An additional 26-hectare land patch was allotted in Yekaterinburg for the construction of roads providing links to and from the would-be Academic district, reports Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Natural Resources. The patch has been taken from Uktus forestry and is meant for roads necessary to the city-dwellers from the would-be district and from the south-west of the city. The Federal Environmental Management Surveillance Agency approved of the decision.

According to Sverdlovsk Region Cultural Heritage Protection Center, eight historic buildings were pulled down in Yekaterinburg in 2004-2006; two of them were based in Verkh-Isetskiy district, one in Kirovskiy district, two in Leninskiy district, and three in Oktyabrskiy district.

‘Following the arrival of the federal and multinational players on Yekaterinburg retail food market, it had to undergo redistribution, yet it’s early times yet to say if the changes happened to be substantial,’ says Alexei Podolyako, CEO of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership. ‘The changes appear to be most keenly felt in the areas adjacent to the new supermarkets’ premises. Grossmart is the one who managed to achieve the most by taking over 8% to 10% of Pionerskiy-district grocery market. Auchan and Metro are based on the outskirts of the city, so it would be an exaggeration to say they have

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of investments placed by nongovernmental financial bodies with UralTransBank for a term of 91 to 180 days went down 33.3% (from 3 million RUR to 2 million) in January-November 2006.

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that enterprises located in Kamensk-Uralskiy, Sverdlovsk Region, have produced 1,478,600 tons of waste, of which 53,140 tons are classed as having environmental hazard levels I to IV. Krasnogorskaya power station (part of TGK-9), with its 188,600 tons of waste, is Kamensk-Uralskiy’s major waste producer.

‘Yekaterinburg retail food market has no niches available at the moment; there is a notion that they do exist and can be occupied, but this is, in fact, a mere illusion,’ Alexei Podolyako, CEO of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership, reported to UrBC. ‘The arrival on the local market is currently performed in the make-way-for-me format, so if any new player comes up, they have to fight to get a share of the market. However, if this player can boast some impressive competitive advantages and is capable of using them properly, they will find their place in the sun,’ Mr Podolyako explains.

Leninskiy court of Yekaterinburg satisfied the claims laid by the regional environmental prosecution bodies and Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia’s state agricultural watchdog) against Fifth Generating Company of Wholesale Electricity Market (aka OGK-5) regarding the installation of fish-trapping devices in the withdrawal facilities located at Reftinskaya power station on January 26, 2007. Reftinskaya power station has been for quite a while ignoring the law that demands that fish-trapping devices be installed in the withdrawal facilities; the company’s failing to do so damages the environment and the

The meeting of URSA Bank’s Board of Directors took place in Yekaterinburg on February 1, 2007. In the course of the meeting, general director Kirill Brell finalized the recent merger of Uralvneshtorgbank and SibAcademBank by announcing the names of the new bank’s management. Deputy GD and Member of the Board Svetlana Mironova is going to become CEO URSA Bank in the Urals. Prior to this appointment, Ms Mironova used to supervise SibAcademBank’s division dealing in services to businesses. Before this, she had been running Kuzbasskiy, the bank’s largest subsidiary based in Kemerovo. Executive

‘Yekaterinburg retail food market has no niches available at the moment; there is a notion that they do exist and can be occupied, but this is, in fact, a mere illusion,’ Alexei Podolyako, CEO of Alliance Non-Commercial Partnership, reported to UrBC. ‘The arrival on the local market is currently performed in the make-way-for-me format, so if any new player comes up, they have to fight to get a share of the market. However, if this player can boast some impressive competitive advantages and is capable of using them properly, they will find their place in the sun,’ Mr Podolyako explains.

‘Bad roads in Sverdlvosk Region keep hindering our vehicles,’ Governor Eduard Rossel announced at a press conference today. The Governor says that even large cities don’t have enough junctions that could ensure congestion-free driving or safe pedestrian crossings. The good thing is that a few municipal organizations do have bypasses that allow the transit cars to avoid traveling through the busy city streets. Besides, a map of the regional villages and the surrounding roads is to be developed soon.

