Sergey Vetyshev of SKB-Bank is positive that the continuing decrease in the U.S. dollar exchange rate is inevitable. ‘The dollar has been going down for two days now. The Bank of Russia set the exchange rate at 26.55 RUR per dollar today (which means it is now .001 RUR cheaper). The euro exchange rate was set at 34.38 RUR per euro, which is .007 RUR greater than yesterday,’ Mr Vetyshev says. ‘The dollar reached its local maximum on Friday, January 12, 2007 when its rate came to 1.2864 per euro on the global market and to 26.58 RUR in Russia. The dollar was supported by the data on the U.S.

‘A lot of gambling house owners are trying to sell their business before July 1, 2007, while the prices are still more favourable for the sellers,’ President of Ural Gambling Industry Development Association Alexei Galaguzov said relating to the federal law on the state regulation of the gambling industry that has recently come into effect. Mr Galaguzov confirmed that the gambling houses would only operate until July 1, 2007. The only companies that will be permitted to go on with their business after this date will be the ones with at least 600m RUR worth of assets, 50 machines, and the area

Koltsovo Airport assessed its activity in 2006. Its passenger traffic amounted to 1,764,948 people, including 1,128,489 passengers who used domestic flights, 488,954 people who used international flights, and 147,505 passengers who travelled to the countries of the CIS. The figure reached the point of 1.5 million people as early as the beginning of November. The airport serviced 13,289 take-offs in 2006, with 10,013 planes going to different Russian cities, 2,349 aircrafts going abroad, and 927 airplanes flying to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Koltsovo Airport

‘The wage arrears in Sverdlovsk Region came to 30 million RUR on January 1, 2007; however, the figure reached the point of 152 million on December 1, 2006. The debt was reduced due the joint efforts of the public prosecution authorities, local government, and Sverdlovsk Region Labour inspectorate,’ Deputy State Inspector for Legal Issues of Sverdlovsk Region division of Labour inspectorate Maxim Vedernikov announced at the press conference. Last year’s inspections revealed that 533 regional enterprises failed to pay the salaries on time to 23,336 employees. As a result, 858 orders to

Euromonitor, the British researcher, summed up the results of the Russian strong drinks market activity in 2006. The wine and vodka sales went down 7.5% (down to 102.5 million decalitres) and 3.9% (down to 175.6 million decalitres), respectively, yet in terms of money the sales grew by 2.2% (up to $7.4 billion) and 11.2% (up to 11.3 billion), respectively. In the meantime, the beer and low-alcohol drinks sales rose by 10.4% (up to 968 million decalitres) and 17% (up to 54.7 million decalitres) (in terms of volume), respectively, and by 22% (up to $16.4 billion) and 33% (up to $1.8 billion)

The international round table discussion devoted to the international experience of state support of educational loans is going to take place in Moscow on January 29, 2007 The event is coordinated by the State Duma Bank and Financial Market Committee and supported by the Association of Regional Russian Banks, KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank), and Berlin Economic Society. Among the speakers invited to take part in the discussion are the State Duma deputies, members of the Soviet of the Federation, bank directors and leaders of bank unions, and some international experts. The

‘We looked at over 3,500 complaints regarding unscrupulous employers in 2006, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 20%,’ Deputy State Inspector for Legal Issues of Sverdlovsk Region division of Labour inspectorate Maxim Vedernikov announced at the press conference. According to Mr Vedernikov, most offences have to do with the violations of working conditions regulations (work/rest distribution), arrears of wages or not paying them at all. ‘As a rule, very few employees dare file a complaint since they have to find the evidence themselves,’ Mr Vedernikov noted.

SKB-Bank gave its clients 1,667 mortgage loans in 2006. This is twice the number of loans given in 2005; the figure also exceeds the total number of mortgages provided since the very beginning of the bank’s mortgage lending program (1,569 loans were provided in 2003-2005). The participatory construction lending (loans to cover the price of an apartment in a house under construction) has been developing even faster. The bank issued 189 such loans in 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 4.5 times and comes to twice the number of all loans issued throughout the whole existence of the

According to the Central scientific research and computing lab of Russia’s Federal Tax Service, Russian companies have a chance to ask the tax officials for information on their potential business partners now. ‘Prior to going through a transaction, one is better off checking out the other party with the help of a tax officer and finding out things like when the company was actually set up, whether it produces all the accounting records and pays taxes regularly. Tax inspectorates could provide one with the information needed to make a decision,’ Deputy GD of the lab Yuri Volkov said to

