Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court ruled on September 23, 2010 that OOO Glavsreduralstroy Management Company based in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region, must undergo bankruptcy proceedings, thus closing case А60-3933/2010-С11. Tatiana Shulyakova, a member of Delo Self-Regulatory Organization of Independent Trustees in Bankruptcy Non-Commercial Partnership was chosen as the company’s trustee in bankruptcy. Creditors can place their claims until November 9, 2010.

‘The Ural tour operators no longer view Egypt as one of the most affordable and popular tourist destinations. Not a lot of tours will be offered in the winter of 2010/2011, since all the major airlines will be operating fewer flights to this place. It has been announced that about fourteen flights a week will be available altogether, but no cheap trips are to be expected,’ says Director of Zima-Leto Group Olga Gulyar. ‘Egypt and Turkey have been extremely popular over the last two years because of the recession: these are the most affordable vacations abroad. Now things are different: plenty

‘Natural risks call for a reconsideration of our priorities: we now have to make a stake at livestock farming, so next year, we’ll double the state subsidies for this kind of farmers. They will receive 1 billion RUR,’ Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch said in his report at an inter-regional agro-industrial fair in Kurgan, Kurgan Region. The Governor explained 85 million RUR would be directed to stock development, 567 million RUR would be used to subsidize the milk and meat production, and 300 million RUR will compensate the expenses related to farm construction and upgrades and

UrBC, Moscow, October 14, 2010. The global gold prices have soared again and set yet another record of $1,370 per ounce at the close of business today; this has become the 16th record-setting figure in the last five weeks, the trading reports say. For one, December’s gold futures went up by 1.8% (namely, up to $1,370.5 per troy ounce) at Comex exchange in New York by the end of Wednesday, RIA Novosti reports.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly’s two chambers elected their representative in Russia’s Soviet of the Federation at a joint meeting today. As a matter of fact, the seat has been vacant for eighteen months now after former representative Yuri Osintsev left for the Russian Federation Ministry of Regional Development. Today, the Legislative Assembly deputies decided that Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy should get the position. The results of the secret voting were the following: twenty-one Sverdlovsk Region Duma deputies voted in favor of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2010. Yekaterinburg’s second hand shops are as popular as ever; since the start of the recession, the number of their customers has gone up by 30% to 45% and is not going down for the time being, Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg’s Viktor Konteev’s press officer Ilona Starodubtseva reports. A recent marketing research has shown that 67% of Yekaterinburg residents visited second hand shops at least once, and about 50% took their unwanted clothes there. Besides, over 55% out of 1,500 respondents commented on the need for the second hand trade to expand. Clothes and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2010. The dispatcher of Severouralsk-based Krasnaya Shapochka mine reported at 2:40 PM on October 13, 2010 that a rock burst occurred at the mine. The rock outburst left one twenty-three-year-old mine worker injured; the victim of the accident, suffering from a brain concussion and a contusion of the right hip, was taken to Severouralsk municipal hospital and is now feeling better. The mine keeps operating as usual, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies reports.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. The net profit of OAO Uralfinprombank decreased by 15.483 million RUR, or 77% in the third quarter of 2010, namely, from 20.046 million RUR in the second quarter of the year down to 4.563 million RUR in the third quarter. The bank explains this drop in profits had to do with the need to build up on the possible bad debt reserves.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. OAO Ural Airlines is still intent upon expanding its operation network and will soon introduce scheduled flights from Yekaterinburg to Sanya, Istanbul, Salzburg, Paris, Munich, and Vienna. All in all, the air carrier’s planes operated 1,680 flights in September 2010, which exceeded the number of flights operated in September 2009 by 115.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. Finninno, a Finnish concern, suggested delivering the sets of equipment needed to manufacture elevator shafts to Betfor concrete goods plant (the asset of LSR Group). The proposal was made by Jarmo Huotari, and independent consultant, to LSR Group Ural branch’s Managing Director Andrei Bibikov in the course of the recent talks in Yekaterinburg. The technological line in question will make it possible for the plant to produce a dozen shafts a day, which is two times more productive than the plant’s current capacity. ‘The production process is as automated

