People who leave their comments on the beer-lovers’ site don’t speak very highly of Baltika’s produce, complaining of some strange addle and a strong metallic after-taste. The online commentators believe Baltika is popular with low-income population groups; this is particularly true of Baltika No. 9, they say. ‘It’s all alcohol and you just can’t drink it. Even plain alcohol would be better than Baltika No.9,’ one regular user’s comment says. Some less strong beer kinds, like Baltika Lite, for instance, appear to leave customers disappointed as well: ‘It has no smell, it has no taste, it’s

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 15.57% (from 314.232 million RUR to 265.295 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.19% (from 10.013 million RUR to 7.991 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to private individuals for 31 to 90 days dropped by 62.52% (from 3.074 million RUR to 1.152 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to private individuals for up to 30 days went down by 67.82% (from 38.85 million RUR to 12.5 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

SKB-Bank came up with the results of its activity over the seven months of 2008. All of the bank’s development indicators have shown impressive growth dynamics as usual. SKB-Bank’s net assets, for instance, went up by 13.5 billion RUR, or more than 53% and reached over 38.6 billion RUR on August 1, 2008 compared to a year earlier. SKB-Bank’s loan portfolio amounted to more than 25.8 billion RUR on August 1, 2008 against only 17 billion RUR on August 1, 2007. The bank managed to nearly double the amount of attracted investments in just one a year, with figures coming to 32.9 billion RUR. The

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in UniCreditBank valid for up to 30 days dropped by 100% (from 80 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

German Consul General in Yekaterinburg Tilo Klinner feels the consulate’s major achievement lies in the introduction of a visa section that is currently working on visas for all the applicants from Ural Federal District and Perm Territory. Before the end of this year, the consulate will also start issuing visas for applicants from the Republic of Bashkortostan and Orenburg Region. Over 4,000 visas in just one month (including more than 1,000 business type ones) have been issued for the first time this July. The consulate expects to issue over 35,000 visas altogether in 2008, which is to

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.01% (from 184.449 million RUR to 147.525 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to private individuals for 31 to 90 days plummeted by 100% (from 3 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Industry delegation is going to visit Yekaterinburg in September 2008, the newly appointed U.S. Consul General in Yekaterinburg Timothy Sandusky said in the course of his meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. ‘We are interested in cooperating with the American companies and banks in all possible ways; the mid-Urals offer some virtually unlimited opportunities for business people. Besides, many thousand machines have to be replaced at our machine-building enterprises; we buy a lot of modern equipment in the United States, and our needs keep

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ-Bank to private individuals went down by 46.36% (from 8.72 million RUR to 4.677 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘One unique thing about RenovaStroyGroup’s Academic construction project is a lot of attention the developer pays to environmental issues. Their multi-faceted area development approach provides for the construction of objects needed not only for work and rest but also for the harmonious relations between humans and nature. This means the developer is trying to create a totally new environment for the local people’s full-fledged life,’ says Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the All-Russian Environmental Protection Society and Director of Oleniye Ruchi natural park Nikolai Kalinkin.

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg handled fewer flights bound for the south and east of Russia in July 2008. For instance, the number of passengers who traveled to Sochi, Anapa, and Krasnodar through Koltsovo airport went down, while the number of passenger flights to Turkey only increased by 24% in July 2008 compared to 33% a month earlier, the spokesperson for the airport reports. The airport believes this can be explained by soaring jet fuel prices. Koltsovo airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin says the market can be faced with stagnation as soon as 2009, should the price growth

Ural Airlines keeps reducing the fuel fee – an essential part of an airplane ticket’s price. The fuel fee for tickets travelers use to fly to Egypt has gone down by 12% since the beginning of August 2008, while the fuel has grown 13% less expensive in Egyptian airports over the same period of time. The airline’s press officer reports most Russian airports are only planning to decrease their fuel prices in mid-August. ‘In case the fuel becomes, say, 2% cheaper, we’ll have to decrease our basic prices by 1%, and this will be the right thing economically. At the same time, we are hoping to get

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 31 to 90 days dropped by 84% (from 5 million RUR to 500,000 RUR) in January-July 2008.

The officers of Yekaterinburg Railway Customs Post and Yekaterinburg Customs Intellectual Property Rights Department detected a set of radio recorders worth 760,000 RUR altogether that a smuggler illegally imported to the Russian Federation in August 2008, the spokesperson for the Ural Customs Administration reports. An investigation followed, whereupon it was revealed that 2,000 radio recorders bearing Panasonic trademarks were delivered to Russia from the United Arab Emirates by a Yekaterinburg-based firm. The whole shipment was supposed to have been transported to Kazakhstan by railway

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 57.33% (from 27.573 million RUR to 11.764 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘The introduction of greater financial guarantees might squeeze a number of tour operators out of the market,’ ORANGE tur’s Tourism Director Svetlana Stolyarova said to UrBC. In the meantime, a number of insurance companies feel the current scale of tour operators’ financial security guaranteed by the existing legislation is not enough to make up for the consequences of their possible bankruptcies. These insurers say the back-up sum has to be more impressive. ‘I feel we need to work with the existing legislation for three years at least before introducing any changes. Detour was faced with

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.32% (from 78.215 million RUR to 62.316 million RUR) in January-July 2008.