'Aviaprad currently owes Koltsovo airport 500 million RUR,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced at a recent press conference relating to the airport’s attempts to offer Ural Airlines’ slots to Aviaprad. 'Given the great debt this carrier has, one cannot help questioning this company’s future,’ the Governor said.

According to a rating published by Kommersant Dengi magazine (published on May 28, 2007), URSA Bank hit 20th on Russia’s Top 20 largest banks list in terms of net wealth and 22nd on Russia’s Top 20 largest banks list in terms of equity capital. 'URSA Bank was No.7 in terms of being the most customer-friendly and No. 12 in terms of most developed retail services and investments by natural persons; it was also 24th in terms of profits and 15th in terms of attracted investments and securities,’ the bank’s press officer reports.

'We are currently thinking of who is going to become the new general director of Koltsovo airport; as for the former GD Mikhail Maximov, he is guilty of a breach of law as well as of failing to comply with the orders issued by the Ministry of Transport since he chose to change the traditional flight schedule for Ural Airlines (the one the carrier has used for years) more or less ad libitum,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced at a press conference on May 29, 2007. 'Mr. Maximov has received a number of warnings from the Ministry in the past, but he did not seem to

Aramil, Sysert, and Verkhnyaya Pyshma put up most houses (per 1,000 citizens) in Sverdlovsk Region in January-April 2007. No dwellings were commissioned in Volchanskiy, Krasnouralsk, Garinskiy, Staroutkinsk, Malyshevskiy, and Taborinskiy municipalities. These data were presented in the report on the regional cities’ socio-economic development in the four months of 2007 drawn up by Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Economics and Labor.

A meeting of the city council’s exhibition coordinating committee was held in Yekaterinburg on May 29, 2007. The agenda of the meeting covered issues related to the implementation of the International Exposition Center project in the first quarter of 2007, Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee reports. The city is expected to host 179 exhibitions this year altogether; 45 of them have already been organized in January-March 2007. The average number of visitors per exhibition amounted to 8,116 people; the average stand area reached 7.4 square meters; the average number of foreign exhibits

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel sent his address regarding the region’s taxation and budgetary developmental strategies in 2008-2010 to Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. For the first time this year, the region’s budget (as well as that of the Russian Federation) is to be adopted for a three-year period.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nonresident legal entities’ deposits in Uralfinprombank valid for 91 to 180 days went down 100% (from 9.833 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.

The Russian Federation Subsoil Resources Agency issued an order regarding early license termination of Uralneft entitling the former to Krasnoufimskiy land patch beginning from October 1, 2007, the Agency’s Licensing Department said to UrBC. In the little time they have, the company has to have the area re-vegetated and wells shut down. The license was actually cancelled because Uralneft actually dealt in illegal oil production, reaching an output of 6,000 tons a year, whereas its license only stated that the company was allowed to engage in some experimental-industrial activity as far as

In January-April 2007, Nizhniy Tagil customs’ Currency Control Department initiated 218 inspections aimed at checking how effectively 23 local exporters complied with the currency regulations. These inspections resulted in 52 administrative lawsuits, with damage claims amounting to $531,070. All the case-related papers have already been placed with the regional division of Rosfinnadzor (the state financial watchdog) 29 cases have to do with failing to meet the requirement that exporters have their money (foreing currency obtained through export of goods) transferred in certain banks over a

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of natural persons’ deposits and investments in UralTransBank placed for 31 to 90 days went down 83% (from 3.608 million RUR to 611,000 RUR) in January-April 2007.

26 posts at Russian-Kazakh frontier will be set up in Chelyabinsk Region; the decision was announced by the head of Federal Security Service Frontier Administration in Chelyabinsk Region Oleg Lutskikh at the anti-terrorist committee meeting chaired by Governor Petr Sumin. The attendants also discussed the need for efficient railway check points (the ones available at the moment leave a lot to be desired). The Governor suggested that the committee should write a proposal to this effect to Head of Russian Federation Government Mikhail Fradkov. Besides, matters of anti-terrorist protection at

URSA Bank set up its second mortgage lending center in Novosibirsk at 27 Vatutin St. (The first office is located at 179/4 D. Kovalchuk St.) ‘URSA Bank has for a long time been doing business with realtors in terms of mortgages; actually, this is how the idea of creating a workplace for a realtor in our offices emerged. As far as the new center is concerned, our customers can consult a representative of Pallas Athena agency,’ URSA Bank’s Mortgage Promotion Director in Novosibirsk Anna Bardysheva says. ‘A customer coming to our office would be able to get advice on the best mortgages as well

This year’s housing market development can be defined as stagnating in comparison with last year; the number of actual transactions has gone down dramatically against the second half of 2006, experts of Ural Chamber of Real Estate say. This drop in the buying activity can be explained by a dramatic increase in housing prices, since such increases have led to decreasing demand before. At the same time, the amount of transactions completed in the first quarter of 2007 is not any smaller than in the first quarter of 2006; moreover, this figure outstrips the data for 2002-2005. This means current

‘The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s buying a 25% share holding of SKB-Bank’s authorized capital is going to make this Yekaterinburg-based bank much more respectable. It will also ensure cheap money and well-reputed co-directors as well as a great developmental impulse,’ Vitaliy Kalugin, Assets Management Director of Unicom Partner Investment Company, said to UrBC. SKB-Bank reports it signed the share-selling agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on May 24, 2007. The share holding is constituted by the bank’s additional share issue and comes to

‘These will mainly be some Moscow-based companies that will actually suffer the greatest losses because of the possible bans for Russian airplanes to fly to Tunis. Ural travelers are not going to be seriously affected as Yekaterinburg dwellers don’t really go to Tunis that much,’ Bosfor Travel Agency’s Commercial Director Alexei Satarov said to UrBC. ‘We are hoping, though, that our authorities actually manage to settle the issue,’ he added. Last weekend, Tunisian authorities cancelled their permissions to enter the country given to all Russian carriers; this lasted a few hours; the flights

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to state-owned profit-making organizations for 1 to 3 years went down 29% (from 4.999 million RUR to 3.541 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

According to Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Agriculture and Food, regional farmers are planning to be done with the spring crops by June 4, 2007. Nice weather that’s been around for the last few days made it possible for them to catch up with the usual spring schedule (the sowing campaign was originally supposed to have been finished by May 28, 2007 yet this was not to be since the weather was rather inclement). So far, farmers have managed to sow 220,000 hectares of land, which comes to 42% of the target figures.

A group of Ural Airlines’ employees are going to take part in the 1st International Transport Forum and Russian Transport 2007 exhibition. Both events have been organized and coordinated by the Ministry of Transport and are to be held in Sochi on May 31-June 3, 2007. The forum is expected to become an annual event and one of the most impressive arenas for public presentation of one’s successes and prospects. According to Ural Airlines’ press officer, round about 600 people have applied so far, including a delegation from Italy’s Ministry of Transport, Transport Ministers of Saudi Arabia,

German Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg will be accepting visa applications from dwellers of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk Regions and from people living in Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Regions beginning from June 1, 2007. People living in Perm and Orenburg Regions or Bashkortostan will have to keep applying for their visas in Moscow.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nongovernmental financial institutions’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 30 days went down 50% (from 16 million RUR to 8 million RUR) in January-April 2007.