The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development had its QUIK-Broker Internet trading system upgraded recently. The innovations made the system’s server and customer interaction performance much better, which will considerably speed up the transfer of data from the server onto the users’ computers. The bank also provided its customers with a new version of QUIK 5.17 used for online transactions. The changes mainly consist in the additional options of customizing a user’s virtual workplace. These additions are expected to make UBRD’s QUIK customers work even more efficient. To sign up for

Lufthansa Airlines cancelled its Yekaterinburg-Frankfurt flight that was supposed to have taken off in Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport at 7:10 AM on June 24, 2010. The carrier’s Yekaterinburg representation did not give the reporters any reason for calling the flight off but did admit the decision had been taken in advance. The airline also claims all the passengers were notified in advance.

Evraz Group might stop the steel production process at its Czech plant Vitkovice Steel on July 1, 2010. Evraz cannot seem to reach an agreement with ArcelorMittal Ostrava on crude iron prices, and crude iron is the primary raw material for steel production, Evraz representative explained to Kommersant. In case the parties fail to come to a compromise before July, the Vitkovice-based plant will stop buying iron and manufacturing steel. At the same time, Vitkovice Steel will keep up with its rolled goods production. Evraz Group bought Evraz Vitkovice Steel in 2005. The plant currently produces

OOO MMK Trade House (a member of MMK Group) signed an agreement with the Italian Danieli for the delivery of a stretching machine for their coating shop. The machine’s primary function is to improve the flatness of tin plate. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently Russia’s only manufacturer of this particular product. Tin plate is mainly used for making tin cans; about 300,000 tons of cans appear on the Russian market every year, with over 50% of them supplied by MMK. According to MMK Trade House’s Senior Manager and head of the project on branch and coated metal sales Dmitriy

The Central Yekaterinburg subsidiary of Sverdlovsk Region Hygiene & Epidemiology Center prevented over 22,000 RUR worth of damage that could have been done by OOO Alfa-Travel to a customer, the center’s press department reports. In April 2010, a Yekaterinburg dweller asked the Central Yekaterinburg subsidiary of Sverdlovsk Region Hygiene & Epidemiology Center subsidiary’s experts for legal advice and help in filing a claim against OOO Alfa-Travel. The plaintiff wanted the court to declare that Alfa-Travel’s actions were illegitimate and to make the defendant pay back the 15,908.81 RUR

‘As for the introduction of city management in Russia, I can say one of the UK cities has had such an experience, and it did not end very well. The city’s development slowed down considerably; the city manager was in office for four years, struggling with the political leaders and the Parliament’s conflicts all the while. In the end, when the official resigned and a mayor was elected once again, everything went back to normal and the city was flourishing anew,’ Adrian Campbell, a professor from the UK-based University of Birmingham’s School of Public Policy announced at a recent briefing in

Starting December 15, 2010, OOO Home Credit & Finance Bank’s Ural branch offices will no longer operate. For one, the bank is to close down its Chelyabinsk regional representation, Kurgan regional representation, Magnitogorsk regional representation, Nizhnevartovsk regional representation, Nizhniy Tagil regional representation, Noviy Urengoy regional representation, Nyagan regional representation, Surgut regional representation, Tyumen regional representation, Yekaterinburg regional representation, and Zlatoust regional representation. At the same time, it has been suggested that the

SCAT Airlines launched a new flight from Kazakhstan recently. The first plane from Astana is to land in Yekaterinburg on June 24, 2010. The Astana-Yekaterinburg flight will be operated every Thursday on AN-24 aircraft. Besides, the airline will also introduce its new Kustanai-Yekaterinburg-Kustanai flight on July 16, 2010. This flight will be operated two times a week, every Friday and Monday.

As the company had 513.87 million RUR worth of accumulated loss last year, Vladivostok Avia thought it best not to pay any share dividend for the year 2009. The decision to this extent was taken at the annual general meeting in Artem. The stockholders also agreed to direct 39.11 million RUR worth of net profits to compensating the earlier years’ losses. Finally, it was decided that no bonuses would be paid to the BOD members for their performance.

