In April 2010, Ural Airlines’ planes operated 1,050 flights (which was 34% better than in April 2009), including 595 domestic flights, 201 international flights, and 254 flights within the CIS. The carrier serviced 113,718 passengers (which was 39% more than in April 2009), of whom 61,172 people were on domestic flights, 27,702 people were on international flights, and 24,844 people were on flights operated within the CIS. Once the global economies have started their gradual recovery, the number of Ural Airlines’ passengers soared dramatically in January-April 2010 compared with January-April

OAO Uralcryomash sustained 2.57 million RUR worth of losses in the first quarter of 2010, whereas the plant’s revenues increased up to 48.93 million RUR over the same period of time. The company explains the increase in revenues had to do with their greater cryogenic cisterns output, more orders for oil-loading cisterns, and changes in the company’s spending priorities.

‘According to the available federal research findings, pirated software products comprise about 67% of the Russian market. This figure has remained virtually the same over time. Over a year, there has been just a 1% drop so far. Microsoft does not deal in tracking the market share of counterfeits, which is why we personally cannot support or refute these figures. What we can say, however, is that over 90% of our business customers use licensed software products,’ Microsoft’s representative in Russia announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘As for the private home users, the number

Companies and individuals appear to be getting increasingly careless about their overdue loan payments, Vedomosti refers to the latest bank reports as stating. In April 2010, for instance, most banks got an increase in delayed repayments. The amount of overdue debts at Alfa-Bank rose by 1.6 billion RUR and reached 28.6 billion RUR altogether, which makes up 8.3% of the bank’s lending portfolio. Rosbank’s delayed repayments went up by 800 million RUR and amounted to 8.7 billion RUR, which makes up 7% of the bank’s lending portfolio. The delayed repayments of Raiffeisen-Bank and the Bank of

Moscow Federal Arbitration Court dismissed the complaint placed by OAO MRSK Urala regarding 1 billion RUR worth of tax, Kommersant reports. The company was accused of tax evasion in 2004-2005 by Tax Inspectorate No. 4 that is in charge of dealing with the largest taxpayers. For one, the tax officers claimed that the VAT deductions OAO Sverdlovenergo used when buying Kazakh coal from ZAO Uralo-Kazakhskaya Kompaniya were illegitimate. The tax inspectorate analysts detected that in 2004-2005, OAO Sverdlovenergo actually owned 20% of ZAO Uralo-Kazakhskaya Kompaniya and was, in fact, its only

Officers from Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs’ Center for Fighting Consumer Market Offenses and from Yekaterinburg Customs’ Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department inspected a number of stores in Hanoi Shopping Mall in Yekaterinburg. This was done within the framework of the agreement on cooperation in the field of intellectual property rights protection, signed by Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs and Yekaterinburg Customs in 2009, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. The officers checked two shoe shops whose assortment included

Although the sales of counterfeit software in Ural Federal District’s computer shops have been on the decrease lately, the local software piracy statistics still looks more alarming that the data on the country’s average piracy levels, Microsoft’s piracy monitoring report states. According to this report, on average, 23% of Ural computer shops sell or recommend counterfeit software; 12% of stores offer the service of having pirated software installed right there. The figures for Chelyabinsk, for one, are close to the district’s average piracy indicators. In Magnitogorsk, the number of such

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is going to resume looking into the claim laid by Denis Luzhetskiy against OOO Fond Mira Travel Company on June 23, 2010, the court’s press officer reports. The plaintiff insists that the company be declared bankrupt. Fond Mira’s creditor, Luzhetskiy placed his claim with the court on April 6, 2010. This is, in fact, not the only lawsuit the travel company got involved in. On April 5, 2010, OAO Uralprivatbank laid a claim against Fond Mira as well. The bank demanded that the debtor and its codefendants OOO Yurmarket and the company’s director Igor

OAO NK Lukoil’s revenues (if calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) decreased by 14 times in the first quarter of 2010 compared with January-March 2009 and reached 8.58 billion RUR, RIA Novosti reports. In fact, Lukoil has been exporting oil on contracts of commission agency-basis only since January 1, 2010. Besides, the company does not deal in any oil sales on the domestic market, as this task was 100% delegated to Lukoil Group’s oil-production enterprises. ‘These facts resulted in a significant drop in revenues,’ the company’s report says.

