Regional deputies have recently considered a draft agreement between Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for State Property Management and the city council regarding the distribution of land allotments in Yekaterinburg, since neither of the entities has a distinct property right over these areas. The agreement was assessed at the meeting devoted to adopting changes in the regional land management law. According to one point of this agreement, a representative of the Ministry (who has to be a committee member) would be able to veto the committee’s decisions. If this representative does use his or her

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down 50% (from 43.160 million RUR to 21.157 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

A fortnight-long survey conducted through SKB-Bank’s corporate website indicates that over one-quarter of people wishing to buy an apartment are going to use a mortgage. There were 180 respondents altogether. 44% of those surveyed said they were worried about the sky-high prices and admitted they couldn’t possibly afford to move to a larger place at the moment. About 2% reported they were hoping to get a company apartment or a company loan. 9% of respondents are planning to buy a dwelling using a consumer loan, whereas the majority of those who do plan to buy a place are going to use a

Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Oleg Gusev chaired a meeting of the committee accountable for all the preparations for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization head of states meeting in Yekaterinburg in 2009. The agenda of the meeting covered the financial issues; according to some preliminary estimates, about 15 billion RUR will be provided by the federal budget reserves, 18 billion RUR will be contributed by Sverdlovsk Region budget, and 2.6 billion RUR will be invested by Yekaterinburg budget. In addition, companies and enterprises are expected to provide about 90 billion RUR, the

Federal Antimonopoly Service accepted the application of Metalloinvest Management Company and United Machine Building Works (aka OMZ (Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery)) regarding the request to set up Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation. The Service also accepted their petition about providing the new company’s authorized capital through shares of ORMETO YUMZ and Uralmashzavod. This large corporation will unite UZTM (Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant), Uralmash-SpetsStal Ltd., OMZ DRO, OMZ Crane Ltd., and ORMETO-YUMZ Heavy Engineering Joint Stock Co.,

Regional Court of Arbitration rejected the claims laid by Koltsovo airport and declared the decision taken by Federal Antimonopoly Service was legitimate. The whole issue began with Ural Airlines complaining that the airport had been refusing them slots needed for Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights (departure 8.15 AM and 6.40 PM ), Moscow-Yekaterinburg (departure 10.20 AM and 10 PM) as well as the so-called historic slots (summertime flights) which had been offered to Aviaprad instead. In December 2006, Sverdlovsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service declared the airport violated the completion

URSA Bank held a press conference devoted to their experience with international investors and attracting foreign capital to Russia in Kazan on May 21, 2007. This was part of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development international forum; some reports were presented by URSA Bank Chairman Igor Kim, Member of the Board Alexander Taranov, and First Deputy GD Vladislav Khokhlov. ‘The media have been paying a lot of attention to our dynamic financial growth and long-term cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Our profits more than tripled last year, and

SverdlovEnergoSbyt, Nizhniy Novgorod Supplies, Kuzbass Energy Supplies, and OrenburgEnergoSbyt sold their share holdings belonging to RAO UES of Russia by auction on May 22, 2007. The opening bid for 49% of SverdlovEnergoSbyt’s shares was 1.15 billion RUR; that for 100% of shares of OrenburgEnergoSbyt was 1.11 billion; the price difference between each bid had to be at least 25 million RUR. There were seven participants (coming from both Russia and abroad) altogether. Center Region Invest was able to acquire both SverdlovEnergoSbyt and OrenburgEnergoSbyt’s share holdings at the opening

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of nongovernmental financial institutions’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 1 to 3 years went down 99% (from 32million RUR to 208,000 RUR) in January-April 2007.

The PR Department of the British Consulate General in Yekaterinburg reports that their visa section is soon to be located at a new address, namely, 36 Gogol St. Off. 1002. The office is situated on the tenth floor. Up to May 28, 2007, visa applicants will be interviewed in the old building (24 Lenin St.)

