Moscow, 21 April 2008 - UC RUSAL, the worlds largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jivko Savov to its Board of Directors. Jivko Savov is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Eurosibenergo and Managing Director for Energy at EN+, where he has been managing a portfolio of power and energy assets since 2006. Mr. Jivko Savov worked for over 12 years in the energy sector within asset management, business development and structured finance. Commenting on his appointment, Jivko Savov said: I am delighted to have an opportunity to work with the highly

SKB-Bank’s former Financial Director Denis Repnikov was appointed the bank’s new Deputy Chairman on April 18, 2008. Denis P. Repnikov has been working for the company since April 2003. This means SKB-Bank now employs one First Deputy and four Deputy Chairmen.

Due to the rising number of forest fires, Chelyabinsk Region government decided to put a ban on hunting in the emergency zones. If fires keep breaking out, hunting anywhere in the region might be banned completely, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. Moreover, the region’s government prohibited hunting within the commons to prevent poaching. The only exception to the rule involves upland fowl, provided the authorities from Moscow forward their approval before April 24, 2008. Then, hunting he-ducks and woodcocks would be allowed on April 26-30, 2008 and from April 26, 2008 to May 5,

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 16, 2008, the share price of Troika Dialog Financial Sector (Troika Dialog Management Company) has gone down by 15.55% since the beginning of the year.

The volume of Yekaterinburg Municipal Bank’s own funds dropped by 16.1% in January-March 2008 and reached 466,092,000 RUR on April 1, 2008. This falls short of the figures for January 1, 2008 by 16.1%. These data are available from Bank Severnaya Kazna’s report on the financial success of Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Tyumen Region, and Perm Territory’s largest banks in the first quarter of 2008.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 16, 2008, the share price of Russ Invest Stock and Bond (Russ Invest Management Company) has gone down by 16.14% since the beginning of the year.

URSA Bank introduced its eighth additional outlet in Chelyabinsk on April 18, 2008. The new office is located in Lenin Ave., right in the heart of the city. The solemn opening ceremony took place on noon: guests, URSA Bank employees, passers-by, and the office’s first customers clapped cheerfully as URSA Bank’s Managing Director Alexei Mizyulin and Chelyabinsk branch Director Andrei Rochev cut the traditional red ribbon at the door. ‘URSA Bank runs fifteen offices in Chelyabinsk Region at the moment, and this one has become the first outlet to be opened this year. In addition to this, we are

CEO Societe Generale Daniel Bouton is going to resign. The Financial Times reports this has to do with the financial scandal involving one of the bank’s traders who did $10bn worth of damage to the company. According to the bank’s press officer, though, the resignation is meant to signify the new page in the bank’s history after the whole thing is over.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 16, 2008, the share price of BCS Consumer Sector Fund (BrokerCreditService Management Company) has gone down by 16.71% since the beginning of the year.

1.62 million RUR will be allocated from Chelyabinsk Region’s budget to set up Internet schools in the area. All of the region’s schools were provided with the Internet connection in July 2007, and these e-schools are going to become the next stage of the project that provides for virtual chemistry, physics, and biology labs and simulators that can assist the students in exam-taking. In addition, online lessons on all the topics a high school student is supposed to master within any given subject are provided. The study materials have been developed by the traditional textbook authors in

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 10.61% (from 125.628 million RUR to 112.3 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Almaty, 17 April 2008 UC RUSAL, the worlds largest aluminium and alumina producer, announces that, within the framework of its joint venture in Kazakhstan, it has signed an agreement to sell a 50% share in coal mining at the Ekibastuzskoye coal field to Samruk Holding managing state assets. The mining at the Ekibastuzskoye coal field is in the areas of the Bogatyr and Severny coal mines in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. Under the signed agreement, Samruk Holding will pay UC RUSAL USD 345 million accounting for a 50% share in coal mining at the Bogatyr and Severny coal mines. The cost of

‘The decree that prevents people with debts officially declared in courts from leaving the country came into effect on February 1, 2008. Debtors may not be allowed to go abroad for up to six months,’ head of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Service of Court Officers Sergey Vinogradov said to UrBC. Vinogradov explained that this regulation only concerns executive orders issued by the court; the sum of the debt is irrelevant. ‘Some seventy people couldn’t go abroad last week alone,’ he added.

Sberbank of Russia, Visa International, and Aeroflot came up with a special offer known as Your Way to Beijing with Sberbank’s Visa Aeroflot; the offer is valid through May 31, 2008 and is dedicated to this year’s most memorable sports event: the Olympics to be held in China this summer. All of Sberbank’s cardholders who own Visa Classic Aeroflot and Visa Gold Aeroflot can take part in the prize-winning lottery provided they use these cards at least once to pay for their shopping. Prizes include two trips for two to the Olympics in Beijing. In addition, for every 30 RUR, $1, or ?1 you spend

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank URALSIB to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 100% (from 19.923 million RUR to zero) in January-March 2008.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was declared the bank with the Ural Federal District’s best investment policy in the course of a contest held among the best stock market players. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was able to increase the volume of its trading operations on the securities market by 3.1 times, or up to 521.319 billion RUR, in 2007 compared to 2006. The bank kept appearing in both MICEX and RTS (FORTS) ratings throughout the year. ‘The bank has everything in terms of resources and technologies to give its customers the fullest possible range of

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Universal Bank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 97.33% (from 9.75 million RUR to 260,000 RUR) in January-March 2008.

‘Passenger service fees were raised by 11% in Koltsovo airport’s international terminal after the Federal Tariff Service approved of this,’ says Koltsovo airport’s PR Director Yulia Fedotova. ‘This recent increase was something that the Service went through with in most of Russia’s large airports of national importance. The letter Koltsovo airport received from the Federal Tariff Service stated, for instance, that the fees had to go up proportionally to the country’s socioeconomic development to ensure financial stability of natural monopolies like seaports, airports, and accompanying

ROEL Group has announced recently that they might actually buy Noviy Grad’s assets. Lev Tretyakov, CEO ROEL Asset Management (part of ROEL Group), says they have been considering the idea for a while now. ‘It’s early times yet to speak of the details of the prospective transaction; we are currently at the negotiations stage, and the decision will probably be taken soon,’ he adds. Right to a Dwelling, one of the local NGOs, reported earlier that ROEL Group that deals in resuscitation of dying businesses among other things might actually buy the assets of Yekaterinburg’s bankrupt developer.

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg disputed the decision taken by Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service: the latter claims the airport is guilty of violating the competition protection laws. The Service declared on December 4, 2007 that Koltsovo airport, RusAviaJet, and Aviaprad could be charged with a secret collusion: the three companies made an agreement related to storage of petroleum products; as a result, jet fuel prices were strikingly different for Aviaprad and other carriers, despite the fact that it was one the same jet fuel all along. Aviaprad was thus