Three new Cyprus visa centers will soon be set up in Russian provinces, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cyprus to Russia Petros Kestoras says. Until recently, Russian subjects could only obtain visas to enter Cyprus in the consulates in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Now they will also be able to apply to visa centers in Yekaterinburg, Samara, and Krasnodar. ‘We have already obtained the permission of the Russian authorities to open these representations,’ the Association of Russian Tour Operators’ website quotes the ambassador as saying. Russia is actually

Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) accumulated 100,000 tons of Class II environmentally hazardous waste by the end of 2010, a public report on the state and protection of Sverdlovsk Region’s environment in 2010 states. The report was comprised on the bases of the data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental surveillance agencies as well as by the state environmental protection authorities and by large organizations whose activity is related to use of natural resources and environmental protection.

The representatives of the Yekaterinburg-based Atrium Palace Hotel complain that large crowds of Christian worshippers in Belinsky St. and Rosa Luxemburg St. cause major traffic jams on the roads and thus prevent the guests of the hotel from entering the place. ‘We are not experiencing any critical problems because of the large numbers of worshippers trying to get into Holy Trinity Cathedral next to our building. The only trouble is the traffic jams that make it a bit difficult for our guests to get into the hotel,’ the hotel representatives told UrBC. Now Yekaterinburg’s Holy Trinity

Ural Airlines keeps renovating its fleet of vehicles: one more Airbus 321 in Ural Airlines’ corporate colors landed in Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg today. The plane arrived from Dublin, Ireland. This means the airline now runs nineteen Airbus planes (thirteen A320 ones and six A321 ones), the company’s press officer reports. The airline is also planning to buy three more A321 planes before the end of the year. All in all, the company plans to have thirty Airbus planes in its fleet of vehicles.

Sverdlovsk Region Duma agreed to sell the share Sverdlovsk Region has in Evropa Shopping Mall. Twenty-two deputies voted in favor of the decision, the region’s Public Property Management Administration reports. The region currently owns one-seventh of the mall, estimated by the independent Lair Consulting Group at 186.1m RUR. This share was estimated to cost 153m RUR in 2010. The rest of the mall belongs to Uralstroy-1. The date of the auction will be set very soon.

Sverdlovsk Region-based Sredneuralsky Copper-Smelting Plant accumulated 213,900 tons of Class I environmentally hazardous waste by the end of 2010, a public report on the state and protection of Sverdlovsk Region’s environment in 2010 states. The report was comprised on the bases of the data provided by the state statistical bodies and environmental surveillance agencies as well as by the state environmental protection authorities and by large organizations whose activity is related to use of natural resources and environmental protection.

IES Holding and Evraz group S.A. signed an agreement on the sale of Sverdlovsk Region-based Kachkanar power station (a member of TGK-9). The station will be sold to EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (EVRAZ KGOK). The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of December 2011, after all the formalities have been fully processed.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court accepted the application placed with it by Bioproject: the company insists that Uralmashzavod be declared bankrupt, a court representative told Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information (RAPSI). The date of hearing the case has not been set yet. The enterprise’s Director-General Oleg Danchenko said at a briefing in July that Uralmashzavod’s revenues were expected to nearly double in 2011 against 2010 and reach 10bn RUR. He said the plant’s revenues amounted to 5.3bn RUR in the year 2010.

The details of an emergency landing performed by Lufthansa plane flying from Yekaterinburg to Frankfurt have recently been announced. According to Senior Assistant to Head of Ural Investigative Administration for Transportation’s PR Division Irina Sarkisyan, the emergency landing of Lufthansa aircraft had to be performed because of a fire in the kitchen. The flight attendants noticed the smoke and told the pilots about it, so the captain decided to land in Perm Airport. The investigative committee did not confirm the rumor that two people on board had carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ural Airlines will launch its first scheduled international flight from Mineralnye Vody to Dubai on October 25, 2011. Now the people living in the Northern Caucasus can get to the East’s most luxurious city directly from their home towns, the company’s press officer reports. The flight will be operated every Tuesday. The cheapest round trip tickets are available for ?399 (plus the airport charge). Tickets can be booked via the airline’s website www.uralairlines.com or УральскиеАвиалинии.рф as well as in the company’s booking offices.