West-Siberian Metallurgical Industrial Complex (part of Evraz Group) has recently hosted a book fair devoted to communication culture as a factor in effective personnel management. The fair was targeted at improving the management’s skills in terms of handling the issues related to the company’s culture, and at teaching the executives to use modern personnel management techniques. All the visitors could look at the assortment of articles and books on corporate culture and personnel management by both Russian and foreign authors. The managers were also given a number of papers on

According to the report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population, Rezhnickel Production Association increased its atmospheric emissions by 3,649 tons. Non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises normally make a significant impact on the state of the environment in the areas of their location, and in some cases they alter it completely to the degree comparable to changes caused by the presence of a ferrous metallurgical enterprise in the region.

‘Poor choice of lease holders and faulty design are the major problems of local trade centers,’ says Alexei Karavaev, chairman of Yekaterinburg Management Companies Council. ‘A lot of trade centers lack product zones, so kids’ clothes may rub shoulders with men’s wear for no apparent reason. Tenants duplicate each other, or, worse still, anchor tenants compete with each other,’ Mr Karavaev explains. ‘As regards the planning of the premises, there are some mistakes as well, for instance, in terms of location of stairs, elevators, and restrooms, although very soon these will become the factors

S7 Airlines (aka Siberia) has officially admitted owning money for air navigation services to Mongolian aviation authorities. ‘This debt, however, is being paid off in compliance with the schedule, and the Mongolian party agreed that it should not be used as ground for rejecting S7 the right to fly over Mongolia,’ reports the carrier’s press release. Mongolian aviation authorities did not let an S7 Airlines aircraft traveling from Beijing to Novosibirsk use their air area last Friday.

SKB-Bank’s easternmost office (located at 53a Microrayon 6) has been successfully operating in Tobolsk, Tyumen Region, for over a month. The office caters for both businesses and individuals. ‘Our loan offers appear to enjoy the greatest demand among Siberian people, as we are getting more and more new borrowers every day; this pertains to both express crediting schemes and the classic consumer loan known as Loan for a Friend. The micro-loan and mini-loans are also popular with the small and medium-scale businesses. The entrepreneurs of Tobolsk are beginning to understand the appeal of our

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has recently introduced a new office in Kopeisk, Chelyabinsk Region. This is the bank’s next step on the way to developing its regional network. The office is located right in the center of the city at 18 Kommunisticheskiy Ave. In this new office, individuals can get a loan or open a bank account in order to deposit rubles, U.S. dollars, or euros; exchange of currency or issuance of international payment cards or of Russian Union Card are also available here. A Western Union unit and an indoor ATM are provided. Businesses are offered accounts for

Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s state agricultural watchdog, limited the number of customs points for dairy products imported to Russia from the Ukraine at the Russian-Ukrainian border today. The only two places where the import is now allowed are Nekhoteevka, Belgorod Region, and Troyebortnoye, Bryansk Region, reports RosBusinessConsulting Information Agency. The decision was brought about by the fact that the regional officers of Rosselkhoznadzor kept reporting cases of violating Russia’s veterinary safety laws related to foods imported from the Ukraine. In some instances, for example, the dairy

The average existing home prices (per square meter of dwelling) in the center of Yekaterinburg (i.e. in Moskovskaya St., Chelyuskintsy St., Vostochnaya St., Dekabristy St., Belinskiy St., and Bolshakov St.) went up 4.39% on January30, 2007, compared with December 28, 2006, reports the Analytical Department of the Ural Chamber of Real Estate. The figure rose by 3.34% in Yekaterinburg’s most expensive residential area (Avtovokzal, Yugo-Zapadniy, Parkoviy, Botanicheskiy, Vtuzgorodok, Shartashskiy, ZhBI – downtown and the south-west and the south-east of the city), by 3.59% in the city’s second

Yekaterinburg’s first outlet of Ramstore, a federal supermarket chain owned by Ramenka, is going to welcome visitors on the premises of Carnival Trade and Entertainment Center on February 3, 2007. The total area of the store is estimated at 8,000 square meters, with 5,300 square meters used for retailing purposes. The project has required $2.5 million worth of investments. With this supermarket, Ramenka implemented the one stop shopping concept: both food and non-food items are available there. The emergence of the large federal and international players on the local grocery market alarmed

The inspections conducted by the Ural division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental and technological safety watchdog) revealed that Ural Chemical Company exceeded the limits set for emission of pollutants; to make matters worse, the company was not even trying to cut down on emissions in order to fit within the norms, reports Rostechnadzor’s press officer.