Yekaterinburg municipal duma deputies approved of the city’s budgetary report for 2006 on May 22, 2007. As it happens, the revenues amounted to 15 billion RUR, which is 8.8% better than the annual target figures. About 4 billion RUR were donated by the regional and federal budgets as well, duma’s press officer reports. Local legal entities still have to transfer 1 billion RUR to Yekaterinburg’s budget; then, the budgetary expenses came to approximately 13.4 billion RUR, which falls short of the annual target figures by 1.4%. These were occasioned by spending on education (34.5%), public

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin decided to set up an ad hoc committee responsible for design and construction of the federal cardiovascular surgery center. The committee consists of First Deputy Governors Vladimir Dyatlov and Andrei Kosilov, Head of Federal Property Management Agency in Chelyabinsk Region Alexander Vlasov, Minister for Radiation and Environmental Safety Gennadiy Podtesov, and voluntary Deputy Governor Grigory Petukhov. The committee has to come up with the design and construction schedule before June 10, 2007. The new clinic is going to become Ural Federal

Sverdlovsk Region industrial production index grew by 21.6% in April 2007 compared to a year earlier and by 13.8% in January-April 2007 against four months of 2006. The most impressive growth rates were reported with machine-building and equipment making (58.6%), production of perfumes and cosmetics (43.9%), plastic goods (25.25%), radio and television equipment (24.3%), furniture (22.3%), plywood and wood panel production (22.6%), fish and seafood processing (22.3%), and metal goods production (15%). The production of knitwear, animal and vegetable fats, pharmaceuticals, and trucks went down

Customs officers of Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg filed a criminal suit against the offender who was trying to smuggle some U.S. dollars while leaving Russia, Ural Customs Administration reports. A Russian citizen leaving for London never told the officers she had over $13,200 on her, thus violating the current customs and currency regulations. This sum equaled to about 354,800 RUR on the day of the flight; this is classed as the amount of money large enough to take legal action.

238,900 square meters of dwellings were commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-April 2007, which exceeds the figures for the four months of 2006 by 30.4%. 159,700 square meters worth of housing can be classed as one-family houses (this is 1.6 times better than a year earlier); this comes to 66.8% of all the dwellings put up in the region within the given period. 35 cities and districts did better in terms of housing construction than a year earlier, with 31 cities improving last year’s construction rates by 20% or more. Verknyaya Pyshma, Berezovskiy, Revda, Pervouralsk, Nizhniy Tagil,

Severnaya Kazna’s e-bank users might have some trouble making their payments as CyberPlat reports it might take longer to transfer the customers’ money into their mobile phone accounts in case they use Beeline, MTS, Utel, or TELE2. This is why all those making mobile phone payments through Severnaya Kazna’s ATMs, e-portals, or text messages might have to wait a bit before the money is actually transferred to their accounts. The bank has already experienced a number of problems with its Internet-Bank and Client-Bank systems before; for instance, the services were not available from 9 AM to 4

According to Deputy Minister for Construction and Housing Maintenance and Utilities of Sverdlovsk Region Bogdan Protsyk, last year’s heating season was quite smooth. There were only a few serious and costly breakdowns in Verkhnyaya Salda and Nizhnyaya Salda that the ministry believes had been caused by depreciation of equipment and maintenance facilities, insufficient funding of housing repairs by the local budget, and huge electricity, heating, and fuel bills. 9 billion RUR were invested in housing maintenance and utilities in 2006, with another 1.8 billion contributed by the regional

RENOVA Stroy Group presented its Academic construction project (the breadboard model of the future city district) at the 12th Russian Economic Forum held in Yekaterinburg on May 18-19, 2007. 'This is Europe and Russia’s largest multi-faceted area development project to date. ‘Our stand enjoyed great popularity at the forum, with several hundred people checking it out within two days (Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Sergey Naryshkin, Deputy Russian Federation Minister of Transport Alexander Misharin, President of the International

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making NGOs’ deposits in Uralfinprombank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down 100% (from 1.5 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.

The Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs reports two swindlers accused of stealing money from people’s bank accounts using the cardholders’ personal data were detained in Yekaterinburg. The offenders are reported to have been operating in both Russia and Europe. ‘These Bulgarian citizens, believed to be members of an international group, arrived in Yekaterinburg early this May; the consul of Bulgaria has already been notified,’ the Ministry’s press officer says. The inquiry officers are inclined to think the perpetrators tried to illegally install special devices onto the local