The international rating agency Moody’s demoted its forecast for the Russian banking system’s development from Stable to Negative, the agency reports. ‘Downgrading our forecast to Negative reflects our concerns that the global economic conditions and the financial markets’ volatility might weaken Russia’s operating environment and affect the banks through a general drop in liquidity, a slowdown in the lending activity, and a pressure on the assets quality,’ Moody’s says. The Negative forecast means the agency expects these changes to occur over the next twelve to eighteen months.

The recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Enterprises Support Committee was dedicated to the local defense enterprises Ural Mechano-Electrical Plant, Ural Transport Machine-Building Plant (UralTransMash), and Ural Civil Aviation Plant. Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Alexander Petrov explained that all those enterprises depended on state orders and on the terms of payment for the produce. Still, the committee was interested in the companies making all the necessary payments to the treasury, especially corporate income tax. It turns out most plants have an opportunity to make more

Another recent emergency landing performed by UTair Airlines plane in Tyumen is now being investigated. The incident occurred at 6:30 AM local time (4:30 AM Moscow time) on October 22, 2011. The captain of ATR 75 flying from Tyumen to Nizhnevartovsk asked for an emergency landing due to generator failure. There were thirty-six passengers and four crew members on board, Ural Investigative Administration for Transportation reports to Russia’s Investigative Committee. The landing was performed successfully, and no one was hurt. According to the investigative committee chairman, the emergency

The stockholders of Concern Kalina are going to consider the early termination of BOD members’ powers in the course of an extraordinary general meeting. In addition, they plan to elect the new BOD members and approve of the company’s newly edited charter. The EGM has been scheduled for January 16, 2011. Now it was announced on October 14, 2011 that Unilever and Kalina signed an agreement; the former is to buy 82% of the Yekaterinburg-based cosmetics manufacturer’s shares for approximately 16.7bn RUR (?390m).

Avto Land’s trustee in bankruptcy V.G. Sivoplyasov announced that the auction aimed at selling the company’s assets (tires, automobile spare parts, tools, repair machinery and materials) did not go through as there were no bidders for the auction. Among the assets put up to auction were tires, spare parts for Jaguar, Ford, Mazda, and Volvo automobiles, tools, and repair machinery and materials, all in accordance with the list. The assets were offered in a single lot, the opening bid was set at 8.82m RUR.

‘We feel quite positive about MMK Group’s production performance,’ UFS Investment Company reports. ‘The fact that the group’s Turkey-based enterprise is about to reach its projected capacity means the year’s output will increase considerably. In the meantime, the main production site shows some signs of recovery after a not so successful first half of the year. We expect the company to reach its target sales figures and its financial results to be comparable with the forecasts due to growing produce prices,’ the experts say. MMK Group came up with its operational results for the third quarter

Rosaviation annulled the aircraft operator’s license of UraiAvia (Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region), the agency informed Interfax. The decision to annul the license was taken after an inspection that revealed the fact of UraiAvia not meeting the license requirements. The airline stopped operating and cannot perform any services now,’ Rosaviation explained.

Relocating from the center of Yekaterinburg to the premises of Ural Chemical Reagents Plant based in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region in 2007 affected the non-ferrous metals processing plant’s performance: the company is no longer the leader on a number of markets, and its staff was reduced by 10% as well, the plant’s Director-General Denis Borovkov told reporters recently. The plant is to celebrate its 95th anniversary this year. The company has now gone back to its full pre-relocation capacity, which took us three years, and the enterprise is now prepared to become the branch leader

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) set up a trade representation in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The trade representation was set up to ensure more effective cooperation with the country’s oil and gas enterprises. The new representation is also an important step for the development of trade and economic ties with Uzbekistan and for promoting TMK’s produce on the local market.

The chassis of UTair’s ATR42 airplane were damaged duringlanding in Tyumen Airport. According to the captain, some vibration started after the plane hit the ground and was gradually slowing down on the landing strip. After the plane completed the stop, it was taken to the parking lot and examined, and it was discovered that there were ruptures in both pneumatic supports at the front of the chassis,’ Assistant to Tyumen’s Public Prosecutor for Transportation Anatoly Orlov told Interfax-Ural. No harm was done either to the twenty-three passengers or to the three crew members on board.