‘Nothing has changed regarding the apartment buildings in Bazoviy Lane over last month. Even though there are no legal reasons why Mayak, the developer, should not be given the commissioning permit, Yekaterinburg’s municipal authorities prevent them from getting it,’ Mayak’s Vice President Alexander Kobernichenko announced in the course of a monthly meeting on the socially important construction in Sverdlovsk Region. The meeting was chaired by Governor Eduard Rossel. ‘The city council has numerously claimed that the buildings don’t get commissioned because of their clashes with us related to

Aston, the local developer, keeps putting up its Aston Plaza, an eighteen-storey apartment building in Radischev-Gurzufskaya St. despite the fact that Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities insist on freezing the construction process. The building in question has already been featured in eleven lawsuits, and the neighboring buildings’ dwellers have laid numerous claims against the developer as well as engaged in large-scale protest picketing. The complaints have to do with the fact that that this high-rise building would block all the sunshine from the nearby apartment block,

‘Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg raises its fuel prices too often, which means the fuel fee grows increasingly expensive as well. As for the last price increase, the fuel fee for Spain-bound flights came to ?320 against the previous ?280,’ Director of Avenue Travel Agency Natalya Penkina said to UrBC. ‘These ongoing fuel fee increases naturally irritate the travelers quite a bit. Travel agents have to keep apologizing and explaining the case. Both our agency and the whole market are having some hard time now, and we are not sure what is going to happen next,’ Natalya Penkina added.

URSA Bank set up its 1001st terminal in one of Respect shoe stores in Novosibirsk. The terminal can process Gold Crown, MasterCard, and Visa cards. The bank already runs terminals in forty-six Russian cities where they can be found in cafes and restaurants, clinics and hospitals, stores and shopping malls, at filling stations and mobile operators’ offices. Some companies offer their card-using customers a 1% to 10% discount. ‘Non-cash payments are globally recognized as the most civilized and secure way of paying for goods and services. The increase in the number of plastic card users largely

Sverdlovsk Region’s Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into the claim laid against Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt and Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt. The two companies are accused of price collusion. ‘Since we still need to obtain a number of documents from Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt, the hearing of the case has been put off until July 15, 2008. We are not going to postpone the case for long,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Federal Antimonopoly Service’s department director Yulia Anisimova says. The two previous meetings did not result in any decision, as more papers were needed. Yulia Anisimova reports

Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant (part of Sinara Group)’s Board of Directors decided to terminate the authority of the plant’s General Director Alexander Saltaev on July 7, 2008. This early termination was agreed upon by both parties. Following the BOD’s decision, Anatoly Sabelnikov is going to become the plant’s GD on July 8, 2008.

‘We have already issued quite a few cards, especially for our partners’ salary projects. We are currently servicing about 70,000 cards and planning to increase their number to several hundred thousands thanks to our own processing center. Cards will be launched in all the parts of Russia where the bank operates, from Irkutsk Region to Moscow,’ METCOMBANK’s Plastic Card Director Alexander Peshin said to UrBC. METCOMBANK expects to launch its own processing center at the beginning of July 2008. ‘Having our own processing center means offering a customer a card will take less time; besides, we

RBC.Rating came up with the results of their latest Russian financial market research. Their rating featured banks that proved the most profitable and the most efficient in the first quarter of 2008. Just like a year earlier, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development made it to Russia’s top 100 list, leaving behind many other Ural Federal District-based banks. The bank’s profit amounted to 355.8 million RUR on April 1, 2008 and secured the company the 44th best position on the Top 100 list and the 1st place among all the banks of Ural Federal District, the bank’s press officer reports.

