‘All the issues related to our crisis-defying action plan will be looked into at a special meeting each month,’ Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin said in the course of a meeting attended by the heads of the regional municipalities and districts. ‘We’ll investigate these issues in all seriousness, because the situation itself is grave enough. The crisis is to hit Chelyabinsk Region harder than many other Russian regions, as 63% of our industry is made up of metallurgical enterprises, which also means these enterprises’ taxes form over a third of the region’s consolidated budget.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Uralprivatbank valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 37% (from 221.95 million RUR to 139.82 million RUR) in October 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 91 to 180 days plummeted by 98.96% (from 57.7 million RUR to 600,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-state for-profit organizations’ deposits in Bank Severnaya Kazna valid for over three years went down by 31.80% (from 1,462,652,000 RUR to 997,505,000 RUR) in October 2008.

Bank24.ru stopped handling all kinds of interbank transfers, Banki.ru reports. ‘The customers are temporarily unable to make any external payments either at the bank’s offices or through ATMs or Internet Bank system,’ says Banki.ru referring to the bank’s call-center. What is more, Bank24.ru has introduced new limits on getting cash in any of its terminals. The maximum amount of money one can get now comes to 1,000 RUR a day and to 10,000 RUR a month.

‘I happen to have three deposits in Bank24.ru, that is, one ruble one, one dollar one, and one euro one. The bank set a daily limit of 2,000 RUR and a monthly limit of 10,000 RUR in October. Now once can only cash in 1,000 RUR a day. Besides, one used to be able to use the bank card to pay for at least $500 worth of purchase or make non-cash payments through Internet Bank, but we were deprived even of this on November 21, 2008,’ Bank24.ru’s customer Sergey Novikov said to UrBC. ‘I don’t have any source of income for the time being. I thought I had a sort of backup at the bank that I had been

URSA Bank came up with a new offer for its business customers, who can now get some interest for remainder of the money in their account. This means these customers can make their account balance yield some income. ‘The offer is targeted at active companies who happen to have some money left in their settlement accounts and whose business activity peculiarities require that the money should be available at any given moment,’ the bank’s press officer explains. The interest is paid on a daily basis in the morning of each transaction day, with interest rates varying from .1% to 6% depending on

‘Some problems of financial nature popped up regarding the reconstruction of the airport’s new terminal. We are experiencing some difficulties with the airport control tower. It just cannot be completed by December as we had planned,’ Koltsovo Airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin said in the course of a meeting chaired by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. ‘You have one and a half months, provided you get only one shift of workers. And you have four and a half moths if you get four shifts. So you’ve got six months to complete the tower and it’s shameful to complain about having

Key findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit research commissioned by UC RUSAL and supported by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the representative office of UNDP in the Russian Federation Moscow, 26 November 2008 – The first global study into Russian Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has shown that as Russian business goes global, sustainability has been established as a key priority of their strategic development. The international research project, From Russia with Love: A national chapter on the global CSR agenda, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), has indicated that 90%

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov reports the enterprise has a lot of competitive advantages that can keep it going and help it defy the crisis. Rashnikov says that, firstly, MMK has been able to have most of its funds and metallurgical facilities fundamentally upgraded over the last few years. Then, the company is now successfully employing the newest metallurgical technologies and the most advanced machinery. MMK was also able to cut down on the prime cost of its produce through reducing the raw stuff and material spending. ‘What is more, we all know

Moscow, 25 November 2008 – Interros Holding Company and UC RUSAL have reached a cooperation agreement in relation to MMC Norilsk Nickel in order to restore the value of the company and provide for its dynamic growth. According to the agreement, the parties plan to coordinate their positions on the composition of the new Board of Directors that will be elected at the extraordinary general meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders on 26 December. This will ensure balanced representation of the interests of all shareholder groups. The parties consider optimal a variant when there will be four

