‘The recession has slowed the implementation of Yekaterinburg City project down a bit. At the moment, the construction site is fully prepared for work. A lot of serious operations related to engineering and transport infrastructure have already been carried out. I am positive that this year we’ll resume working on Yekaterinburg City project,’ Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy announced at the 13th National Real Estate Congress in Yekaterinburg. The project actually provides for the construction of twelve different buildings, including the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Iset Tower, Ural Tower,

The Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) set up an ad hoc committee that will investigate the causes and circumstances of a large-scale fatal accident at Evraz Group-run Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise/VGOK’s Magnetitovaya mine, the spokesperson for Rostechnadzor says. Under the existing legislation, the committee is to start the inquiry fifteen days after the accident has occurred. The tragedy broke out on June 1, 2010 when a big chunk of rock mass collapsed within the mine, leaving one drill operator

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) ruled that the advertisements distributed by L’Etoile cosmetics chain store via text messaging were undue and illegitimate. The ads in question were sent to N. Melekhova, a local citizen, the spokesperson for the Service reports. The authorities took action against OOO Alcor-C (L’Etoile chain store) upon receiving an official complaint from Ms Melekhova; the charges had to do with violating the advertising legislation. Ms Melekhova stated that she had received four text messages with advertisements by L’Etoile (OOO

OAO Bank24.ru (Life Financial Group’s asset) sustained 185.3 million RUR worth of losses by the end of 2009, the bank’s annual financial report says. The bank made 859 million RUR on interest payments last year, which was 195.76 million RUR less than in the year 2008. This decrease in interest profits had to do with the shrinking lending portfolio. Besides this, Bank24.ru’s commission profits amounted to 535.5 million RUR, which was 75 million RUR less than in the year 2008. Finally, this Yekaterinburg-based bank’s capital went down by 393.6 million RUR, or 43.66% and thus declined from 901.5

Bank Severnaya Kazna’s stockholders thought it best not to pay any share dividend for 2009 because the bank sustained losses last year. According to the company’s official report released at the AGM on June 1, 2010, Bank Severnaya Kazna’s losses amounted to 4.63 billion RUR in 2009. The stockholders decided that the losses should be partially covered by the leftovers of profits left undistributed in the previous years; namely, 117.2 million RUR worth of losses will be compensated in this way. Also, 699.6 million RUR worth of share-issuing profits and 30.83 million RUR from the bank’s reserve

Central Yekaterinburg Department of Rospotrebnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region division informs the heads of local stores that Nestlé decided to call off its instant coffee brands Alta, Rica, Cap Colombie, Estet, Kenjara, and Espresso from most international markets, including the Russian Federation’s one. The decision has been caused by the fact that the glass jars covered in plastic wrapping that are used to package 100-gram portions of instant coffee can easily crack during transportation, which means the coffee powder inside may contain small glass particles. ‘The instant coffee offered under

ZAO Ural Turbine Plant dumped more manufacturing water in the River Iset in 2009 compared with the earlier years. This was due to a number of equipment breakdowns at the plant, Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Natural Resources Konstantin Kryuchkov says. At the same time, OAO Uralelectromed (a non-ferrous alloys manufacturer based in Verkh-Neyvinsk), the communal housing services provider of Malyshev, and the water-heating boiler house of Novouralsk reduced the amount of water they dump in the river thanks to reconstructions and the launch of new filtering facilities. To date, the total

Sberbank of Russia and MasterCard launched a special offer on the International Children’s Day: customers who use their Sberbank-issued MasterCard or Maestro cards to pay for at least 1,000 RUR worth of purchases on June 1-21, 2010 will take part in a prize-winning lottery, with prizes provided by Disney-Pixar studio. The ‘jackpot’ is a trip to Disneyland in Paris for four. Other prizes include 1,000 tea sets and puzzles featuring the newest Toy Story’s characters (the film sequel will first hit the screens on June 17, 2010). ‘The more card transactions you have, the better your chances are,’

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) made OAO Uralkaliy face administrative liability and pay 103.69 million RUR worth of fines. On December 21, 2009, FAS declared that the company had violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 1) of the Federal Competition Protection Act through price-collusion. Namely, OAO Uralkaliy, OOO Mineral Trading, and OAO Sylvinite colluded so as to raise the price of potassium chloride on the Russian market up to 4,750 RUR per ton in the second half of 2009.

