The advertising campaign launched by a housing block Rodina (which stands for ‘Motherland’) in Yekaterinburg has shocked both the local citizens and the more conservative admen. Protest petitions asking for an investigation and the punishment of the culprits have already been placed with Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service. Apparently, the painful fines for the ad agency’s creative product will have to be paid by its partners. The ad campaign in question included introducing a series of billboards around the city that read, ‘We sell our motherland and pay for

ZAO RusLine Airlines called off two flights bound for Yekaterinburg – flight RG 4416 from Samara and flight RG 824 from Kiev, Yekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport’s interactive announcement board says. The plane from Kiev was to have landed in Yekaterinburg at 9:30 PM local time on November 10, 2010, the one from Samara was to have arrived at 2:40 PM. In fact, Samara-Yekaterinburg flight had already been delayed by over fourteen hours before. Today, RusLine delayed as many as three flights at once: the ones from Noviy Urengoy, Samara, and Mineralniye Vody. The air carrier’s Yekaterinburg office

‘The way we see it, putting up another premium class hotel in Yekaterinburg is a mere brand race. Yekaterinburg actually has more four-star hotels per head (of a local citizen) than any other Russian city, whereas the demand forecasts are not as rosy as we’d like. It’s simply impractical to put up another big hotel just in order to host guests during once-a-year international event like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit last summer. Moreover, such a hotel is obviously unnecessary downtown where as many as seven high-class hotels are already located, including the international

‘The guests of Yekaterinburg hotels are largely people on business trips, who mostly choose a room on the basis of location and price. So, a hotel which is located in the business part of the city, is close to most transport links, and offers its rooms at a popular market price can definitely expect to have plenty of rooms taken. Now Radisson SAS is a hotel with a lot of rooms, great service, and above-the-average market price. It will therefore be very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to find people willing to pay a double or triple price for a room when a much cheaper hotel is

Russia’s Federal Financial Market Service decided that the bond issue of OOO UTair Finance (Khanty-Mansiysk, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region) should be halted. The securities in question are series 04 interest-bearing certificated inconvertible pay-to-bearer bonds; the series public registration number is 4-04-36059-R as of May 27, 2008.

OAO Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank recently got a new shareholder Karolton Associates Limited. The company now co-owns 11.33% of the bank’s shares. A little while earlier, OAO Nomos-Bank reported it had acquired a 19.98% shareholding in the bank. Nomos-Bank actually bought 100% of OOO IST Capital that owns 19.98% of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank’s shares. IST Capital is a member of Alexander Nesis’s IST Group, Nesis being one of Nomos-Bank’s major stockholders, the bank’s press officer explained. The acquisition of IST Capital was part of OAO Nomos-Bank shareholders’ bank assets consolidation campaign, the

‘There is no real need to put up another premium class hotel in Yekaterinburg. The city is still experiencing a shortage of inexpensive two-star establishments, while the five-star hotels are forced to take up the niche of the four-star ones and reduce their prices. A high-class hotel will still enjoy some demand in one way or another, that’s true, but it will lure away the other hotels’ clients, since not many more tourists are coming to Yekaterinburg now than before,’ the Voznesenzkiy Hotel’s Advertising & Marketing Manager Evgeniya Isachenko told UrBC. Nevertheless, the construction of

Sverdlovsk Region is going to consider buying some crops in Armenia and Ukraine, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin announced at a recent government meeting on the region’s grain and flour supply and delivery. The region’s Deputy Minister for Agriculture Vladimir Grebnev informed the attendees that about 260,000 tons of grain or 200,000 tons of flour were required by the mid-Urals’ bread-making industry every year. ‘Our region can only provide for 10% of its own grain needs and depends directly on the pricing policies of the suppliers from the other Russian regions. We import

The Skolkovo Foundation produced an official statement on the new appointments in the business. It was confirmed that Mikhail Moshiashvili of Rostechnologii had been appointed the foundation’s CEO, while Viktor Maslakov, the General Director of ZAO Renova-StroyGroup, would become the city manager of Skolkovo. Finally, Renova’s HR Director Oleg Alekseev was appointed head of Research & Education Division. Viktor Maslakov originally comes from Yekaterinburg. He held positions in Sverdlovsk Region’s government bodies and was the region’s Deputy Minister for Economics & Labor, Deputy

