Ural Airlines started working on a pilots’ training center: the first stone and a symbolic gold coin were laid in the foundation of the new facility on the premises of the air carrier on November 21. The company’s Director-General Sergey Skuratov said in the course of a solemn ceremony that the assembling of all the machinery will start as soon as February 2012, and the center will be launched in early April. The building, which will be 14.5 meters high and will have the area of 700 sq m, will be fitted with two cockpit mock-ups that fully reproduce the actual cockpit of an aircraft. One unit

‘We do not know even the preliminarily established cause of the emergency landing. It might actually have been the case that the sensor was simply faulty.’ S7 Airlines’ press service informed RIA Novosti. The news of the emergency reached the Ministry of Emergency at 8:55 AM Moscow time. The critical sensors of Boeing 737 flying from Nadym to Moscow suddenly went on, so the plane had to perform a landing in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg. No one was hurt. An ad hoc committee is going to look into the causes of the incident. The plane is known to belong to Globus Aviation Company (a member

VUZ-Bank was given the 121st position on the list of Russia’s Top500 most profitable banks that was carried by RosBusinessConsulting recently. The bank’s pre-tax profit amounted to about 190m RUR as of October 1, 2011. According to RosBusinessConsulting, the Russian banks’ total profit set a record in the nine months of 2011 by already exceeding the figures for the entire year 2010. The total pre-tax profit of 500 banks reached 463bn RUR at the end of 2010 and over 486m RUR in January-September 2011.

68,929 new passenger cars were sold in Yekaterinburg in ten months of 2011, which was 26,710 cars, or 63%, more than in ten months of 2010, Auto-Dealer Yekaterinburg reports. 7,618 passenger cars were sold in the city in October 2011, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 2,311 cars, or 44%. October proved the best month of the year since June, when 8.142 automobiles were sold in Yekaterinburg. Considerably more cars are still being sold in Yekaterinburg than in Russia on average: in Russia overall, car sales increased by 43% in January-October 2011 and by only 27% in October. Lada

Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant dumped 3,000 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 35.1% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Revda. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

Projects presented by groups from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg were selected as winners of the fourth (and the last) open contest for the creation of nanotech centers coordinated by Rosnano, the infrastructure and education programs foundation. Thus the full list of nanotech centers to be set up in Russia under the auspices of Rosnano is finalized, the company reports. Among the winning projects are the ones presented by Moscow-based T-Platform, by Saint Petersburg-based Leningrad Region economic development and investment activity committee, and by Yekaterinburg-based Ural

Under the order of Ural Federal District division of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service No. 62-11-1532/pz-i dated November 18, 2011 the issue of Sverdlovsk Region-based UBT-Uralvagonzavod’s ordinary registered uncertified shares was halted.

Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant dumped 4,600 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 54.5% of total atmospheric discharge in the town of Revda. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report is based on the information provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental surveillance agencies as well as by the state-run environmental protection authorities and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

The international rating agency called off Svyaz-Bank’s long- and short-term deposit ratings in both the national and the foreign currency (B1/Not Prime) as well as the bank’s financial stability rating (E+2), Interfax reports. The ratings were recalled for business reasons, the agency’s press release says.

UC RUSAL offered a few comments on Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin’s statement regarding the company’s Bogoslovsky smelter. ‘RUSAL is not closing down the electrolysis production at the plant. Aluminum will still be produced using the upgraded Series 6 facilities. The decision to make the old electrolysis shop more efficient was caused by the surveillance authorities’ order to shut down the series that were not fitted with gas-purification units. This is why a portion of the staff were offered jobs in the alumina department, in Series 6 facilities, and at the environmentally

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin did not agree with the decision made by UC RUSAL’s management regarding the closing down of electrolysis facilities at Bogoslovsky smelter, which would leave many people without jobs. ‘The Urals can boast unique aluminum production facilities that are both self-supporting and competitive. Given the region’s developmental potential, we are now doing our best to cut the cost of electricity here,’ the Governor said. ‘All these remarks as to something being ‘above the prime cost’ have to do with the quality

