‘There are certain requirements for the minimal number of parking lots that have to be provided near shops and trade centers, but these requirements are somewhat outdated. They do not correspond with the current rate of car use in large cities and will have to be changed in 2007. Even now, no building, be it a store, an office facility, or a block of flats, can be put in commission without enough parking space, including the underground areas,’ Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev announced in the course of the meeting devoted to the consumer market success in 2006. ‘One reason why

‘A number of air carriers, including KrasAir, for example, have been trying to be allowed to perform Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights. Yet the introduction of the new Moscow-bound flights does not seem to be expedient, as the supply for these kinds of flights is quite plentiful, and all the passengers can be served,’ PR Director of Koltsovo Airport Yulia Fedotova said to UrBC representative. According to Ms Fedotova, the lower prices cannot be used as a company’s competitive advantage any more because the carriers that are currently servicing the Moscow direction are offering prices that are

‘The proceedings related to the criminal case of IrtyshHydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (part of Noviy Grad, the developer) are now performed at the regional level due to the fact that the case was placed with the public prosecution bodies of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region,’ Deputy Public Prosecutor of Khanty-Mansiysk inter-district public prosecution body Rinat Muratov said to UrBC representative. IrtyshHydroSpetsStroy is accused of doing construction work without proper permissions and papers. ‘The violations mostly have to do with the lack of papers needed to do any construction work; the company,

‘The expenses occasioned by having to rectify the damage done to Reftinskaya power station by the fire will decrease the profitability of each share of OGK-5 (the heat and power supplier). Given the impressive share of this station in the total capacity of the company, the share price may drop by 4%. Moreover, this can affect the prices of other regional companies, for example, SverdlovEnergo,’ says General Director of Blagodat Securities Vsevolod Chaschin. The recent fire resulted in having to shut down two power generating units with the total capacity of 1,000 megawatts, which decreased

SKB-Bank has recently introduced some new services available to their cardholders. A cardholder is now able to pay the mobile and landline phone bills, as well as for the Internet, satellite and cable TV use, and cover the kindergarten fee using the bank’s ATMs. In addition, these ATMs can now be used to make payments to VTUZ Energo, the communal facilities provider, without any commission. The bank has provided ATMs on the premises of large companies, college campuses, in the city’s business quarters, large trade centers and residential areas in all the districts of Yekaterinburg. There are

Sverdlovsk Region markets will be certified in 2007, reports Vera Solovieva, the regional Minster of Trade, Provision, and Services. Ms Solovieva says there are currently 119 markets operating in the area, and they normally aren’t specializing in any particular type of produce but rather offer foods, cleaning chemicals, and clothes all in one place. The share of such ‘unofficial’ trade constitutes one-quarter of Sverdlovsk Region’s goods turnover. Yet, as the Minister believes, these markets have to be gradually converted to trade centers, whereas the agricultural markets are better off

The Administration of Internal Affairs of Leninskiy District of Yekaterinburg keeps investigating the case of HydroSpetsStroy Ltd. (general contractor of Noviy Grad, the local builder), Head of Investigations Department Irina Overina said to UrBC representative. ‘We obtained some new data after withdrawing the financial records of HydroSpetsStroy and Noviy Grad and are now processing them,’ Ms Overina said. The Administration resumed the criminal action against Yuri Repeta, the General Director of Noviy Grad, on May 22, 2006 following the accusations of 54m-RUR worth of theft.

Sixty land auctions will be held in Yekaterinburg in 2007, reports Deputy Mayor Vladimir Kritskiy. Mr Kritskiy says 54 auctions were held in Yekaterinburg in 2006, 34 of which concerned selling the tenant right for land allotments to be used for construction of dwellings. All the auctions resulted in the municipal budget receiving 500m RUR. Among the objects put up to auctions were allotments suitable for both individual houses and blocks of flats, trade centers, parking lots and car washes. Not all of these have been sold, however; for example, only nine patches out of sixteen were sold

Yekaterinburg has 800,000 square meters of trade areas per 1,000 dwellers, reports Vera Solovieva, the regional Minster of Trade, Provision, and Services. These figures come to 513,000 square meters per 1,000 dwellers in terms of the whole region. According to Ms Solovieva, this year was significant for Sverdlovsk Region’s trade because of two reasons: firstly, because of the arrival of the multinational players on the regional market, and, secondly, because of the development of the regional retail chains. The latter was made possible mainly due to Yekaterinburg stores, 40% of which have

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration imposed a four-month monitoring procedure over TagilVodka, reports Kommersant newspaper. The company decided to undergo bankruptcy proceedings itself, since it did not have enough assets to meet the creditor’s demands. Yulia Moskalenko of Delo Self-regulating Organization of Independent Trustees in Bankruptcy was appointed the company’s trustee in bankruptcy for the time being. TagilVodka used to be one of Sverdlovsk Region’s leading alcohol producers, but it has not been producing anything since July 2006 as its license expired. Yet neither the company

Uralvneshtorgbank outstripped the other banks based in Sverdlovsk, Perm, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions in terms of net wealth and profits. Its net wealth amounted to 27,077,151,000 RUR on December 1, 2006, which signifies a 79%-growth since the beginning of the year. The bank’s profits came to 1,094,281,000 RUR in January-November 2006, reports the Analytical Department of Bank Severnaya Kazna.