Experts from Yekaterinburg Customs Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department and officers of Yekaterinburg’s Verkh-Isetskiy district customs found out in the course of a customs check that a number of toy mobile phones bearing a logo very nearly identical to that of Disney were imported to Russia from China, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. ‘The trademark owner’s representative in the Russian Federation has been informed of this copyright infringement and violation of intellectual property rights. The representative confirmed that the toy mobiles in question

One more Airbus A320-214 has been added to Ural Airlines’ air fleet. The carrier bought the aircraft that was previously used by USA3000 on an operating lease agreement for eight and a half years. The airplane is currently in perfect condition. Prior to using the plane, Ural Airlines gave the aircraft full-scale scheduled maintenance service. The plane is fitted with a leather-upholstered business class, 12 business class seats, and 138 economy class seats. Ural Airlines is currently operating a dozen A320 airplanes, two A321 ones, and a few TU-154M planes.

The Russian Federation Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union organized a meeting of UC RUSAL’s trade union chairmen and heads of the Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union’s local divisions with RUSAL management. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to changes in the company’s organization and adjustments to the collective agreements based on this year’s labor contract and on positive trends on the aluminum market as well as wage indexation, organization of children’s summer vacations, and voluntary medical insurance for workers. According to the trade union’s press officer, UC

‘A lot of local industrial sites have been ruined over the last few years; the only things to be seen there now are some desolate workshops and construction sites. These areas need to be registered, inspected, and put to efficient use,’ Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch said to the local reporters after a meeting with his deputies and the regional ministers. According to the Governor, they need to get control over the bankruptcies of local enterprises. ‘We have to cooperate very closely with the trustees in bankruptcy’s guild to make sure these trustees’ actions are supervised

Experts claim that, among all the metallurgical enterprises, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) will suffer the smallest losses occasioned by the lack of coal supplies from Raspadskaya mine. Now the media recently quoted Governor of Kemerov Region Aman Tuleyev as saying that it would take at least a year to restore Raspadskaya mine after the two methane explosions on May 9, 2010. According to the experts’ preliminary estimates, the cost of restoring the above-ground infrastructure will come to 700 million RUR, while it will cost another 5 billion RUR to deal with the underground

Experts claim that, among all the metallurgical enterprises, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) will suffer the smallest losses occasioned by the lack of coal supplies from Raspadskaya mine. Now the media recently quoted Governor of Kemerov Region Aman Tuleyev as saying that it would take at least a year to restore Raspadskaya mine after the two methane explosions on May 9, 2010. According to the experts’ preliminary estimates, the cost of restoring the above-ground infrastructure will come to 700 million RUR, while it will cost another 5 billion RUR to deal with the underground

Novgorod’s environmental prosecution authorities and a number of experts from Novgorod Region’s division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) looked into the way ZAO Novgorod Metallurgical Plant (the asset of Russian Copper Company) complied with the existing environmental legislation. In the course of inspecting the premises of the plant, the experts detected a number of violations. For one, it was revealed that the enterprise exceeded the maximum permissible atmospheric discharge of carbon monoxide; also, its carbon monoxide emissions were higher than what was prescribed by

Moscow Arbitration Court declared ZAO Tsifrograd, a mobile phones and consumer electronics chain, bankrupt last week, so the company will now have to undergo bankruptcy proceedings, Kommersant reports. ZAO Tsifrograd applied for bankruptcy in August 2009. On October 23, 2009, the arbitration court placed the company on bankruptcy watch and appointed Mikhail Vasilega the debtor’s provisional trustee in bankruptcy. During the court session on May 13, 2010, Mikhail Vasilega was appointed trustee in bankruptcy with full authority. The company now has six creditors, whose claims amount to about

The Russian Federation Federal Financial Market Service took Gazprombank, NRB, Rus-Bank, and J.P. Morgan Bank International off the list of banks that are allowed to deposit private individuals’ retirement savings. The list now comprises fifty-three banks altogether, RBC daily reports.

United Company RUSAL came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2010. The company’s net profit reached $247m against $638m worth of net loss in the first quarter of 2009. RUSAL’s revenues rose by 31% (up to $2.33m), compared with the year earlier. This was possible due to the growing aluminum prices. The enterprise’s operating profits came to $366m, compared with $247m worth of losses in the first quarter of 2009. According to RUSAL’s report, the company’s aluminum output decreased y 4% in January-March 2010 compared with January-March 2009 and reached 973,000 tons. Their

Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region reduced its share in The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals Corporation from 41.95% to 30.71%. The shares of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region and of Chelyabinsk Region decreased from 25.54% to 18.78% and from 6.69% to 4%, respectively, the corporation reports. At the same time, Tyumen Region raised its share in the corporation from 25.61% to 45.55%.