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. Alatyr and Gringo shopping malls based in Yekaterinburg won most of the votes in the interactive project dubbed Vote for Demolition. Alatyr is supposed to be pulled down since it makes the downtown look ugly, the coordinators of the First Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art say. Now the biennale closed up last weekend, and Vote for Demolition, devised and implemented by a Mexican artist Gustavo Artigas, was part of the program. Artigas was pleased with both the way the project went along in Yekaterinburg and with the public discussion that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is about to consider the bankruptcy cases involving the enterprises belonging to OOO Avtoland Holding Group, the spokesperson for the court reports. It has been announced that the companies in question, City Motors, OOO Avtoland Sever, and OOO FTsU, applied for bankruptcy because of the money they owe to OAO Khanty-Mansiyskiy Bank. As far as City Motors and OOO FTsU are concerned, the court is to look into their cases on December 10, 2010.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. ‘The weather experts of Rosgidromet have become responsible for the accuracy of weather forecasts for Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg since the end of May. OAO Koltsovo Airport is not dealing in any hydro-meteorological or related services now; moreover, the aeronautical weather station that used to be part of the airport’s facilities has been transferred to Rosgidromet Met Agency,’ the airport’s press service reports. In the meantime, a Turkish Airlines flight was delayed on October 11, 2010 and the air carrier claimed that Koltsovo Airport’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. A committee of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service members met today to consider case 98 involving OOO Unicom Motors; the car dealer is suspected of violating Article 18 of the Advertising Act. It has been alleged that the company has been sending out text messages containing promotion information to mobile phone users without their preliminary consent, the spokesperson for the division reports. Now Unicom Motors is Honda’s official dealer in Yekaterinburg.

UrBC, Moscow, October 12, 2010. OAO Uralsib reports its net profit went down by 1.122 billion RUR, or 77.7% in the third quarter of 2010, that is, from 1.44 billion RUR in the second quarter of the year down to 323 million RUR in the third quarter. The bank explains that the drop in profits was mainly caused by their shrinking net operating income.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. Uralsvyazinform, a telecommunications provider, intends to go through with large-scale redundancies on December 18, 2010. Out of 20,170 people employed by the company, 1,740 will have to leave, Sverdlovsk Region State Employment Service’s press secretary Kirill Samkov told UrBC. The press officer believes the layoffs have to do with some changes in the company’s structure. The news regarding the upcoming redundancies was first announced at a meeting of Ural Federal District Civil Forum Council held at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2010. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into ZAO Alfa Motors (Avtosun Group) bankruptcy case. The Group’s show rooms offer their customers such automobiles as Mazda, Ssang Yong, and Hyundai. On July 8, 2010, OAO Bank Severnaya Kazna placed a claim against ZAO Alfa Motors, its debtor, with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court. The plaintiff wanted the defendant to be declared insolvent since the car dealer hadn’t been paying the 139.2 million RUR it owed the bank under loan agreement VKU-2007-2393 as of November 28, 2007 for over three months. At

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and LG Electronics Rus (LG Corporation’s Russian branch) agreed that MMK would deliver a pilot batch of zinc-coated rolled products as well as some stock with polymeric coating to LG. ‘Some technical issues related to making sure the quality of the zinc-coated products’ surface was the one we need were resolved successfully in the course of our negotiations. The parties also considered the development and introduction of bilateral normative documentation on the rolled stock for LG,’ MMK reports. Besides, the agenda of the talks also covered the

UrBC, Moscow, October 11, 2010. It’s going to cost between 180 and 200 billion RUR to finance the Skolkovo Project, Skolkovo Fund’s President Viktor Vekselberg says. ‘Under the current program we have, a three- to five-year development plan means we’ll need about 180-200 billion RUR,’ RIA Novosti quotes the businessman as saying. Vekselberg noted this was the sum total, and a half might actually be supplied by the budget. ‘Our goal is to achieve the ratio of 50/50, where the state and the private enterprise will provide a half of the amount each,’ he explained.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2010. ‘The commercial estate developers have now realized that the ante-recession boom was actually a result of a market bubble. There are a lot of business center owners out there who had to reduce the rent rates: the supply is already overabundant and exceeds the demand greatly. At the same time, a number of newly built business centers that were started before the recession set in and are just about to be launched now can make things even worse,’ the General Director of IFC YAVA Finance Management Konstantin Selyanin said to UrBC. In the meantime,