'The ever-increasing housing prices are actually an indicator of development,’ Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who supervises most national projects, announced at a press briefing in Kaliningrad. 'The root of the problem lies in the people’s incomes and in the availability of financial mechanisms that allow most of the modern world to handle housing problems. One needs to be able to get enough money to invest in a place to live, either through a mortgage (as is the case in most countries) or something similar to it,’ Mr. Medvedev said. In the meantime, the enormous,

The cutting ditch of agglomachine 2 was replaced at the agglomeration shop of West-Siberian Metallurgical Industrial Complex (part of Evraz Group). The cutting ditch is used to water wash the furnace charge and agglomerate. Novokuznetskremstroy Ltd., the company’s general contractor, had been working non-stop for eight days to replace an 80-meter section of the pipe with the 426-millimeter diameter. The ditch was actually in dire need of replacement since it was badly worn out by the agglomerate rubbing against it. In fact, a new cutting ditch is needed every eighteen to twenty-four months.

Central Bank of Russia reports the volume of loans given by Ural Interregional Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down by 19.8% (from 16.184 million RUR to 12.979 million) in January-June 2007.

‘The number of people applying for an international passport soared this year,’ Irina Pestryakova of Yekaterinburg passport and visa office said to UrBC. ‘We are simply unable to process all the applications in one month’s time (the legally defined wait time), so people have to wait for two to three weeks longer to get their passports,’ she noted. In the meantime, some local travel agents report one sometimes has to wait for as long as three months before one’s passport is actually delivered.

‘Bank24.ru and AIG, the insurance company, have introduced obligatory insurance for holders of Visa Classic, Visa Classic Mini, and Visa Classic Gold. A cardholder is now protected from risks connected with losing a card or having it stolen as well as being robbed next to an ATM. The insurance applies to Visa Classic and Visa Classic Mini cards that were issued after July 16, 2007. and to all Visa Gold cards, irrespective of their date of issuance. The insurance is free for Bank24.ru’s customers, who can use either of the two insurance schemes, the Standard one and the Gold one. The former is

Nizhniy Tagil Customs’ foreign trade turnover amounted to $1.7 billion in the first half of 2007, which exceeds the figures for January-June 2006 by 35.1%. $1.5 billion worth of goods, or 84.1% of all the goods exported, was sent to the countries of the far abroad, and $274.8 million worth of goods, or 15.9%, was exported to the CIS. The share of imported goods reached 10.6% ($183.6 million) in the total turnover volume, with the share of export coming to 89.4% ($1.5 billion), Ural Customs Administration reports. $274.8 million worth of goods was sent to or imported from the CIS, which

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by AGROPROMBANK Credit to profit-making self-regulatory organizations went down by 49.7% (from 770.281 million to 386.904 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (ChTPZ Group’s largest tube and pipe manufacturers) supplied their consumers with 971,000 tons of tubular goods in the first half of 2007, which is 28% better than in January-June 2006 when the figure only came to 761,300 tons. ChTPZ Group sold 539,000 tons of tubes and pipes in the first half of the year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier (that is, 414,300 tons) by 30%. These figures include a 39% increase in the amount of large-diameter pipes: it came to 302,600 tons compared with only 217,100 tons of LDPs in

SKB-Bank evaluated its performance in January-June 2007 and found very impressive growth figures. The bank’s net assets amounted to 23.7 billion on July 1, 2007, which is 5 billion more than on January 1, 2007; its loan portfolio went up by 5.6 billion RUR and thus reached 15.9 billion RUR. What is more, SKB-Bank managed to attract much more resources: these rose by 4.2 billion RUR and amounted to 21 billion RUR. The volume of natural persons’ deposits and investments came to 6.5 billion RUR. Following this year’s additional share issue, SKB-Bank’s authorized capital now comes to

URALMASH Machine-Building Corporation was officially registered in Yekaterinburg in compliance with the federal law requirements, the spokesperson for United Machine Building Works/OMZ (aka Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery) reports. URALMASH was set up as a joint venture run by United Machine Building Works/OMZ (Uralmash-Izhora Group) and Metalloinvest Management Company on an equal footing. The new company comprises OMZ’s Yekaterinburg-based UZTM (Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant), Uralmash-SpetsStal Ltd., OMZ DRO, and OMZ Crane Ltd., and

