President of Russian Railways Public Company Vladimir Yakunin is going to take part in a pilot ride of the experimental electric locomotive 2ES10 Granit, complete in three units and fitted with a record-setting 9,000-ton train, along Sverdlovsk Region Railways. The first 2ES10 electric locomotives created by Ural Locomotives (a Sinara Group and Siemens joint venture) are now undergoing final certification and commissioning procedures. The locos were designed and developed in accordance with the Russian Railways’ technical specifications. In order to prove the locomotives’ actual technical and

The law-enforcement authorities of Sverdlovsk Region’s Krasnoturyinsk Investigative Department accused a fifty-four-year-old Krasnoturyinsk dweller and sole trader Naimjon Mamadzhanov of committing a crime described in Article 143 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (violation of labor safety regulations leading to involuntary manslaughter), the Investigative Department’s press service reports. It was revealed in the course of an inquiry that two workers, who happened to be the citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were working on the roof of one of the alumina shops at

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation decided not to declare any share dividend for the year 2010. 95% of the plant’s last year’s net profit will be directed to covering the expenses accumulated in the previous years, states Rosimuschestvo’s order cited via the corporation’s website. Uralvagonzavod’s net profit amounted to 5.69bn RUR in 2010, of which 285m RUR is to be placed into the reserve fund and 5.41bn is to be spent on covering the previous years’ losses. In fact, Uralvagonzavod did not declare any share dividend in the year 2009 as well due to lack of profit.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped more metal goods to carmakers in the first half of 2011 than in the entire year 2009. In order to meet the strategic goal of becoming the Russian automobile industry’s leading supplier, MMK keeps increasing the volume of shipments to the Russian carmakers. In 2009, the share of goods delivered to the Russian car manufacturers came to 209,000 tons (4.8% in the entire volume of metal goods shipped onto the Russian market). In 2010, the volume of shipments nearly doubled and amounted to 406,000 tons (6.4% of all the domestic market shipments). In

The Ural Federal District division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) is now inspecting Pripyshminskiye Bory national park, OOO Polyksen, Sverdlovskaya Poultry Factory, and OAO Uraltransmash. The authorities are checking whether these companies comply with the orders given, Rosprirodnadzor’s press service reports. The authorities are also checking whether OAO RTz OTzM, OOO Metall-Industriya, OOO Metal-Torg, OOO TzGS, and FAN Scientific & Production Enterprise can meet their licensing requirements and terms and doing inspection raids of water conservation zones in

The net loss of UralProyektAvtomatika Scientific & Production Organization rose by 20.59% in the second quarter of 2011, that is, from 772,000 RUR in the first quarter up to 931,000 RUR in the second quarter, the company’s official data state. The increase in loss is explained by the growing expenses and dropping revenues.

Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation extended the deadline for TyumenEnergoBank to settle its debts with the top priority creditors till October 25, 2011, the corporation reports. At the same time, the bank now has to pay back 23.5% rather than just 13% of the total amount of sums claimed by its creditors.

An electric arc furnace that was stopped due to an accident at Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant will only resume operating in December 2011 at the soonest, the spokesperson for Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) reports. It was reported on July 10, 2011 that an electric transformer shut down at Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant (part of NLMK Group), which caused one of the two electric arc furnaces to stop working. The shut-down occurred because of an electric circuit breakup in the transformer’s primary side, which means the coil will have to be replaced. The accident is expected to

Direct air communication with Georgia has been restored after a few years’ break. Starting August 24, 2011, Ural Airlines will operate direct flights from Moscow to Kutaisi and back and from Yekaterinburg to Tbilisi and back. Planes will leave Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday, and flights at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg will depart every Wednesday. The cheapest tickets for the Moscow-Kutaisi flight are available for ?155 for a one-way trip, and the cheapest one-way tickets for Yekaterinburg-Tbilisi flight come at ?175.

