Severnaya Kazna BOD Chairman Vladimir Frolov reduced his share holding in the bank’s authorized capital from 23.929% to 23.352%, or by .58%. According to the bank’s official website, Severnaya Kazna Insurance Company Ltd. reduced its share holding from 3.602% to 2.602%. At the same time, the share of Chairman Andrei Volchik in the bank’s authorized capital went up from 7.044% to 7.691%, or by .65%. Prior to this, Mr. Volchik has reduced his share holding twice this year: from 7.995% to 7.044% (or by .951%) on May 4, 2007, and from 10.024% to 7.955% on April 25, 2007. This information was

Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Agriculture Ivan Feklin announced at the Governor Administration meeting that 1.4 billion RUR had to be invested in the spring sowing campaign. The minister reported 197 million RUR were contributed from the federal budget in the form of fuel subsidies, 434 million RUR came from the regional provision fund, with 300 million RUR spent on combustive-lubricating stuffs and fuel and the rest on herbicides, high quality grains, fodder crops, vegetable and corn seeds.

Uralsevergas announced that all its consumers must pay off their debts, as the company finds it extremely difficult to cover supply and delivery of natural gas if most of the housing maintenance and utilities services never pay their bills. As a result, Sverdlovsk Region might be getting considerably less gas soon, which is going to make preparations for the heating season 2007/2008 quite complicated. Uralsevergas reports there are 27 regional municipalities with 900 million RUR worth of debt on the list altogether.

Sudostroitelny Bank (Shipbuilding Bank) coordinated the second tranche of Bank24.ru. The volume of the tranche comes to 100 million RUR; its profitability is estimated at 11.5% a year for 60 million RUR to be paid within six months’ time and at 12.5% a year for 40 million RUR to be paid within nine months’ time. The promissory notes are accepted by both Shipbuilding Bank and Bank24.ru. ‘Shipbuilding Bank is to support Bank24.ru’s secondary market, including repurchase operations and accepting the bank’s promissory notes as inter-bank loan collateral,’ Bank24.ru’s Treasurer Maria Shvetsova

Foreign trade turnover at Nizhniy Tagil customs amounted to $962.2 million in January-April 2007, which is 25.9% better than in the corresponding period of 2006. 83.2% of goods handled by the customs were sent to or from the far abroad (this totaled to $800.4 million), 16.8% of goods were sent to or from the NIS (this totaled to $161.8 million), the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. The volume of trade turnover related to the members of the CIS went up 7.2% compared to January-April 2006 and reached $161.8 million (this was mainly due to a 169.5% increase in export to

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down 25% (from 176.067 million RUR to 131.65 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy presented his report on the city’s socio-economic development in 2006 to Yekaterinburg Municipal Duma deputies, laying special emphasis on problems related to heavy congestion and public transport. ‘We are going to reduce the number of vans used for public transportation; it is already becoming clear that they are a thing of the past; they did what they were supposed to do, that is, relieve a number of buses, but now we should try and acquire roomier vehicles that will be fewer in number yet capable of transferring more passengers at a time,’ the

The Central Bank of Russia reports that volume of loans given by Ural Interregional Bank to profit-making self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down 100% (from 23.6 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2007.

The first meeting of an ad hoc committee targeted at working through the logistics of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Heads of States meeting in 2009 is going to take place in Yekaterinburg on June 20, 2007, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Oleg Gusev says. Mr. Gusev reports the committee consists of representatives of the President Administration and of the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel attended a meeting devoted to industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals held in Chelyabinsk. The meeting was chaired by the State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov. In his report, the Governor focused on the shortage of power facilities in the region that kept hindering the new industrial enterprises’ growth. He said the agreement signed by Sverdlovsk Region and RAO UES of Russia did not seem to work in terms of any of its parts.

A new trunk road meant for providing a link between the future Academic district and the central and south-western parts of the city is currently under construction in Yekaterinburg. On behalf of the city council, Blagoustroystvo (a municipal enterprise) is routing the road in Serafima Deryabina St. through the South-Western Park, the spokesperson for RENOVA Stroy Group reports. The new road is part of the complex Academic construction project. This is going to become a six-way highway allowing for 80 kph, equipped with a three-meter bicycle track and a 4.5-meter sidewalk. Eventually, a tram

Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) stopped giving quarantine permits to importers of rice, sesame, and peanuts from India, even if these goods happen to be transferred through another country. Rosselkhoznadzor’s press officer Alexei Alexeenko explains that these temporary bans have been brought about by instances of sanitary regulations abuse revealed by Russian experts.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development lowered its consumer loan interest rates on June 4, 2007. This offer covers loans ranging from 50,000 RUR to 600,000 RUR. ‘Now we can come up with the advantage of very attractive financial terms in addition to a sizeable amount of money, conveniently long period of payment, lack of monthly commissions, and quick processing of a customer’s application that are characteristic of our consumer loans,’ the bank’s press officer says.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making NGOs’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 31 to 90 days went down 52% (from 137 million RUR to 65.5 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

First Deputy Minister for Economics and Labor of Sverdlovsk Region Nikolai Bespamyatnikh chaired a meeting of interdepartmental committee devoted to helping regional enterprises prepare for Russia’s upcoming entrance to the World Trade Organization. The meeting was attended by representatives of Sverdlovsk Region’s executive and legislative branches. It was reported that companies needed to have quality management systems and international certification procedures introduced in order to become economically viable. The Ministry reports most regional enterprises that have already been certified

URSA Bank’s new office was opened in Kemerovo on May 29, 2007; it is conveniently located next to the town hall and the regional administration building as well the city’s main post office, the Musical Theater of Kuzbass, the Drama Theater, Kemerovo State University and quite a few popular cafes and stores. The office deals in all kinds of retail loans as well as loans to small and medium-scale businesses. URSA Bank’s press officer says more than thirty people visited the place on the very first day in order to consult the bank’s experts and get their loans. ‘URSA Bank’s new office is very

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UIC Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down 37% (from 2.183 RUR to 1.356 RUR) in January-April 2007.

The Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region hosted a meeting of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Vietnam with representatives of both the regional ministry and the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the spokesperson for the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The Vietnamese diplomat arrived in Yekaterinburg to help introduce Vietnamese Consulate General in the Urals; he said they were going to complete all the procedures within the course of three to four months and start operating this fall. The consulate’s visa

Crediting organizations’ investments in Grancombank went down 40% (from 346,837,000 RUR to 207,805,000 RUR) on January 1, 2007 against a year earlier, the bank’s balance sheet states.

Bank24.ru held its annual general meeting on May 28, 2007. The shareholders aimed to evaluate the bank’s success in 2006 and approve of the annual report and profit distribution as well as to elect the new Board of Directors. The new Board now consists of S.G. Lapshin, B.P. Dyakonov, Yu.V. Petrovskiy, and two independent directors (Paul Goncharoff and I.A. Chevtaev). The attendees decided to declare 1% dividends, which comes to 10 RUR per one ordinary registered share. They also agreed on Saint Petersburg–based Peterburgbankaudit as their auditor for 2007 and selected the inspection