Vladimir Kulakov has been elected General Director of OAO Uralkhimmash for another year. The decision to this extent was taken by the company’s Board of Directors shortly before Kulakov’s current term in office was about to expire. In addition, Vladimir Kulakov was allowed to combine his position of the plant’s GD with a number of executive posts in Uralkhimmash’s affiliated companies.

Ural Airlines’ customers can now enjoy the new online flight map using the company’s website. The service allows one to track the airplanes currently in the air and to see which routes they are using and which cities they are flying over at any given moment. If one presses the airplane icon, information about the route, the flight number, the scheduled and the actual departure time and date, the scheduled and the actual arrival time and date, the duration of the flight, and aircraft type will be provided. The map also shows the airplanes that have arrived in one’s airport of entry within the

David Reinert has recently been appointed the U.S. Consul-General in Yekaterinburg. Mr. Reinert is expected to remain in office for two years, the spokesperson for the U.S. Consulate-General reports. ‘The official will arrive in Yekaterinburg at the beginning of August and will assume office immediately,’ the spokesperson explains. In the meantime, the former U.S. Consul-General in Yekaterinburg Timothy Sandusky’s term of office has expired.

Ruslan Gusayev was appointed Chairman of Bank Monetniy Dom’s Board of Directors recently. This decision was made at the BOD meeting on May 28, 2010. Besides, Gusayev was also elected one of the bank’s BOD Members at the stockholder meeting on the same day. These changes in the composition of the BOD have to do with the fact that the bank now has new owners.

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy met the U.S. Consul-General in Yekaterinburg Timothy Sandusky on June 2, 2010. Mr. Sandusky is leaving office, the city’s official website states. The U.S. Consulate has issued 102,500 visas since it was first opened in Yekaterinburg. These figures include 2,700 student and scientific exchange visas and over 36,000 professional exchange ones. Remarkably, the U.S. Consulate General was the first-ever foreign diplomatic representation to be set up in Yekaterinburg (formerly known as Sverdlovsk and a no-foreigners-allowed city). Over 5,000 Russian

Sverdlovsk Region’s Prosecutor Yuri Ponomarev demanded that the authorities look into the fatal accident that occurred in Nizhniy Tagil-based Magnetitovaya mine (asset of Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise, Evraz Group) at 12:25 PM on June 3, 2010. According to the preliminary reports, the accident left one worker dead and another one injured. The in-situ inquest will be headed by Deputy Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region A.Yu. Chernyshev; the case is also subject to the Prosecutor’s personal supervision. UrBC is going to watch the development of affairs and report on the

A group of mechanical engineers from Bavaria is going to come to Sverdlovsk Region for business negotiations in mid-July, Kai Walliser of Bayern International announced at a meeting with the region’s Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov. The Ministry’s official website refers to Walliser as saying that Bavaria’s 1,000-plus enterprises supply over ?40,000bn worth of goods on the international market each year. Sverdlovsk Region’s potential being well-known in Bavaria, the German manufacturers thought it a good idea to look for business partners in the

The stockholders of Yekaterinburg-based oil plant thought it best not to pay any share dividend for the year 2009. The decision was taken at the annual general meeting on May 31, 2010. Prior to the meeting, a respective recommendation was given to the shareholders by the plant’s BOD.

The General Director of Kyshtym copper electrolysis plant Nikolai Azarov resigned before the end of his term. The decision to let the executive leave office has already been taken by the plant’s Board of Directors. The organization reports Nikolai Azarov left of his own accord.

The Bank of Russia’s PR Department reports that the bank’s authorized representatives have been appointed to work in twenty-eight Russian banks. The representatives act in accordance with Article 76 of the Federal Act on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (the Bank of Russia). For one, the Bank of Russia’s representatives are still working in Yekaterinburg-based Bank Severnaya Kazna and Bank24.ru as well as in a number of Russia’s largest banks such as Bank VTB, Alfa-Bank, and others.

The contracts Metro Cash & Carry (Metro Group) has signed with its suppliers actually do not meet the regulations of the Trade Act that came into effect recently, the Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) reports. The FAS came to this conclusion after the chain store had been inspected upon its contractors’ numerous requests and complaints, Kommersant says. The FAS organized the inspection in the beginning of 2010 after receiving a lot of complaints from Metro’s suppliers. The Service looked into the copies of the company’s supply agreements for 2008-2009. It was then