President of Russian Railways Public Company Vladimir Yakunin introduced the new head of South Ural Railways Vladimir Moldaver to Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin on July 3, 2007. Mr. Sumin welcomed the new appointee and said he believed the regional government and the railway company executives would be able to keep on cooperating and providing mutual support. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Mr. Sumin spoke very highly of the joint project aimed at restoring a railway station in Chelyabinsk that has now become one of Russia’s best.

Ural Airlines has already sold five times more tickets as of July 1, 2007 against July 2006. The carrier’s press officer reports 5% of their customers prefer online booking at the moment, which is one of the highest figures among Russian airlines. Sochi and Moscow have always been the most popular destinations for the company’s clients, so these destinations are also the ones most often booked online. The recent increase in e-sales can be explained by matters of convenience, appealing tariffs, and absence of fuel fees for some destinations. E-booking is mainly used by people who are

MDM Bank Ural acquired a new name and is now known as Bank EEFC Ural (aka Bank VEFK Ural). 'This is part of a re-branding process connected with the acquisition of the bank’s entire capital by East European Finance Corporation on November 17, 2006. We haven’t been able to give the company a new name before because we needed to have all the papers approved by the Central Bank of Russia first,’ Bank EEFC Ural’s Customer Service Development Director Evgeniy Durnev said to UrBC. 'At the same time, the bank is not going to operate any differently now that it’s owned by someone new. We

Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) had two of its inventions patented, which can be officially verified by two writs of protection issued by Rospatent (the state intellectual property, patents, and trademarks agency). The company now has all the rights over the inventions that were launched on its premises in 2006. These have never been used anywhere before, and the economic benefits of using them are now being evaluated. The models were designed by the company’s metallurgists themselves, the spokesperson for Evraz Group reports. The employees of

The investigative forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs looked into a criminal case connected with large-scale fraud (a group of swindlers stealing money from Russian Standard Bank) and were able to accuse the offenders of setting up a criminal conspiracy. The results of the inquiry indicate that the perpetrators designed a way of stealing money with the help of bank cards. They managed to crimp a number of post office clerks in Siberia and the Urals and had some of their accomplices employed at the post offices into the bargain. The fraudsters were thus able to open and inspect some

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ investments and deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 31 days to 90 days went down by 68% (from 1.988 million RUR to 626,000 RUR) in January-May 2007.

Federal Mortgage Lending Agency declared that the minimum interest rate on a mortgage would come to 10.75% a year beginning from July 1, 2007. Analysts say a .25% reduction is not too much, but what matters is the government’s very intention to make mortgage loans more affordable. 'Lower interest rates on mortgages actually support the Affordable Housing Program. Provided the country’s economy does okay (that is, if the inflation rates go down), the interest rates are simply bound to decrease even more impressively. In fact, the lowest annual interest rate might amount to a modest 10% as

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met General Director of Uralmashzavod Nazim Efendiev on July 2, 2007. The spokesperson for the Governor reports Mr. Rossel and Mr. Efendiev were discussing some technicalities of setting up an engineering company meant for development and introduction of new technologies.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 1 year to 3 years went down by 51% (from 78.767 million RUR to 38.565 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s annual general meeting held on June 27, 2007 resulted in approval of the annual accounting report for 2006. The bank managed to prove once again that it has remained the Urals’ No.1 on the financial market. The bank’s balance sheet total rose by 1.7 times and reached 33.2 billion RUR in 2006, its loan portfolio increased by 1.4 times, amounting to 15.9 billion RUR. The balance of accounts and balance on deposits grew by 1.9 times and came to 8 billion RUR. The volume of natural persons’ deposits rose by 1.5 times last year, amounting to over

MAVLON INVEST LTD was officially reported to have sold its 20.00029% share in GRAN Bank’s authorized capital to a Cyprus-based REKHA HOLDINGS LIMITED. MAVLON INVEST LTD, an offshore company, announced that it had bought a 19.693% share in GRAN Bank from Conversbank on June 14, 2007. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any information that can influence its stock price.

‘This season, most tourists head for Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus. Croatia and Montenegro have also grown very popular now that one can fly there straight from Yekaterinburg,’ Direct Sales Manager of Riviera Tour Ltd. Tatiana Rogacheva says. 'Each tourist type normally tends to choose a certain price category. As regards the middle class, they mostly go for economy-class hotels such as four-star ones,’ she notes.

Ural Airlines has flown 39,802 passengers to Saint Petersburg since the beginning of the year, which exceeds the figures for January-June 2006 by 47%. The carrier’s press officer reports this has been brought about by lower tariffs as well as the introduction of two extra Chelyabinsk-Saint Petersburg flights a week. The research conducted by the airline reveals that this year, the carrier’s Saint Petersburg-bound flights have largely been used by people living in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, and those living in Yakutia and the NIS. Most of these travelers went

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralfinprombank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for 31 days to 90 days went down by 42.5% (from 255.187 million RUR to 146.656 million RUR) in January-June 2007.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of state-owned profit-making organizations’ deposits in URALSIB valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 63.2% (from 6.8 million RUR to 2.5 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

MAVLON INVEST LTD was officially reported to have sold its 20.00029% share in GRAN Bank’s authorized capital to a Cyprus-based REKHA HOLDINGS LIMITED. MAVLON INVEST LTD, an offshore company, announced that it had bought a 19.693% share in GRAN Bank from Conversbank on June 14, 2007. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund must promptly reveal any information that can influence its stock price.

Chairman of Severnaya Kazna Andrei Volchik reduced his share in the bank’s authorized capital from 8.413% to 5.413% by selling a 3% share holding. The amount of shares owned by Mr. Volchik has undergone some changes before: the figure went up from 7.691% to 8.413%, or by .73%, on June 14, 2007, whereas Mr. Volchik decreased his share from 7.995% to 7.044%, or by .951%, a bit earlier. He also sold some shares on April 25, 2007 when his share holding was reduced from 10.024% to 7.995%. This information was revealed in compliance with the regulation that an issuer/a joint stock investment fund

Hermitage Hotel (aka L’ermitage) hosted a meeting of a committee for facilitating foreign and Russian travelers’ visits to Sverdlovsk Region. One of the points on the agenda was devoted to acute shortage of cheap hotel rooms. A room classed as a cheap A-class one must cost between 500 RUR and 1,000 RUR; in the meantime, it will cost you $140 on average to book a hotel room in Yekaterinburg, Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev’s press officer Oleg Zemtsov says. 82% of travelers arriving in Yekaterinburg fall into the ‘business class‘ category, which is one of the reasons why local investors are

Net assets of Energy-Mixed Investments that are currently supervised by Eurogreen Management Company are going down; Eurogreen’s official website says the value of assets amounted to 5,138,507.5 RUR on June 25, 2007 compared with 5,183,356.07 RUR on June 22, 2007, which means the figure decreased by .87%.

'Electric power industry is Sverdlovsk Region’s major problem; if we fail to solve it, we have no future in terms of development. The agreement we signed with RAO UES of Russia does not seem to be fully functional, that is, the network is being maintained properly, but the output of power is insufficient. We are now drawing up a report on how this agreement has been working over the last six months, and I am meeting head of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais on July 2, 2007 to discuss the performance of the company and the reasons why our agreement is failing,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk