‘Autonom specializes in selling Russian cars; I’d say the best-selling Russian automobile is probably VAZ 2114,’ Rishat Migamatov of Autonom car show said to UrBC. ‘As for foreign cars, I think Toyota (which can be bought for $15,000 to $20,000) is the most popular car in Yekaterinburg at the moment. Actually, Kommersant newspaper published its report on the three leaders on the Russian market, and, in my opinion, these three brands enjoy the greatest demand in this city, too,’ Mr. Migamatov observed. The official report on foreign cars sales on the Russian market in January-March 2007

Verdict was returned on 7 people accused of seizing OboronSnabSbyt market on December 15, 2003 in Oktyabrskiy court of Yekaterinburg on April 10, 2007. The takeover and accompanying large-scale civil disorders (over 200 people took part) resulted in 11 million RUR worth of damage and a criminal suit, with about 100 participants held in detention. The case was investigated by a group of public prosecution officers and was supervised by the Main public prosecution department. Seven accomplices were sentenced to between 3 and 4.5 years in prison; two of them, lawyers M. Mirgorodskiy and M.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin met Vasily Prudnikov, head of Byelorussian consulate in Yekaterinburg, on April 10, 2007. Mr. Prudnikov said Chelyabinsk Region and Byelorussia kept building up their economic ties. The two parties’ trade turnover, for example, rose by 29% in 2006 and amounted to $236m. Chelyabinsk Region-based companies have been supplying rolled metal to Byelorussia, whereas Byelorussian enterprises export their machine-building produce and instruments to Chelyabinsk Region. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Mr. Sumin and Mr. Prudnikov tried to

The 18th congress of the Association of Russian Banks took place in Moscow on April 6, 2007. The items on the agenda included the success of Russia’s Bankization Program, improvements in the country’s monetary policies, development of the Russian banking market, and banking supervision (and its importance to the banks’ development and competitiveness). Reports were presented by President of the Association G. Tosunyan, Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia S. Ignatiev, head of Federal Financial Markets Service O. Vyugin, Bank 24.ru Chairman Boris Dyakonov, and a number of Bank of Moscow,

‘Ford Focus, whose price varies between $17,000 and $19,000, is probably the best-selling car in Yekaterinburg at the moment. 1,500 Ford cars have been sold in the city since the beginning of the year,’ reports Sales Manager of AutoLand’s Ford show room Ilya Tolshin. ‘In terms of sales, Ford was last year’s No.1 in Russia, and I believe it will keep the position in 2007 as well. It largely competes with Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai,’ he says.

The recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Budget, Finance, and Taxes was devoted to the legislation on the inter-budgetary transfers regarding subsidizing municipalities’ social welfare expenses. The law was adopted in July 2005 and resulted in setting up a municipal development fund worth 1.28 billion RUR and a regional co-financing fund worth 303.7 million RUR in 2006. However, only 44 out of 72 regional municipalities received subsidies last year; 28 of them failed to get on the list due to budgetary lack of money needed for investment projects or due to failed deadlines.

‘A large-scale fight occurred at a construction site in the center of Yekaterinburg at 5 AM on Monday,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs said to UrBC. ‘Upon receiving a report to that extent, militia men arrived at 11 Kranovshchikov St. to find out that eight young men, armed with a gun-like object and some bludgeons attacked twelve people, stripping them off everything they had. One of the offenders, a 27-year-old builder, was captured. He said that the attack was actually a fight between the local workers and the guest ones because of the money owed by

‘Following the arrival of favorable statistical data on the American labor market last Friday, Asian stock markets went up 1% on average. Investors had been waiting for more trading pits in the U.S.; internal factors contributed to this growth as well,’ says Alexander Pimenov of BrokerCreditService. ‘RTS reached its highest point ever (1,973.83) in the middle of the trading session. The 2,000-point record is also quite likely to be set due to oil shares growth (and this, in its turn, is probable enough thanks to possible increase in oil prices),’ Mr. Pimenov said.

An Industrial Design Center will be set up in Yekaterinburg, says Rector of Ural State Architectural Academy Alexander Starikov. He reports that three such centers will be introduced in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg in 2007-2009, with the center in Yekaterinburg becoming the pilot one – it was chosen since the local school of design is believed to be one of Russia’s best. The project will be financed by the federal and regional budgets. The centers are meant for supporting home producers in their attempts to compete globally. ‘Our entrepreneurs have finally had it brought home

‘One of the regional builders used my name and the name of our NGO to send a blackening letter to the local authorities. I believe this was done at the order of Noviy Grad’s management,’ Chairman of Right to a Dwelling Vasiliy Ganzhin said to UrBC. ‘The letter contains dubious data on Ural Alliance; the company is accused of low-quality performance and unauthorized construction. What I would like to particularly emphasize is that Ural Alliance is an honest and law-abiding developer, so any criticism leveled against them is false and ungrounded. I have never said anything to that extent,’ he

2,756 claims and applications were sent to Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District in January-March 2007. 67%, 15%, 7%, 5%, 3%, and 2% of them were filed by the citizens of Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region, Ugra, Kurgan Region, Tyumen Region, and Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous Region, respectively. 21.7% of claims concerned issues related to availability of dwellings and the quality of housing maintenance; 12.5% had to do with the performance of the regional departments of internal affairs, 10.3% dwelled

URSA Bank proved quite successful in the first quarter of the year. Its balance sheet total reached 147.7 billion RUR on April 1, 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 3.9 times (that is, the figures for SibAcademBank - as it then was). The bank’s net wealth went up 3.3 times and reached 107.8 billion RUR. The resource base grew 3.4 times; in addition, the bank managed to attract 5 times the amount of last year’s foreign investments due to cooperating with a number of international financial bodies: the IMF, for example, invested 42.2 billion RUR thanks to Eurobond portfolio

‘Local people mostly choose Turkey and Egypt to go to for the May recess. On average, it costs about 20,000 RUR to go to any of the two countries,’ Commercial Director of Bosfor Travel Agency Alexei Satarov said to UrBC. ‘In the spring, one normally prefers lying on the beach in the sun to going to Europe; we have already sold the lion’s share of tours to Egypt,’ Mr. Satarov said.

‘Travelers are now planning their holidays in advance: most tours scheduled for May were booked as early as March, so the most popular destinations have already been sold out. Europe, with its magnificent spring, is still the most desirable place to go to for local tourists. Prague, Paris, Vienna, and London appear to enjoy the greatest popularity. It costs approximately ?1,000 per person to go to the Czech Republic or Austria,’ Director of Inna Tour Travel Agency Inna Averyanova said to UrBC. ‘As a matter of fact, summer tours are being rapidly bought as well. People know there may not be a

‘Lack of one’s own logistics complex makes transporting and keeping of goods very expensive, but very few companies actually offer such services to grocery retailers,’ says CEO of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership Alexei Podolyako. ‘The regional retailers’ major challenge lies not in the lack of storage space (though it’s an issue, too) but in the need for a full set of services related to goods transfer,’ he observes. ‘Retailers find it appealing to buy storage facilities, but more people actually rent them since it’s rather expensive to buy a storehouse, or it may belong to the city

According to the Ural Chamber of Real Estate, 1 square meter of existing floorspace in Yekaterinburg cost the average of 97,737 RUR on March 1, 2007. The figure amounted to 49,900 RUR at the beginning of 2006 and went up 16,200 RUR in January-September 2006. The price reached the point of 95,670 RUR per square meter at the end of January 2007.

Acting Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Galina Kovaleva chaired a cabinet meeting on April 9, 2007 where the Minister for General and Vocational Education Valeriy Nesterov presented his report on the state of education system in the region. He said the National Education Project had been implemented quite successfully in 2006, with 2.6 billion RUR allotted for the project from the regional budget and 18.8 billion RUR invested in education additionally. About 60% of regional schools have an Internet connection, with 465 more of them expected to get access to the Web this year. The

‘President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin is going to arrive in Yekaterinburg on April 13, 2007. The official report on the goals and agenda of this trip will be produced in the nearest future,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Railways said to UrBC. Mr. Yakunin’s visit is believed to have something to do with having to appoint the new head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways after the Board of Directors of Russian Railways decided on March 20, 2007 that the then head Shevket Shaidullin should resign. His former deputy Valeriy Fomin is now acting head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways.

MegaFon Ural experts took part in the international London-based Telecoms Fraud & Risk 2007 conference, reports the company’s spokesperson. The world’s largest telecommunication companies gathered to discuss all the pressing issues related to telecoms fraud and share their experience in preventing it. The event was attended by fraud departments’ directors and experts from Orange communication, Vodafone Group & GSMA Fraud Forum, Telenor Telecom, British Telecom, T-Mobile Czech Republic, MegaFon, and enterprises dealing in providing safe communication. Reports were presented on online

The carrier’s loyalty scheme known as Wings has been available since September 2001, with more than 20,000 people classed as members of the club today. The project is targeted at encouraging customers, who can take advantage of the scheme’s unique offers. For example, one get the so-called bonus money (10% of each ticket) and then use it to pay for a ticket, have a premium flight, or use the discounts offered by the airline’s partners, says the company’s press officer. Besides, Ural Airlines offers premium tickets (available for bonus money) for scheduled international flights on sale between