Quorus AKS signed an agreement with SKB-Bank regarding the provision of greater support to the bank’s IT network infrastructure, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘The bank’s dynamic development and the ongoing launches of new products and services as well as the customer database growth and the introduction of new subsidiaries throughout Russia all mean we have to build up on our IT capacities. Ensuring our customers have a reliable 24/7 access to the bank’s IT resources is the main idea behind a lot of our services. This is why our corporate data transfer network is the key component of the

This November, the cyclone furnace of UC RUSAL’s Ural smelter has reached the best productivity results within 3.5 years of operation, that is, 600 tons of alumina a day, with 97 to 98 kilos of standard fuel burnt per ton of alumina. This means the furnace is now operating at the level comparable with that of the world’s best equipment. What is more, the cyclone furnace has proved 1.5 times more efficient in terms of output and 40% more efficient in terms of fuel savings than rotor furnaces. ‘The need for innovation and our search for highly efficient solutions are something we have to do to

Bank VTB 24’s Board of Directors decided to convert a number of its subsidiaries in the Russian provinces into simple operational offices. For one, these changes will involve the bank’s subsidiaries in Smolensk, Archangelsk, Volgograd, Tolyatti, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Belgorod, Syktyvkar, Rostov on Don, Ufa, Ulyanovks, and Barnaul.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up an additional office in Nizhnyaya Tura, Sverdlovsk Region. In this new office, customers can place their savings on a deposit, have their currency exchanged, get the bank cards like Visa Int. or MasterCard Int., and make money orders. The new office can be found at 1 Usoshin St, the bank’s press officer reports. ‘It’s very important nowadays for the bank office to be located near one’s workplace or home. A lot of Nizhnyaya Tura residents have been using our bank for a long time and used to have to travel to another town to get serviced.

SKB-Bank’s new office now welcomes customers in Ryazan. The outlet is located at 7 Griboedov St. The bank’s new subsidiary renders the entire range of banking services to both private individuals and entities. The latter will be serviced from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays, while the former will be dealt with from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturdays. Monday is the day off,’ the spokesperson for the bank reports. SKB-Bank currently runs over 100 offices throughout Russia. ‘Our subsidiary networks spreads from Khabarovsk in the east to Kaliningrad in the west at the length of

The concern dealing in provision of electricity and heat at nuclear power plants has placed its Declaration of intent regarding the proposed investment in the construction of South Ural nuclear power plant’s power-generating units with Chelyabinsk Region Government and Petr Sumin, the Governor. Upon looking into the document whose general power facilities layout plan for 2008-2020 had already been approved by the Russian Federation Government, Petr Sumin decided to approve of the Declaration, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. In addition, the Governor suggested that the concern

Rinat Raev, the Mufti of Chelyabinsk and Kurgan Regions, sent a thank-you letter to Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin in relation to his welcoming Russia’s Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin. Talgat Tadzhuddin was invited by the Governor to visit Chelyabinsk Region in order to take part in the celebrations dedicated to the 220th anniversary of the Central Spiritual Administration of Russia’s Muslims and the 175th anniversary of the prominent Islamic enlightener Zainulla Rasulev’s birthday. The Mufti’s visit resulted in signing a new, extended Cooperation Agreement between Chelyabinsk

‘Delovoy Kvartal magazine’s issue 663 as of November 24, 2008 carried an interview with Uralfinprombank’s Vice President Mikhail Martynenko. ‘Now is not the best time for taking one’s money out of a bank. The crime rate has been on the increase lately due to the economic difficulties, and keeping one’s savings at home is plainly dangerous, while investing large sums of money in foods or home appliances is pointless since these goods get depreciated very quickly. Buying real estate is no solution to the problem, either: all the analysts claim its price is only going to drop. The question is

The Federal Anntimonopoly Service’s Administration Committe is to resume the hearing of the suit involving Ural Oil Company that had earlier been postponed. The company is charged with violating Article 10 (part 1 paragraph 1) of the competition protection legislation through setting and maintaining monopolistically high jet fuel prices. The hearing of the case was postponed in September 2008.