Yekaterinburg managed to get through the recession as the unemployment rates nearly halved last year, Chair of Yekaterinburg Council Strategic Planning Committee Marina Andrus says. ‘We had 16,743 officially unemployed in December 2009, whereas a year later, the number dropped down to 8,738,’ Ms Andrus explains.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin signed a decree on coordinating the 7th International Defence Expo event in Nizhniy Tagil. An ad hoc committee responsible for the organization of the ammunition, arms, and military equipment fair will be soon set up by Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry Vladimir Khristenko’s order. The Governor’s decree also dwells upon a proposal for Nizhniy Tagil Metal Testing Institute: the organization is invited to design a promising upgrades plan for the local State Arms & Military Equipment Exhibition Center that will host the fair. ‘Both the

Over twenty complaints have been placed by Russian citizens with Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog): customers complain about the flight delays in Moscow’s airports in December 2010; most claims are actually laid against Transaero, Rospotrebnadzor’s press service reports. Twenty-one complaints were submitted between December 25, 2010 and January 11, 2011, including eighteen claims against Transaero Airlines, one claim against Siberia Airlines, and one claim against Orenburg Airlines. Some of the complaints have to do with the consumers’ infringed rights. For one, some

Yekaterinburg-Bangkok flight by Norwind Airlines has been delayed by almost twenty hours. According to Koltsovo Airport’s interactive announcement board, flight 2422 by Norwind Airlines was supposed to have arrived in Yekaterinburg at midnight today. However, the arrival time is now rescheduled to 7:30 PM.

Capital Tour is about to start bankruptcy proceedings. Moscow Arbitration Court reports that the tour operator applied for bankruptcy in the capacity of both the debtor and the creditor. The date for the court hearing of the case has not been announced yet, the online portal TourBusiness reports. According to the Russian Tourist Industry Union, seventeen claims have been placed against the company since November 22, 2010 by both companies and private individuals. Travel agents make up the better part of the plaintiffs, with money claims ranging from 28,000 RUR to 8,000,000 RUR and totaling to

Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt magazine came up with the results on the survey targeted at selecting the best ferrous and non-ferrous metals manufacturers and traders in the second half of 2010. The rating is compiled on the basis of the questionnaires filled in by the customers, the market experts’ responses, and a complex analysis of the companies’ activity. As for the criteria, what the magazine took into account was the business development dynamics, delivery volumes, the quality of services rendered, the quality of produce, and the ability to meet one’s contractual obligations under a

The top management of Aeroflot Airlines will have to make do without the bonuses they had expected to receive for the last quarter of 2010 because of the mess Moscow’s airport found themselves in at the end of December, Prime TASS reports. ‘We were faced with an abnormal weather phenomenon, the so-called ice rain that turned airplanes into icicles: the aircraft bodies were covered in five-centimeter-thick ice sheets in certain places,’ says the carrier’s General Director Vitaly Savelyev. Savelyev explains they had to spend a month’s stock of chemical reagents in just three days, between

The World Wildlife Foundation presented its regional forest administration rating to the public recently. The research was carried out with the help of the National Rating Agency. The fund looked into the quality of forest management, forest use coordination, the efficiency of law enforcement mechanisms in the field, quality of forest resources, the forests’ growth power, and the economic efficiency and environmental sustainability of and public contribution to forest administration. The rating was also officially supported by Rosleskhoz, Rossiyskiye Lesniye Vesti reports. Murmansk,

The Bank of Russia applied to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court in order to make sure OAO Uralfinprombank is declared bankrupt. The court hearing has been scheduled for February 2, 2011. The bank’s license was actually revoked on December 20, 2010. Russia’s Central Bank reported the bank lost its own funds as it had no securities to account for and failed to meet its creditor obligations in due time. OAO Uralfinprombank was a member of Finpromco Group controlled by a businessman and a House of Representatives deputy Anatoly Pavlov. Once the group’s assets had to be divided, the bank was

Ural Public Prosecution Authorities for Transportation completed their checks aimed at whether the implementation of the national target-oriented programs in the field of aviation met the legal requirements. The programs were oriented at civil aviation development and enhancing the flight and aviation safety within the Ural division of the Federal Air Transport Agency’s jurisdiction. Some instances of non-compliance with the existing legislation were revealed in the course of the checks. It was detected that the division’s officials allowed for some violations of the requirements set for the