The Public Security Council meeting devoted to timber industry problems was coordinated in Yekaterinburg. It was detected in the course of the meeting that despite the measures taken, the region keeps exporting increasingly more wood pulp with very little processing. In 2006, for instance, the regional customs noted that about 80% of all the timber was exported in the form of rough wood and converted timber. Last year, over 88% of wood export consisted of edged boards and logs, that is, products that undergo little processing. In the course of a meeting, a report was made by the Council’s

Vanadium, the ore mining and processing enterprise based in Kachkanar, Sverdlovsk Region, launched its investment project targeted at increasing production and transporting more mined rock. The project provides for acquisition and launch of sixteen pieces of new machinery and considerable upgrade of the plant’s communication system as well as creating more jobs, the spokesperson for the enterprise reports. The better part of the equipment has already arrived at the plant. These are eleven dump cars with the capacity of 105 tons each, TEM-18 diesel locomotive and NP-1 electromotive. To service

A heavy engineering committee was set up within the framework of Russia’s Machine-Builders Union. The committee’s first meeting was attended by representatives of twenty Russian companies and resulted in appointing General Director of Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation Nazim Efendiev the committee’s chairman, the spokesperson for Russia’s Machine-Builders Union. The re-introduction of the committee is aimed at coming up with a united policy of heavy engineering development and at uniting the enterprises’ efforts in order to draw up the governmental heavy engineering development program for

‘We keep on working on our plastic cards and have been recently promoted to Principal by VISA. SKB-Bank has issued 480,000 cards for its customers so far. These can be used for making a lot of different payments, including one’s phone and housing bills. In addition, we can boast a broad ATM network,’ SKB-Bank’s BOD Chairman Mikhail Khodorovskiy said in the course of a press briefing. The Chairman reports SKB-Bank intends to launch its first credit cards in July 2008. The bank runs over 250 automatic teller machines located in nine Russian regions.

Aston, the local developer, announced via its official website that the price of a one-room apartment in Aston Plaza located at 61 Radischev St. in Yekaterinburg had dropped from 4.554 million RUR to 3.9 million RUR. This decrease in price is reported to be a ‘special offer’, but the low demand for Aston Plaza’s apartments might also be the reason for this. Aston’s Chairman Vyacheslav Trapeznikov said in the course of a TV interview in May 2008 that only a third of all apartments had been sold at that moment, while the building itself was to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2008.

Following the changes in its structure and adoption of the new Charter, Ural Treasures Bank edited its name. Starting June 27, 2008, the bank’s full name is Ural Treasures Commercial Bank (open joint stock commercial company), or Ural Treasures Bank (OJSC) for short.

‘After Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg increased its jet fuel prices once again, the fuel fee (a common part of most travel packages) rose by about ?70 on average. The airport has introduced considerable price increases three times this year, with prices going up 15% each time,’ says Zima-Leto travel agency’s acting director Maria Shulika. The Federal Antimonopoly Service reports jet fuel prices remained the same throughout January 2006 to November 2007, whereas between November 2007 and June 2008, prices soared by 70%. Twenty Russian airports sell jet fuel at prices higher than this

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 24.44% (from 6.48 million RUR to 4.896 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for up to 30 days dropped by 65.50% (from 34.5 million RUR to 11.9 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a presentation of its first Magnitogorsk-based office. The office is located right in the center of the city at 15 Oktyabrskaya St. and offers its customers a full range of modern and profitable banking services. The nice assortment of products has been shaped in such a way that best fits the local dwellers’ needs. Private customers can apply for a loan, open ruble, dollar, or euro deposits (in fact, there is even an option of opening a bank deposit through an ATM), have their currency exchanged, make a number of payments, and get some

‘Elite-Bank is a new format of customer service, aimed at customers who enjoy top quality comfort. This naturally costs you a bit more, but what we offer is individualized, custom-made service, and our customers have the option of never even seeing each other and remaining totally anonymous if they like,’ SKB-Bank’s BOD Chairman Mikhail Khodorovskiy announced in the course of a press briefing. Mikhail Khodorovskiy reports Elite-Bank offers exhausting advice on all of SKB-Bank’s products and services. ‘Despite the fact that Elite-Bank has not been operating for very long, we have already felt

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 11.17% in January-May 2008.