Subway, the world’s largest franchise network of fast food restaurants, expects to be running 1,000 outlets in Russia by 2015. Subway’s general franchisee in Russia Subway Russia LLC is planning to extend its restaurant network to 160 units by the end of this year. The news was announced by Subway Russia LLC Vice President for Business Development Gennady Kochetkov at the 2nd ShopAndMall.Ru conference on retail franchising. ‘Fast food enterprises, especially the ones that are franchise-based, are the kind of business whose sales volumes tend to be only slightly affected by economic

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin met the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to Russia Ulugbek Chinaliyev. The Governor said in his greeting address to the ambassador that he hoped the official’s visit to the Russian regions would be a successful one and would signify a new step in the development of Russia and Kyrgyzstan’s long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation. Now the Republic of Kyrgyzstan is Sverdlovsk Region’s 22nd most important foreign trade partner and its 7th most important among the CIS member states. Besides, the two

One of the victims of a recent explosion at Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) has passed away. The unfortunate man was a thirty-nine-year-old foreman about 70% of whose body had been covered in burns. The fire-causing explosion occurred on the premises of Evraz Holding’s NTMK by-product coke division on November 2, 2010. The explosion at the coal preparation shop’s breaking plant block left five workers burned and injured; four of them were taken to Nizhniy Tagil Municipal Hospital 4. Police officers from Tagilstroyevskiy investigative department of Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region,

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on October 26, 2010 that ZAO Avto Land is an insolvent debtor, thus closing case А60-22892/2010-С11. The automobile dealer will now have to undergo six-month bankruptcy proceedings, Kommersant states under the Insolvency Reports heading. Vladimir Sivoplyasov, a member of Ural Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy, has been chosen as Avto Land’s trustee in bankruptcy.

‘The problem with the plane which operated Dubai-Yekaterinburg flight was caused by the poor condition of the landing strip,’ Ural Airlines’ press service reports. An A321 operating flight 739 Dubai-Yekaterinburg ran an extra thirty meters off the runway while trying to land at 4:25 AM on November 6, 2010. The runway was covered in ice, an ad hoc investigative committee confirmed. ‘The crew members were told during the landing that the strip was in great condition and it was possible to make a safe landing,’ the airline points out. 143 passengers and eight crew members were aboard the plane

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is going to keep on investigating the case of OAO Uralsvyazinform, which is suspected of violating the existing antimonopoly agreement. It has been alleged that the telecommunications provider violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 1) of the Competition Protection Act in that it stopped rendering traffic access services to ZAO Komstar-Regiony for no good economic or technological reason. Komstar was thus unable to use the local area connection or the local area code resources within the existing geographically determined

The management of OAO Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) presented their sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Andreas Anzinger, who passed away on November 2. The employee of the Austrian Siemens VAI felt the critical symptoms at NTMK’s converter shop where Siemens VAI experts are taking part in the reconstruction of converter No. 4.

‘I believe the development of our business will do a lot of good to the town,’ General Director of ZAO Karabashmed and Kyshtym copper electrolysis plant Alexei Golov told UrBC. ‘Last year, the Russian Government adopted a special plan to support the towns with only one primary employer. So the officials from various Russian ministries and bank representatives came to Karabash, and our plant was the first place they visited. They asked questions about the business’s potential and job opportunities. They wanted to get this information because the production can really develop and go further,’

Yekaterinburg Customs will institute criminal proceedings against OOO U. that was allegedly using Louis Vuitton Malletier and Christian Dior Couture trademarks illegitimately. The charges are based on Article 180 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, the Ural Customs Administration’s press service reports. In fact, OOO U. was already involved in an administrative offense suit in October 2010, with charges based on Article 14.10 of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code. The importer was accused of abusing Mercedes-Benz trademark while trying to get 1,083 pairs of jeans across

Technosila, a white goods and consumer electronics chain store, was bought by Mikhail Kokorich, the General Director of Ilim Timber Industry and the co-owner of PlanetaStroy and Uyuttera, two DIY chains. The businessman acquired the controlling shareholdings in OOO ServiceTrade and OOO BusinessPro, the companies that kept running Technosila stores after its former operating companies went bankrupt, Kommersant quotes the online source Retailer.ru as reporting. ‘The strategic and operational management and development is now performed by me and a group of experienced retailers and managers,’

Flight NWS-2421 of Nordwind Airlines to Bangkok has been delayed in Yekaterinburg, the interactive announcement board of Koltsovo Airport states. The plane, which was supposed to have taken off at 11:30 PM local time today, will only start operating the flight at 2:30 AM on November 4, 2010. It has been reported that the delay was caused by the aircraft arriving at the airport late.