OAO Ural Airlines operated its Yekaterinburg-Sofia-Yekaterinburg flight for the first time this week. The opening ceremony included a presentation and a press conference at the departure lounge prior to the plane heading back for Yekaterinburg. The press conference was attended by the airline representatives, airport executives, and officials from Bulgaria’s Transport Ministry. Champagne and a custom-made cake were served at the event, the plane crew was given a fruit ‘bouquet’, and a water salute was organized by Sofia Airport to welcome the new carrier. In fact, the flight to Sofia is the

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports the reorganization of ZAO Kommerzbank (Eurasia), namely, the bank’s merging with ZAO Dresdner Bank, resulted in the liquidation of the latter. The corresponding entry in the United State Register of Legal Entities was made by Moscow division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service on September 24, 2010. Following this entry, a note stating that ZAO Dresdner Bank stopped operating on September 24, 2010 was made in the Book for State Registration of Lending Institutions.

A delegation of ambassadors representing some Latin American countries in the Russian Federation is going to visit Sverdlovsk Region on October 7-8, 2010. The agenda of the visit covers meetings with the heads of regional ministries, the representatives of local scientific and business communities, and college students. In addition, a so-called ‘free microphone’ discussion will be organized for the ambassadors and the representatives of Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises and organizations interested in considering the cooperation options available.

Khanty-Mansiysk Customs processed 307,000 tons of freight in January-September 2010; this figure was 41% lower than that for the nine months of 2009, the customs’ press service reports. All in all, the region’s customs points processed 4,340 cargo manifests, with Khanty-Mansiysk Customs transferring 4.02 billion RUR to the federal budget.

The court officers from Oktyabrskiy district division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers in Sverdlovsk Region detected in the course of their enforcement proceedings that OOO Temp Management Company has a number of additional accounts at OAO Bank24.ru. The division’s press service reports the debtor company in question, which is based in Yekaterinburg’s Oktyabrskiy district, was re-registered with Kirovskiy district’s tax inspectorate and had a few accounts opened at OAO Bank24.ru. These accounts were arrested alongside with nine more accounts in some other banks; over 4.96 million

The trade union of OAO Evrazruda (Evraz Group’s ore mining division) managed to persuade the company’s management to launch a pay rise recently. Evrazruda’s Managing Director Alexander Salkov and the trade union’s chairwoman Svetlana Boyeva signed a joint decree that provides for a 5% increase in average pay (including base wages and salaries) starting September 1, 2010, which will expand the salaries fund correspondingly. In addition, the enterprise promised to transfer 7.5 million RUR onto the trade unions’ accounts by November 1, 2010 in order to meet its obligations for the year 2009. As

A recent audit check at Khanty-Mansiyskiy Non-State Retirement Fund conducted upon the regional authorities’ request revealed numerous legal offenses in the way the fund’s finances were managed, the fund’s President Alexei Okhlopkov said at a press conference the other day, Kommersant reports. Okhlopkov was quoted as saying that the fund’s asset management system had been built upon a network of management companies that were associated with the retirement fund’s previous administrators. ‘This meant these companies were focusing not only on investment but on some other tasks as well. The

A group of officials from Ural Federal District will visit Qatar on October 3-8, 2010. The delegation, chaired by the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko, will consist of about fifty people, including the representatives of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry and heads of Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen Regions and other federal constituencies within Ural Federal District as well as directors of major Urals-based industrial enterprises and holdings, the spokesperson for Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Enterprise

Following a downfall in its investment projects, the German wholesale hypermarket chain is planning to go back to the pre-recession expansion rates in Russia next year, Interfax refers to Jeroen de Groot, Managing Director Metro C&C Russia at Metro Cash and Carry as announcing. Now the chain’s investment program shrank considerably in 2009 and 2010: for one, Metro Cash & Carry set up nine new shopping centers in Russia in the year 2008 but only four in the year 2009, so the total number of Metro’s Russian stores reached fifty-two. According to Metro representatives, the company

LSR Group reports it is going to make the management of its Urals-based assets more centralized. The company says the Ural branch of LSR Group Management Company has already started working in Yekaterinburg. The branch will be run by the General Director of LSR Ural Management Company Andrei Bibikov. In the near future, LSR Ural Management Company is to merge with the holding’s main management company. The new branch is expected to run LSR Group’s Urals-based assets: ZAO Nova-Stroy, OAO Betfor Concrete Goods Plant, OOO SMU Nova-Stroy, OOO PKU Nova-stroyProyekt, and OAO Uralshcheben.

