'We have already agreed with the regional division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service that Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg should be allowed to raise aviation kerosene prices from 18,460 RUR per ton to 20,175 RUR per ton on December 4, 2007. This increase has to do with the growing purchasing prices, which, in its turn, is connected with the changing situation on both the domestic and global oil markets,’ Koltsovo airport’s CFO Anton Fedotov says. 'Besides, the traditional New Year’s hyper-demand for fuel has already led to certain shortage, so we would expect to raise the prices

‘NOVA Group, the construction holding, is a large and stably operating business whose entire activity is planned rigorously. Our customers know that the company always meets its liabilities in time and ends up with good quality products. At the moment, all of the holding’s top executives keep working as usual, as no new shareholders or proprietors have entered the company yet,’ NOVA Group’s press officer reports. In the meantime, media report Chairman Oleg Cherepanov has sold the business recently. ‘These reports only mean the company is investor-attractive, so we can’t help feeling proud,’

The communal housing and services companies of Kamensk-Uralsk (Sinara Group) owes IES Multiutilities 84 million RUR (as of December 1, 2007), which is 6 million more than in November 2007. The debt is, in fact, an unpaid hot water and electricity bill. Sinara was supposed to have paid the supplier 38 million RUR in November 2007, yet the debtor announced at the beginning of the month that they were only able to pay 34 million RUR. By the end of the month, however, they said they could only pay 25 million RUR, and ended up paying 14 million RUR, the spokesperson for IES Multiutilities said to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tyumenenergobank to nongovernmental financial institutions for 181 days to 1 year went down by 19.11% (from 157 million RUR to 127 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by .14% between November 30, 2007 and December 3, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 3,799,896.11 RUR on November 30, 2007 to 3,794,625.68 RUR on December 3, 2007.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development is celebrating the New Year by offering its customers a chance to open or top up a bank deposit through an ATM. The offer is available for four types of deposits that can employ different currencies. The minimum amount of money one can deposit is 3,000 RUR, $100, or Ï100, and this amount can be deposited for anything between one hundred days and nine months. Depending on the type of deposit chosen, the interest can either be added up to one’s deposit or placed in the bank card account. The bank’s press officer says their customers can now save

Ural Airlines is going to add a Kemerovo-Baku flight to its winter timetable on December 21, 2007. Kemerovo is now the home of one of Russia’s largest Azerbaijan communities, so Ural Airlines actually decided to introduce this flight in order to meet this group of customers’ demands. This is going to be a scheduled flight, to be operated using a modern and comfortable TU 154M. The plane is to take off in Baku at 1.55 PM every Thursday and to arrive in Kemerovo at 9.05 PM, then the plane is to leave Kemerovo at 11.05 PM on Fridays and to arrive in Baku at 12.30 AM the next day. The cheapest

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) is now hosting a three-day international conference known as TRANSMET 2007; the conference is devoted to the new ways of producing metal for railways, the spokesperson for Evraz Group said to UrBC. About two hundred experts from forty-eight metallurgical, machine-building, and railway enterprises located in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the Czech Republic, England, Italy, and France take part in the conference. In addition, there are some employees of scientific research labs and professors from Russia’s best colleges among the attendees.

The public prosecution authorities of Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, demanded that Alexei Grebenkin, a local sole trader, face administrative liability for illegal use of registered trademarks. It was revealed in the course of a recent investigation that Mr. Grebenkin had been abusing brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Puma by selling pirated sportswear. The entrepreneur was charged with administrative offense, and the regional Court of Arbitration found the accused guilty, so Mr. Grebenkin had to pay a 10,000-ruble fine. The pirated items of clothing were confiscated.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 83.47% (from 3.025 million RUR to 500,000 RUR) in January-November 2007.

BLAGOFF Premium vodka won the first prize in Drink Industry international exhibition/contest in Moscow for its unique design. The contest was aimed at finding the most stylish and modern-looking bottle among the great variety of strong drinks. The competing bottle designs were assessed on the basis of the following criteria: the general style, the kind of novelty it presents, the type of packaging used, how well the bottle and the packaging preserve the product and whether the environmental and material quality norms are complied with, TM BLAGOFF’s press officer reports. The panel of bottle

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 76.68% (from 255.177 million RUR to 59.5 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Tagilbank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 100% (from 26.25 million RUR to zero) in January-November 2007.

Most of Sverdlovsk Region-based metallurgical enterprises failed to transfer the amount of cargo originally declared via Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ facilities in November 2007. As a result, the trunk line was underused in terms of transportation of ferrous metals and iron ore by 92,400 tons and 45,100 tons respectively, which means the railway company sustained a certain amount of losses, their press officer reports. The total amount of ferrous metals transported via Sverdlovsk Region Railways in November 2007 came to 987,600 tons, which falls short of the previous year’s figures by 22,300

SKB-Bank offered its first mortgage loan to a Surgut-based customer. The bank’s press officer reports SKB-Bank has already started offering loans to people living in Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Perm, Volzhskiy, Rostov, Taganrog, and Noyabrsk. The bank has so far provided them with 4,500 mortgage loans worth more than 4 billion RUR. SKB-Bank’s next goal is offering their first mortgage loan to a customer from Noviy Urengoi.

There are 257 hotels of various kinds in Sverdlovsk Region at the moment; these hotels differ in terms of star categories, range of services, and prices; most of them are located in Yekaterinburg. Together, they could provide a place to stay for 13,500 people, the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The hotel market turnover has gone up by more than 300 million RUR over the last three years; more and more hotels are being put up in Yekaterinburg, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Aramil, Irbit, and other regional towns. At the same time, the region is currently only able to meet 51%

Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Industry, Power Engineering, and Science says one way to provide the industrial enterprises with workers is to use foreign ones, which has already been done in the past. This solution to the problem leaves a lot to be desired, though, as these workers might not be skilled enough or might not be educated enough; then, the region appears to have no facilities to train or retrain them or support them otherwise. To make matters worse, one has to wait for three to four months to have all the papers processed. What is more, an employer has to pay 4,000 RUR for a worker

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralfinance Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 91 to 180 days went down by 40.8% (from 17.9 million RUR to 10.597 million RUR) in January-November 2007.

'We intend to go for a fuel price increase as soon as this month. The decision had to be taken due to the growth of wholesale aviation kerosene prices. Actually, this isn’t going to be the last time we raise fuel prices, though we do hope that things grow a bit steadier in January 2008,’ Koltsovo airport’s CFO Anton Fedotov says. 'I would just like to point out that we are selling at 20,175 RUR per ton at the moment, whereas Vnukovo airport of Moscow has already raised prices up to 21,615 RUR per ton,’ he notes.

Sverdlovsk Region is Russia’s most waste-polluted region, with the amount of accumulated waste coming to 8.3 billion tons, the region’s Ministry of Natural Resources reports. The region produces 160 million tons to 180 million tons of waste a year, of which 100 million tons get deposited in 1,350 storages with the total area of nearly 20,000 hectares (and this is comparable with some European countries). According to the Ministry, the lion’s share of waste (5.3 billion tons, or 63.2%) is produced by the building industry, followed by the ore-mining and metallurgical enterprises, with their