Following the accident at Reftinskaya power station, the market capitalization of OGK-5, the heat and electricity producer, fell by $112m. However, the market players do not think the two events are interrelated and say that this drop in prices is just a normal fluctuation after the dramatic rise in share prices. Some experts believe the accident is going to somewhat affect the company’s financial records in a negative way. According to the data provided by OGK-5, one of the generators located on the premises of Reftinskaya power station caught fire on December 20, 2006. This made it

According to TyumenEnergoBank, their subsidiary Recard Tyumen Ltd. had to be closed down in compliance with the Provision on disclosure of information by the securities issuers. TyumenEnergoBank owned 49% of the former company’s authorized capital. The dissolution of Recard Tyumen Ltd. was performed through registering the event with the United State Register of Legal Entities.

The employees of Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) won 16 prizes in the annual professional craftsmanship competition called Worker of the Year. The company’s team only took part in 50% of the twenty-two competition categories. Their blast-furnace keeper Evgeniy Bogachev, rolling mill operator Ravil Gilmanov, bridge crane operator Kirill Vorobiev, checker mechanic Alexander Mukhachev, electrician Boris Volkov, and driver Alexei Pylenok became the Best Workers of Nizhniy Tagil, having been chosen among 180 contestants.

Renova Stroy Group and Association of Russian Builders signed a cooperation agreement, reports the spokesperson for Renova Stroy Group. This agreement signifies the desire of both parties for the mutually beneficial cooperation and their intention to work on the large development project in Russia together. The agreement provides for joint performance in terms of trying to include Renova Stroy Group projects based, among other things, on the state-private cooperation principles, into the state programs. The Association of Russian Builders is also going to attract some large designing,

‘Some 700 people from Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region became victims of the fraudsters from Gorod, the regional public fund that operated in the area in 2000-2003. Approximately 3,000 people suffered in the other regions of Russia. These data haven’t been finalized yet, as not all of the victims actually filed their complaints. The criminal suit proceedings involving accusations of fraud (Article 159 (part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and organized crime (Article 210) began in 2003. At the present moment, the case has been placed with the regional court,’ Ivan Yablokov of

The retail goods turnover came to over 300bn RUR in Sverdlovsk Region in 2006, the regional Minister of Trade, Provision, and Services Vera Solovieva announced at today’s press conference. According to Ms Solovieva, this exceeds the figures for 2005 by 27% in purely finance terms and by 17% in terms of physical volume. Foods turnover amounts to 15bn RUR out of the total sum. Traditionally, the customers were most active in the fourth quarter of the year: the consumption ratio came to 21% in the first quarter, to 22%-24% in the second and third quarters, and to 30% in the last quarter of the

‘The region’s foreign trade turnover reached the point of $7.5bn in January-October 2006, which is 23.3% better than in the ten months of 2005. The export figures came to approximately $6bn (a 23.3%-growth), the import ones came to $1.5bn (a 23.3%-growth),’ the Minister of Economy and Labour Galina Kovaleva announced at the press conference devoted to the region’s socio-economic development forecasts for 2007. The consolidated budget profits amounted to 78.6bn RUR in January-October 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 42.4%. The budgetary subsidies and allotments plan was

The court hearing of Federal Antimonopoly Service vs. Koltsovo airport (based on the Competition Protection Act) was put off until January 30, 2007 The Federal Antimonopoly Service suspects that Koltsovo airport has overpriced its fuel; the Service has already found the airport guilty of violating the antimonopoly legislation in the past and ordered them to retain the so-called historic slots for Ural Airlines Moscow-bound flights and to annul their contract of tenancy with Aviaprad, the air carrier.

Finance magazine looked at the results of Russian banks’ activity over the ten months of 2006 and compiled a rating based on the volume of the working assets (it had to be over $100m). There are currently 278 banks in Russia that meet the requirements of this magazine’s rating, with 40 banks joining the list as recently as this year. The assets of these banks have grown by 31% (up to 10.5 trillion RUR) since the beginning of 2006. According to the magazine, the working assets of SKB-Bank have gone up 48% since the beginning of the year and reached the point of 15.259bn RUR, which made it