OOO DVI Ural is now on the list of companies that owe over 1 million RUR to the federal budget as of September 15, 2010. The news was announced by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

Ukraine’s Consulate-General in the Ural Region, which is currently located in Tyumen, might be transferred to Yekaterinburg. The suggestion was made by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Russia Vladimir Yelchenko in the course of a recent meeting. Meanwhile, a plenary session of Russian-Ukrainian Interregional Forum was held in Yekaterinburg a few days ago. The forum was attended by the representatives of Ukrainian political and business communities and of the member constituencies of Ural Federal District. The

OAO Nizhneserginskiy Metal Goods Plant/NSMMZ does not owe anything to the federal budget at the moment,’ the plant’s press secretary Olga Zimareva said to UrBC. Now Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service recently placed NSMMZ (the asset of NLMK Group) on the list of companies that owe over 1 million RUR to the state budget as of September 15, 2010. ‘The data provided by the division may have to do with some disputable sums that are currently under court investigation since it’s not certain the money was charged rightfully,’ Ms Zimareva suggested. According to the plant,

OAO Bogoslovskoye Ore Division is now on the list of companies that owe over 1 million RUR to the federal budget as of September 15, 2010. The news was announced by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

OAO Nizhneserginskiy Metal Goods Plant/NSMMZ (NLMK Group’s asset) was recently placed on the list of companies that owe over 1 million RUR to the federal budget. The news was announced by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service.

OAO Betfor Concrete Goods Plant is expected to present its long-term development strategy to Sverdlovsk Region Government soon; the strategy should include some measures aimed at increasing profitability and the average monthly pay. Such was the order of Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin voiced at the meeting of the government committee in support of local business. This time, the meeting was attended by the representatives of Betfor, where the wages are lower than the average pay within the building materials branch. According to plant’s head Vassiliy Gomzyakov, the

The prosecutor of Nizhniy Tagil Leninskiy district insisted that the owner of Bierstube beer restaurant face administrative liability for reproducing musical pieces without the consent of the copyright holders, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities reports. ‘The inspection carried out by the prosecution officers and the forces of Nizhniy Tagil Internal Affairs Department helped us detect that a DVD player was used on the premises of Bierstube Restaurant at Parkhomenko St. in Nizhniy Tagil to play Doo Uap, Doo Uap, Doo Uap (performed by Gabin, composed by Edward

Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service suspects OOO Terminator Advertising Firm of failing to obey to the one-hundred-meter-zone rule applicable to beer advertisements. The existing legislation states that beer ads cannot appear anywhere near educational establishments. This week, the FAS’s regional division is to consider as many as two claims against the company; both claims have to do with the above-mentioned problem.

Nizhniy Tagil public prosecution authorities for transportation, Nizhniy Tagil Customs Internal Security Department, and the Economic Offense Division of the local Internal Affairs Department disclosed an instance of smuggling at railway station Nizhniy Tagil: a group of offenders, one of whom was a state customs inspector at Nizhniy Tagil Customs, had seven automobiles illegally imported from the U.S. The inquiry revealed that the cars arrived in Nizhniy Tagil in a number of containers, with an assumed name given for the addressees, which made it possible to apply simpler customs clearance

OAO MegaFon is about to launch a promotion campaign in support of Google voice search in order to inform the users about the options this innovational service offers. The campaign will mainly be unfolded through major social networking websites and theme-based Russian-speaking Internet resources. Using the voice search is quite simple. You press the record button in your smartphone application or program and pronounce the word or phrase you want the service to find. This voice request is directed to Google server where voice data get processed into text and produce the search results you