Starting February 1, 2007, it will no longer be legal to deal in retail sale of alcohol if the bottles you offer don’t have a special health warning that says that too much alcohol is bad for your health or the contra-indication information prescribed by the Russian Federation Ministry of Health and Social Development. In addition, the product information label must provide the names of the ingredients (including additives used in the making process), indicate whether the product has any GM-based components, and state that the drink has some health-hazardous substances as defined by the

Ural State University is getting ready to elect their new Rector. Two people have applied for the position so far; they are Dmitriy Bugrov, the Dean of the Department of History, and Evgeniy Pamyatnikh, pro-Rector. The former Rector Vladimir Tretyakov had to resign on December 12, 2006 due to turning 70. The federal Higher and Postgraduate Education Act states that no person over 70 can be a rector of any higher educational establishment. Valeriy Larionov has been appointed acting Rector until the time of the elections (scheduled for April 26, 2007). The list of candidates is going to be

36.6, the federal chain of drugstores, acquired Yekaterinburg-based chain Atoll Pharm. Some experts believe this could be an approximately $15m transaction that gives 36.6 a chance to achieve the leading position on the Ural market – a desirable target for all the federal players at the moment. Rigla, the company’s major rival, as well as O3, a chain of pharmacies recently bought by Protec, Rigla’s proprietor, also have some outlets located in Yekaterinburg. Atoll Pharm had 45 stores in August 2006 and mainly competed with the local Zdravnik and Zhivika and Pharmacia, the state-owned chain.

MegaFon Ural, the mobile operator, has recently introduced a new Student tariff scheme for young and communicative people. The scheme provides for 30 text messages, no extra charge for the first minute of the conversation and cheap outgoing calls. This is an excellent offer for young people who wouldn’t be parted from their phone: outgoing calls at only .35 RUR per minute will give them a chance for virtually unlimited communication. Switching or subscribing to the new tariff is free and available in every office or point of sale as well as in the dealers’ offices as long as you provide your

‘Noviy Grad, the local developer, only provided one building in 2006. This is a block of flats located in Onufriev St,’ Konstantin Bruner, Chairman of Affordable Housing (a non-profit organization), said to UrBC representative. ‘Yet the developer missed all the deadlines for commissioning, which made the city council order the company to finish the construction in the shortest possible time. Noviy Grad met these requirements at the cost of technical quality; besides, all the building-related documents were actually drawn up post factum,’ Mr Bruner said. ‘This developer still has a great

According to Pavel Kukushkin, the Public Prosecutor of Sverdlovsk Region, 19 regional enterprises had 20m RUR worth of wage arrears in 2006. At the beginning of 2006, the figure amounted to 51m RUR and covered 46 companies.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of deposits and investments placed by natural persons in UralTransBank for a term of 181 days to 1 year went down 24.7% (from 1,824,007 RUR to 1,373,105 RUR) in January-December 2006.

‘We are currently getting ready to hold a competition among the realtors who will deal in direct homes sales in the would-be Academic district of Yekaterinburg,’ says Academic construction project manager Stanislav Pridvishkin. ‘As for the show room, we definitely are going to have one so that the buyer has a chance to look at the detailed model of the district and choose the building they would like to live in,’ Mr Pridvishkin said. This new district is to appear in the south-west of Yekaterinburg and is expected to occupy 2,500 hectares of land, with 1,200 hectares covered by forests and

Yekaterinburg’s leading air carrier is expected to start performing daily Chelyabinsk-Moscow flights on January 23, 2007. The planes belonging to Ural Airlines will leave Balandino airport of Chelyabinsk at 8.40 AM, arrive at Domodedovo airport (Moscow) at 8.55 AM, leave Moscow at 9.05 PM and arrive in Chelyabinsk at 1.20 AM. There is no fuel fee for this flight, so one will only pay 2,499 RUR for the cheapest single ticket and 4,999 RUR for the cheapest return one. There are several carriers servicing the Chelyabinsk-Moscow-Chelyabinsk route at the moment, the most important ones being

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that Sverdlovskaya poultry factory is Yekaterinburg’s top ammonia and hydrogen sulphide polluter; its share comes to 64.7% and 30.1% of the total amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide, respectively, that is dumped into the air.

Sverdlovsk Region division of Glavgosexpertisa, the state expert authority, believes that the pre-construction expert examination of Mega Trade Center in Yekaterinburg was conducted inaccurately. The official reports on this were sent to Deputy Mayor for Capital Development Vladimir Kritskiy and to Alexander Karlov, the Minister for Construction and Communal Facilities, the spokesperson for Glavgosexpertisa said to UrBC representative. Mr Kritskiy said that Mega Trade and Entertainment Center hosting IKEA and Auchan had received no permission to operate; the same is true of a number of blocks