Aviaprad’s Turkey-bound flight was delayed by over fifteen hours on September 24, 2007. The carrier’s management has so far been unable to explain why this happened. As a matter of fact, an Aviaprad’s flight gets put off nearly every week.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works’ strategy targeted at reducing the negative impact the company makes on the environment consists in switching to modern technologies, putting up new conservation facilities where today’s best technologies would be implemented, and doing away with the obsolete equipment in the old production shops. In the early 90s, most of the company’s facilities were badly worn out. 70% to 75% of these facilities have by now been replaced, and some new production units were put up. For example, three coking plants were removed from the coke and by-product processing shop

‘Kamensk Communal Company still has not started paying its multi-million-ruble heating bill,’ IES Multiutilities’ PR Director Elena Ilyina said to UrBC. ‘These circumstances notwithstanding, the heating season did start in the town of Kamensk Uralskiy last Friday. Some districts haven’t got the heating yet, though; these are the old town and Leninskiy district. Kamensk Communal Company still has not produced any documents that could prove that the heating facilities used in these parts of the town are actually ready to be used,’ Ms Ilyina added. Overall, IES Multiutilities’ debtors owe the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit financial organizations’ deposits in UralTransBank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 100% (from 5.156 million RUR to zero) in January-August 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Tagilbank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 57.14% (from 7 million RUR to 3 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

According to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic in the Russian Federation Stanislas de Laboule, a French consulate will be set up in Yekaterinburg before the end of the year. The consulate will probably be located in the vicinity of Ural State University, yet no further details have been officially reported as of yet. The place where the consulate is to be housed has been undergoing some remodeling since the beginning of September. M. Laboule says they have been paying the rent since July 2007, however. The Ambassador reports the consulate will be servicing

Kamensk-Uralskiy division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and nuclear safety watchdog) found 104 violations at Klyuchevsk Ferrous Alloys Works in the course of a recent inspection. This resulted in six intermediary provisions and seventeen administrative liability cases against the plant’s executives as well as one report regarding offenses committed by a legal entity. The plant was also charged with two administrative offenses that were handled by a court in Sysert. Rostechnadzor applied for a shutdown of one of the plant’s electric furnaces and two cranes. On September 10, 2007

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in AGROPROMBANK Credit valid for up to 30 days went down by 100% (from 10 million RUR to zero) in January-August 2007.

The Kommersant newspaper came up with a rating of Russia’s most professional managers, with only one Sverdlovsk Region-based executive actually making it to the Top 1,000 Russian Managers list. This was SKB-Bank’s Chairman Mikhail Khodorovskiy. The rating, compiled by the Association of Russian Managers and Kommersant, comprises names of the best managers in eighteen branches of economy. There are, for example, 34 bank executives in the Commercial Banks category. The assessment was actually made by some representatives of Russian business community; most of them would normally meet the

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of state-run for-profit organizations’ deposits in Ural Innovational Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 100% (from 501,000 RUR to zero) in January-August 2007.

Former director of Ferromin Ltd’s trade representation in Moscow Sergey Bubnov was appointed President of RUSAL America and will now report to RUSAL America’s Board of Directors. Richard Kellner was appointed the company’s CEO and is now in charge of financial accounting and internal control. Mark Bodner was appointed Sales Director and will now handle sales, marketing strategies, and customer service. Both Mr. Kellner and Mr. Bodner are to report to Mr. Bubnov. In the meantime, former President of RUSAL America Bruce Markowitz is leaving office. ‘North America is a very important region for

Russian Standard Bank is not going to offer its individual customers any cash loans or mortgages until after October 1, 2007. ‘This can definitely only be seen as a bad thing: first, a bank just doesn’t have any cash to give loans, and then, before you know it, it lacks money to return deposits. What matters most in this particular case is making sure things never arrive at the second scenario,’ Vsevolod Chaschin, General Director of Blagodat Securities Investment Company, said to UrBC. ‘Russian Standard Bank is a well-known business, so its current problems might actually hurt some other

Russian Standard Bank stopped giving cash loans to private individuals for the time being; the bank does not deal in mortgage lending, either. The bank’s top executives describe this as a ‘temporary limit on sales of competitive products’ and say they have to make these sacrifices because of changes in their tariffs and terms of credit. ‘It could be that Russian Standard Bank stopped dealing in cash loans due to a number of complaints coming from the law-enforcement agencies and Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog),’ Director of Accord Invest’s Ural branch Konstantin Selyanin

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of natural persons’ deposits and investments in Universal Bank valid for over 3 years went down by 41.26% (from 97.936 million RUR to 57.527 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of non-profit NGOs’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 1 to 3 years went down by 93.39% (from 5.14 million RUR to 340,000 RUR) in January-August 2007.

ChTPZ Group Chairman Alexander Fedorov and Director of Chelyabinsk physico-mathematical lyceum No. 31 Alexander Popov signed a cooperation agreement on September 1, 2007. The agreement is aimed at providing the enterprise with highly qualified employees in the near future, ChTPZ Group’s press officer reports. The company’s management met both the teachers and the parents’ boards at the beginning of September. Besides, a tour of the company’s plants was organized for them. ‘I feel this agreement between the school and the plant is a good thing. This is something that is in keeping up with the

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ deposits and investments in Plato Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 23.97% (from 3.61 million RUR to 2.745 million RUR) in January-August 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region’s draft budget for the year 2008 was approved of by Sverdlovsk Region Duma Budget, Finance, and Taxes Committee (chaired by Vladimir Tereshkov) at a meeting attended by deputy chairs Askhat Masaev and Elena Chechunova, committee members Anatoly Maltsev and Georgiy Perskiy, the regional Minister of Finance Maria Serova, acting Sverdlovsk Region Minister of Economics and Labor Nikolai Bespamyatnikh, chairman of the Accounts Chamber Andrei Izmodenov, and some representatives of the Governor, of Sverdlovsk Region Government, of the region’s taxation bodies, and of the Institute

Severnaya Kazna stopped accepting UnionCard and STB-Card plastic cards on September 20, 2007 when ATM and point-of-sale terminal transactions became no longer available for this group of cardholders. The reason for this is that Bank VTB 24, who used to be UnionCard’s calculating agent, stopped cooperating with the business.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 100% (from 11.341 million RUR to zero) in January-August 2007.