Chelyabinsk Region’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear security watchdog) inspected a number of KB-473 tower cranes that were used by Legion-C and Legion in order to find the possible flaws and prevent their destruction, the spokesperson for Rostechnadzor’s Ural Federal District division reports. The inspections were brought about by a number of industrial accidents: on May 17, 2008, a KB-473 tower crane’s lower arm collapsed, leaving one worker badly injured. The accidents occurred at the intersection of Malyshev St and Lunacharskiy St, right in

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, 19.06.2008. The U.S.-based Reputation Institute reports Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was put on World's Most Respected Companies in 2008 list. The list comprises two hundred entities. Says Renaissance Group’s Chairman Stephen Jennings: ‘The world’s rapidly developing countries provide a perfect environment for shaping some of the most successful business management practices and breeding new market leaders. This is why it is not only the fastest-growing economy and the assets and markets of rapidly developing countries that play the most important part,

Chelyabinsk-based SOT, a company dealing in production of pipeline bends and part of Rimera (ChTPZ Group’s O&G maintenance division), is now the proud owner of a license that allows the enterprise to produce machinery meant for nuclear power stations. The license was issued by Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog). Getting this license means SOT can now manufacture pipeline fittings that will be employed in the nuclear power industry. ‘The energy sector is on the rise now, new heat and nuclear power stations are being put up, while the

‘Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg will surely find it hard to prove that the recent increase in the price of the jet fuel was justified. The mere comparison of the European market’s prices and the Russian market’s ones makes it obvious that Koltsovo is not particularly good at dealing with financial issues; nor is it a very effective business,’ says lawyer Ivan Kadochnikov. ‘I believe that, unlike most other Russian airports, Koltsovo will be subject to a very thorough scrutiny. Firstly, this airport has already clashed with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and had to pay a 13-million-ruble

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 1 to 3 years plummeted by 100% (from 1 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

United Company RUSAL announced it was going to invest over $2bn in finding some new fields of application for aluminum and development of promising products. This is part of the global initiative on wider aluminum usage. UC RUSAL and the International Aluminium Institute are already accepting applications that meet the requirements available from their websites and invite the world’s leading universities and research centers to join in the project. This global initiative on innovational research is UC RUSAL and the IAI’s joint project that provides for three years of selecting the best ideas

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ Bank to private individuals dropped by 32.52% (from 8.72 million RUR to 5.884 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders despite overdraft went down by 72.63% (from 7.341 million RUR to 2.009 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 43.45% (from 235.099 million RUR to 132.943 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Uralfinance valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 49.36% (from 39.5 million RUR to 20 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The stockholders of Betfor, a plant dealing in concrete goods production, were supposed to hold an annual general meeting, but the meeting was declared invalid due to absence of a quorum. The meeting was therefore put off until July 15, 2008. The plant’s majority shareholder is LSR Group.

The genetic labs located in the United States and Austria have fully completed their testing and examination of the so-called royal remains, yet some procedures are still being carried out in Sverdlovsk Region’s forensic medical examination bureau, Interfax reports. Head of the bureau Nikolai Nevolin says only a number of tests have been fully finished so far, so the examination will have to be continued. ‘For one, we still haven’t been able to carry out the test related to identifying the presence of hemophilia-causing bits of DNA (Nicolas the Second’s son Alexei was a hemophiliac),’ Nevolin

Moscow, June 18, 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, has announced plans to invest more than USD 2 million to find the best new applications for aluminium and to develop innovative products. As part of this Global Technology and Innovation Research Project UC RUSAL and the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) are inviting leading universities and research centers from around the world to apply for the funding of innovative research projects.љ Over the next three years, the Global Technology and Innovation Project will select the most ground breaking ideas

The total damage caused by industrial and other kinds of accidents that occurred in Sverdlovsk Region in 2005 amounted to 19.6 million RUR; this figure includes 11.1 million RUR worth of damage caused by accidents related to major pipeline transport. In 2006, the total damage was estimated at 23.5 million RUR, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 19.7%; in 2007, losses reached 82.8 million RUR, which exceeded the figures for 2006 by 28%. In the first quarter of 2008, figures came to 13.2 million RUR.

Kirill Shubin, General Director of Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg, admitted that the airport was going to introduce another fuel price increase soon. On June 21, 2008, the fuel will cost 13.6% more than before and will be available for 30,600 RUR per ton. The announcement to this extent was also made by the airport’s deputy GD Anton Fedotov earlier. The airport’s top executives report the increase has to do with the general state of events on the domestic and global market.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel appointed Mikhail Sharin Sverdlvosk Region’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Science. Mikhail Sharin was born in 1960 and graduated from Ural Electromechanic Institute of Railway Transport Engineers in 1982. He has always been employed at Sverdlovsk Region Railways in one capacity or another, his last position being that of first deputy railway head for passenger carriers and that of head of infrastructure services for passenger travel. Mikhail Sharin’s new office is related to supervising all kinds of air, automobile, and railway transport as well

Kinetika, a group of logistics companies, has recently introduced a toll-free number (8-800-2000-999, all calls free within Russia) for its contact center. ‘We did this to make sure Kinetika is easy to work with no matter what part of Russia our customer is in. The quality of our customer service is reaching some totally new heights,’ says the company’s Sales and Marketing Director Stanislav Danilchenko. Experts from the company’s help and information center can update their callers on all the issues related to the logistics services Kinetika renders; they can also handle contract-related

On June 16, 2008, URSA Bank made 28.425 million RUR worth of coupon payments on its second bond issue. The coupon yield was determined by the 7.6% annual interest rate, with payment per bond coming to 18.95 RUR. URSA Bank went through with its second bond issue worth 1.5 billion RUR on December 16, 2005; the bonds are to be in circulation for three years; the issue was coordinated by Dresdner Bank.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 721,400 tons of tubular goods in the first five months of 2008, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 809,100 tons) by 11%. ChTPZ Group sold 385,800 tons of tubes and pipes in the five months of the year, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier (that is, 453,400 tons) by 15%. These figures include a 23% drop in the amount of large-diameter pipes: this came to 198,300 tons compared with 256,200 tons of LDPs in

The Bank of Russia came up with some data on the international money orders made by private individuals in the first quarter of 2008. Over 190 billion RUR worth of international money orders have been made in Russia since the beginning of the year. Most money orders destined for the countries of the far abroad go to Switzerland, China, and the United States. Over 21 billion RUR, for instance, were directed to Switzerland and over 10 billion RUR were sent to the U.S. At the same time, a lot of international money orders go to the countries of the near abroad. The lion’s share of those (10