Autoland Holding (the major investor in the Ford Center motor show) admitted the center was set in operation even though there were some faults in it. ‘It was reported that the builder failed to provide the construction authorities with all the documents they needed, which can be classed as an administrative offence,’ Autoland’s Marketing Director Natalia Nagornova said to UrBC. ‘The authorities therefore imposed a fine on both the builder and their customer, and the former promised to supply them with the whole set of papers,’ she noted. Ford Center started operating on June 21, 2007 despite

SKB-Bank has always tried to meet the growing demands and needs of customers of all sorts. This is true of the bank’s VIP premium class clients as well; these customers can now enjoy the outstanding quality of service Elite-Bank (conveniently located in the center of Yekaterinburg) offers them, SKB-Bank’s press release states. The new bank takes pride in providing very strict confidentiality and an exceptional level of comfort: every customer is assisted by a personal manager, which is certainly much nicer than having to speak to a teller trough a bullet-proof window. A competent expert is

On July 15, 2007 Bank24.ru started issuing unusual cards that are 43% smaller than the ones people living in Yekaterinburg are used to. These new cards can be used for cashless payments in supermarkets and stores as well as for withdrawing money from one’s bank account or topping it up with the help of Bank24.ru’s tellers (the cards are not suitable for ATMs). Besides, Visa mini comes in handy if you want to pay for your online shopping. ‘Bank24.ru’s Visa mini cards are quite different; they change the way we think about a standard plastic card. Even the very design of these minis was bright

So far this year, the officers of Nizhniy Tagil-based Customs have filed 6 criminal suits related to smuggling of cars and 304 administrative suits against various types of offenders; this has already resulted in over 8.5 million RUR worth of fines. The total cost of automobiles and other vehicles that the accused meant to have smuggled is estimated at 3.808 million RUR. In the meantime, the Customs’ investigative forces whose job is to fight and prevent economic crimes conducted 129 special inspections (including 17 inspections that were done with the support of other law-enforcement

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel chaired a meeting devoted to the prospective development of Sverdlovsk Region-based members of EvrazHolding; the meeting was attended by the company CEO Alexander Frolov. It was reported in the course of the meeting that some 21 billion RUR had been invested in those enterprises’ re-equipment and renovation over the last three years, with the same amount of money received by the region’s budget. Over the next five years, the budget is expected to get at least 36 billion RUR, and EvrazHolding is apparently planning to invest 40 to 50 billion RUR in

A criminal suit was filed against some employees of Nizhneserginskiy Hardware Plant who were charged with safety violations on May 11, 2007; the case is going to be heard in court soon, Public Prosecutor of Revda Alexei Titov said to UrBC. These safety violations resulted in a major blow-out of steam that was emitted by the steel-smelting furnace. Eight people were wounded, with one of them passing away later on and two victims getting very badly hurt. It has already been proved that the furnace started malfunctioning as early as May 7, 2007; even though the management knew about the problem,

Sverdlovsk Region Duma deputies are going to decide whether to approve of the candidacy of the new Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region on July 24, 2007. The nominee candidate is Yuri Ponomarev, who is currently employed in the capacity of Public Prosecutor of Kostroma Region. Former Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region was appointed head of Ural Interregional Transport Prosecution Authority beginning from July 1, 2007; the corresponding order was signed by Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika on June 8, 2007.

395,200 square meters worth of housing were commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-June 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 27.7%. As regards Yekaterinburg, local builders put up 170,500 square meters worth of housing in the first half of the year, which makes up 43.1% of all the dwellings put up in the region; this is also 21.3% better than in January-June 2006. The share of sole builders amounted to 225,100 square meters, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 40.2%. The share of private houses amounted to 57% of all new dwellings compared to 51.9% in

The regional division of Rostechnadzor (the state technological safety watchdog) conducted 42 targeted inspections of builders in January-June 2007 (which was done at the requests of both individuals and businesses) and kept supervising 2,534 overhauls and construction sites. Kommunstroy Ltd., Dom Ltd., and Nova-Stroy and Nova–Stroy Ltd. executives will now have to undergo enforcement, Rostechnadzor’s press officer reports.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 40% (from 75 million RUR to 45 million RUR) in January-June 2007.