The international rating agency first affirmed OAO Khanty-Mansiysky Bank’s long-term B+ and short-term B credit ratings and then called them off upon the bank’s request. All of the organization’s liability ratings were recalled as well. ‘The affirmation of OAO Khanty-Mansiysky Bank’s ratings shows that Russia’s operating environment is still complicated and that the prospects of the bank’s upcoming going private are still uncertain. The bank’s strong ties with the administration of Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, its good financial performance, improved liquidity, and the asset quality

Flights keep getting canceled at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport; flights to Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg, and London were called off among others, Echo Moskvy, a radio station reports. Meanwhile, General Director of Aeroflot Vitaly Savelyev promised to reporters the other day that no more flights would be called off.

Officers from Severouralsk Investigative Department of Sverdlovsk Region’s Investigative Administration are now carrying out a preliminary inquiry into the fatal accident at UC RUSAL Krasnaya Shapochka mine. The body of the victim, a mine worker, will be subject to a medico-legal investigation in order to detect the time and cause of death. The police are also collecting eye witness evidence as well as looking into documents, employee and management manuals, work sheets, and safety drill records. A twenty-two-year-old breakage face mine worker was killed by a rock fall in one of UC RUSAL

Following the order of Russia’s General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika, Moscow-based Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo Airports keep getting inspected for compliance with the air carriage and passenger service legislation. The officials from Moscow Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) are taking part in the checks. Rospotrebnadzor’s press officer reports numerous passenger rights violations have already been detected at Domodedovo Airport; it has been reported that the responsibility for these violations rests with Transaero, Siberia, VIM-Avia, Orenburg Airlines, and

Surgut’s public prosecution authorities for transportation checked OOO SKOL Airlines for compliance with the existing aviation safety legislation. It was detected in the course of the inspection that the company had actually violated the laws in question, the press service of Ural Public Prosecutor for Transportation’s Office reports. The airline is reported to perform all of its air safety activities without a license and make 2.2 million RUR worth of profits out of this; such activity violates the requirements of Russia’s Air Code. According to the prosecution authorities’ files, the

FINAM Investment Company recommends buying OAO Uralelectromed’s common stock, with the target price estimated at $124 apiece by the end of 2011. The company’s analysts believe the enterprise’s production facilities expansion plans and its increasing profitability will make Uralelectromed’s share price go up. ‘The company intends to launch its new copper electrolysis shop next year, which will upgrade its production capacity by nearly 40%. So, when it raises its annual copper output to 500,000 tons (which constitutes about 3% of the global consumption), Uralelectromed will become Russia’s

OAO Ural Civil Aviation Plant has been placed on the list of companies that owe over 1 million RUR to the Russian Federation budget as of December 15, 2010. The news was announced by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

Flights keep getting delayed at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport. About fifteen flights will arrive in Yekaterinburg late today. For one, four Nordavia-Regional Airlines flights from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport (733, 734, 743, and 744) are already four hours late. Aeroflot’s Moscow flights are also delayed. Flights 2095 and 2053 from Sheremetyevo have been delayed due to technical problems. This means that flights 2096 and 2054 from Koltsovo (Yekaterinburg) to Sheremetyevo (Moscow) have been delayed as well. Transaero flight 119 Moscow-Yekaterinburg has been delayed by eighteen hours.

The cost of building a high-speed railway connecting Yekaterinburg and Moscow might rise to 3.5 trillion RUR, head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Vladimir Suprun announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘High-Speed Railways, one of Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ daughter enterprises is currently working on this project. Under this project, the railway is supposed to be designed and built with the company’s own funds and will be operated until it pays off, with some federal budget support,’ Suprun said. ‘An ad hoc work team was set up only today, so everything is at its preliminary stage

Russian Railways Public Company can only provide 30% of the total cost of building a high-speed railway between Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Tagil and only 3% of the total cost of building a Yekaterinburg-Chelyabinsk Railway to make sure they can break even, head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Vladimir Suprun announced at the end-of-year press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our final aim is to make sure trains can go at 160 kilometers an hour, which will mean that one can get to Chelyabinsk in three hours and to Nizhniy Tagil in 1.5 hours. It has been preliminarily estimated that putting up