one, the joint stock company keeps a customer account and a report form of the issuer and not the customer account and a report form of a registered individual. Then, the extract from the company’s

The cities of Russia that have been chosen to host the World Cup in 2018 have to be united into a single high-speed railway communication network, RIA Novosti quotes Head of Russian Federation Government Vladimir Putin as saying. ‘I believe we need to come up with an improved high-speed railways development program, make sure the facilities get launched sooner, and provide some new routes as well. This also means the cities which will host the world football championship in 2018 have to be united into a single network,’ Vladimir Putin said. The Prime Minister pointed out that high-speed

‘Judging by the energy consumption rate, we haven’t reached the pre-recession levels yet,’ MRSK Urala PR & GR Director Dmitri Tyuktin told UrBC. ‘According to our forecasts, if the current dynamics holds on, we’ll reach the target figures in two to three years. However, the number of companies applying for the hookup is ever growing. We received 15,300 applications in 2008, 16,400 applications in 2009, and over 20,000 applications last year. This is why we cannot say enterprises are not willing to invest in getting connected to the power infrastructure. One should also bear in mind that

14 January 2011. After detention in Cannes of Mars Sharafulin on the request of the Sverdlovsk region law enforcement authority and the French court refusal to extradite him, Russian side closed the case. The charges against the businessman were dismissed by the rehabilitating reasons.

An accident that was actually identical to yesterday’s tragedy occurred at Krasnaya Shapochka mine on December 23, 2010. The management of Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) claimed at the time that a rock mass movement was to blame, even though no such thing ever happened. Now they say the accident was caused by failing to observe safety rules during drilling operations, and they will certainly blame everything on the workers,’ says the message on SUBR Independent Trade Union of Russian Miners’ official website. Now the accident in question occurred at SUBR (UC RUSAL) Novo-Kalyinskaya mine in

A twenty-four-year-old worker was killed due to an accident at UC RUSAL’s Novo-Kalyinskaya mine. The Ministry of Emergencies reports a block of rock mass came off the mine surface, causing the misfortune. A response team from the Ministry of Emergencies’ Sverdlovsk Region division arrived at the scene of the accident to look into the matter. The mine keeps on operating as usual, with an ad hoc committee investigating the accident. It has preliminarily been reported that the accident was caused by non-compliance with the safety regulations during drilling operations.

OAO Bank24.ru has been texting its customers to advise them to beware of the swindlers; however, the bank representatives appear unable to explain why the need to warn their customers came up in the first place. For one, the bank asks the individuals not to react to messages that claim their bank cards have been blocked ‘Dear customers, In case you receive a text message telling you that your bank card has been blocked and you should call the number provided below, please do not call this number. This is a scam!’ OAO Bank24.ru’s message says.