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Auchan is now Yekaterinburg’s only large supermarket chain that does not sell anything produced at Reftinskaya poultry factory. This became the case after the factory transformed into a new legal entity. ‘We still haven’t signed a new supply agreement with Auchan. The new agreement was needed because the factory transformed into a new legal entity when it was turned into a joint stock company at the end of August. ‘Auchan’s management was informed of the changes well beforehand, but it’s mid-November now, and the agreement still has not been signed by

UrBC, Moscow, November 17, 2011. Russia’s steel-making enterprises have now felt the metallurgical industry’s global downfall. For one, the financial performance indicators of Vladimir Lisin’s Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) went drastically down in the third quarter of 2011, Kommersant reports. Among other things, the company’s key efficiency indicator – its EBITDA profitability – dropped down to the levels of the recession-hit year 2009. Up till now, NLMK’s figures were some of the best in the industry, but the company had unlucky timing with the consolidation of its European

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 17, 2011. Ural Airlines’ fleet of vehicles now comprises as many as twenty-one Airbus aircraft. The company’s eighth Airbus 321 arrived in Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport yesterday, marking yet another step on the way to Ural Airlines getting an upgraded fleet of vehicles, the airline’s press officer reports. The new plane was leased in Dublin, Ireland. The aircraft is fit for 220 economy class passengers and will be used by the company mainly for chartered flights. Before the end of the year, the air carrier intends to buy two more Airbus 321 planes and operate

UrBC, Moscow, November 17, 2011. Mercedes Benz RUS is planning to set up a dealership center in Kurgan. The company explains they are currently on the look-out for an investor with some experience in the automobile business. Under the company’s conditions, the center must be located on the side of a highway and have a convenient customer driveway. Mercedes Benz RUS is willing to support the dealer in designing the concept of the business, picking out equipment, and all-level employee training.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. YIT Uralstroy, the daughter enterprise of the Finnish company YIT, acquired a 100% shareholding in the authorized capital of Yekaterinburg-based Olimp Management Company. At the close of the transaction, the company was given the new name of Olimp-Service Management Company,’ YIT’s press service reports.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. Vladivostok Avia is closing down its representation in Yekaterinburg. The decision was made at the company’s BOD meeting recently. The office was located in Uralskaya St. In fact, the airline decided to close down the representation in Kemerovo as well. Now Aeroflot recently got access to the aviation assets of RosTechnologies State Corporation, with its daughter enterprise Aeroflot-Finance receiving, among other assets, a 52.15% stake in Vladivostok Avia. The air carrier is now reported to run the chance of losing its current name in the course of a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. SUAL Kremnij Ural dumped 4,400 tons of pollutants in the air last year, which amounted to 11.4% of all the harmful emissions in the town of Kamensk-Uralsky. These data are available from a public report on the state of and protection of Sverdlovsk Region environment in the year 2010. The report was compiled on the basis of data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental monitoring agencies as well as information provided by state-run environmental protection agencies and leading conservationist and environmentalist organizations.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. Qatar, one of Russia’s key rivals on the global oil markets, might get a stake in Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer Novatek and join its project for the production of natural gas and liquefied natural gas in Yamal. The two countries’ energy ministers declared that the negotiations were already being held ‘at the corporations’ level’, with full support and promotion from both states. Still, Novatek itself has not confirmed the reports that the company might get a new shareholder any time soon, Kommersant reports. Meanwhile, the first

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 16, 2011. A picket in protest of closing down the electrolysis facilities at UC RUSAL Bogoslovsky smelter will be held in Krasnoturyinsk’s main square from noon to 1 PM on November 26, 2011. The city council has already given the applicants the permission to protest, Vecherny Krasnoturyinsk reports. In the meantime, the company is planning to shut down some of its loss-making, obsolete hydrolysis facilities. ‘Before one shuts down such facilities, new jobs must be created, and where are those jobs? Ever since UC RUSAL arrived at the enterprise, the company has