Plate Mill 5000 of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is now fully provided with orders for its produce, MMK PR Department reports. ‘Our key consumers in this field are Volzhskiy Tube-Rolling Plant, Vyksunskiy Metallurgical Plant, and a number of Russian machine-, ship-, and boiler-building enterprises. They have been buying increasingly more goods from MMK lately, which is especially significant for the company since only 50% of our section goods facilities are being used at the moment: the predicted surge of the Russian building industry never really happened. On the other hand, Mill

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division is to hold a hearing of the recently resumed case No.45 on June 23, 2010. The case involves Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport: the company is accused of violating Article 10 (part 1) of the Competition Protection Act. The offense presumably consisted in that the airport cut back on rendering the airlines the service of storing jet fuel in its facilities with no good economic or technological reason and despite the existing demand for such a service. Also, the airport appears to have no economic or

European-Asian Company reports it bought a 37% stake in ErM recently. Prior to this acquisition, YekaterinburgGaz ceased being ErM’s stockholder. OAO ErM runs the Hermitage Hotel and the Magister Hotel in Yekaterinburg.

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport, Perm Airlines, and Ust-Katavskiy S.M. Kirov carriage-building plant located in Chelyabinsk Region have been taken off the list of the country’s strategically important enterprises after the Russian Federation President Dmitriy Medvedev’s order was signed on Friday and then published. The President has announced earlier that the list of Russia’s strategically important enterprises was reduced from 208 down to 41, while the list of federal unitary enterprises was reduced from 230 down to 159.

More passengers kept coming through Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo International Airport from various destinations in May 2010 than in May 2009. For one, the airport’s international flights passenger turnover went up by 68.3% against May 2009, the passenger turnover on flights within the CIS rose by 47.5% last month compared with May 2009, while the passenger turnover on domestic flights increased by 14.3%. The airport’s press officer reports the number of passengers flying through Koltsovo increased in May mostly thanks to customers flying to and from Moscow (the number of those jumped by 26.7%

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) received the documents of payment proving that OAO TNK-BP Holding has paid the 1.11-billion-ruble fine for violating the antimonopoly legislation. Now the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation’s Presidium ruled on May 25, 2010 that the FAS’s decision to impose 1.1 billion RUR worth of fines on TNK-Bp Holding was both legitimate and well-grounded.

Khanty-Mansiyskiy Non-State Retirement Fund reduced its pension reserves by 1.1%, or down to 22.68 billion RUR in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the beginning of the year 2010, the Russian Federation Federal Financial Market Service reports. The fund’s own assets shrank by 2.1%; the number of the fund’s participants rose by 4.3%, while the number of individuals participating in the non-state retirement savings program increased by 1%. At the same time, the pension payments were reduced by 4.3 times.

OAO Serov Ferrous Alloys Plant agreed not to pay any share dividend for the year 2009. The decision to this extent was made by the plant’s shareholders during the general meeting held in Serov, Sverdlovsk Region. During the AGM, the stockholders also agreed on the changes to the company’s Charter: the changes ensured that the number of BOD members is to come to five people.

The initiative on hosting tourism development proposed by Kamensk-Uralskiy, Sverdlovsk Region, has been approved by the federal authorities. The Russian Ministries for Culture, Sports, and Tourism are willing to support the town’s projects by directing 371 million RUR to the programs, the spokesperson for Kamensk-Uralskiy town council reports. In addition, Sverdlovsk Region’s authorities and private investors are invited to invest 185 million RUR each. The development program is to be implemented within three years, creating about 1,500 new jobs, the spokesperson explains. The Old Kamensk

The losses of AvtoVAZ (calculated in accordance with the IAS) amounted to 49.2 billion RUR last year. This figure was twice the number of what the Russian car manufacturer lost in the year 2008, namely, 24.7 billion RUR. The company’s revenues dropped by 45% in 2009 and came to 92.04 billion RUR, while the operating losses rose to 45.5 billion RUR, RBC daily says. AvtoVAZ explains these enormous losses have to do with dropping car sales, among other factors. In fact, the sales decreased by 44%, down to 349,500 cars. Another reason was the need to set up the fund depreciation reserves (14.2

On June 21, 2010, Ural Airlines is to start operating its new Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight. The company’s new offer is targeted at the passengers who would like to arrive in Yekaterinburg at the beginning of the working week, as the carrier’s plane leaves Moscow early on Monday. This U6 269 flight is offered every Monday; the plane departs from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 8:05 AM and lands in Yekaterinburg at 12:10 PM. The flights will be operated using Airbus A-320 planes; tickets can be bought via the company’s website www.uralairlines.ru as well as in Yekaterinburg booking offices. For