An inspection carried out by Nizhniy Tagil division of Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities for the environment revealed that RMK-NTMK, its former Director-General I. Perfilov, and Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) itself had violated the existing environmental legislation. Therefore legal action was taken against the first two offenders, with charges based on Article 8.2 of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code (non-compliance with the environmental and sanitary-epidemiological regulations regarding the collection, storage, use, deactivation,

Russian law-enforcement authorities closed the criminal case involving a Siemens employee, the company says in its quarterly report. As has been reported earlier, the Russian authorities carried out an investigation based on a suspicion that the budget money had been misused through offering Siemens a contract for the delivery of medical equipment to Yekaterinburg in 2003-2005. On July 5, 2011 the inquiry involving a Siemens employee was closed, with all the charges dismissed,’ Interfax quotes the company as reporting. In November 2007, Siemens representative for Sverdlovsk Region Lev Dubnov

Yekaterinburg-based Umax-Center was declared a dishonest supplier by Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service recently. The reason for this decision lay in the fact that the company had won a tender but backed out of signing a contract with Sverdlovsk Region Government Car Fleet for the delivery of 790,850 RUR worth of winter tires.

Ural Interregional Territorial Air Transport Administration allowed Chelyabinsk Airport to host passenger aircraft Sukhoi SuperJet 100 on its premises, the airport’s press service reports. The airport ground crew have already undergone the special training to get certified for Sukhoi Superjet 100/95 ground services, while the airport has also provided documentary proof of having the necessary equipment available.

UrBC, Moscow, July 27, 2011. The international rating agency Fitch Ratings affirmed UralTransBank’s Issuer Default Rating at B-, with Stable rating outlook. The agency reports the affirmation of the rating reflects the improvement in the post-recession operating environment supporting the bank’s profitability and the lending portfolio performance figures; this improvement also makes up (to some extent) for the significant drop in the quality of assets observed in the past. Fitch Ratings says the bank’s lending portfolio shrank by 7% in 2010, whereas the share of bad debt constituted 21% of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court rejected the claim laid by KESKO-Ural (the Novotel Hotel) against Zoom Zoom Photographers; the plaintiff insisted on being paid 223,000 RUR. The court meeting was held the other day. According to the defendant, the clash started with KESKO-Ural refusing to pay for the job that had already been done. ‘When we decided to go to court to get our money, they immediately filed a claim to the extent that the entire contract and all the addenda must be declared invalid. KESKO-Ural decided both to keep the money and to make us pay

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Bank NEIVA has successfully undergone Visa certification procedure related to supporting its Fast Funds service, so starting July 27, 2011, the bank offers its customers an opportunity to get instant money orders delivered via Visa Money Transfer onto their Visa card accounts. The money is available to the customers through all the account management tools, and no commission is taken for the money transfer.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 27, 2011. Rosnano keeps looking for an investor who’d be interested in Sverdlovsk Region’s large-scale project, a magnesium plant in Asbest. The construction of the plant was supposed to have started as early as the end of 2005. However, only the most basic jobs have been completed by now, namely, a pilot factory was set up and a construction site was selected and prepared. ‘The basic stage of the project is complete. We now have to start the building jobs, which is why Rosnano Corporation is looking for an investor with the sums needed who is in the know of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. Two L’Etoile stores closed for renovation in Yekaterinburg. These are the perfume shops in Park House and Carnival Shopping Malls. ‘Two stores are closed for renovation, while the rest of the outlets keep working as usual,’ the cosmetics company’s hot line clerk told UrBC. The clerk was unable to explain why the stores needed remodeling, what exactly was being changed, or when the shops could reopen. Carnival Shopping Mall reported the store would resume operating in September 2011; Park House Shopping Mall couldn’t provide any information as to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. The Profile magazine carried a rating of Russia’s largest banks as of June 1, 2011. Six banks based in Ural Federal District were featured on the list of the country’s one hundred largest banks in terms of asset volume. SKB-Bank remained on the list of Russia’s Top 50 banks and was rated the country’s 48th largest and Sverdlovsk Region’s largest bank. What is more, the bank was also the Mid-Urals’ No. 1 in terms of own funds. The magazine analysts also came up with a rating of banks based on the volume of loans offered to private individuals. SKB-Bank, with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2011. A shop assistant from Sport-Maxi at ComsoMall Shopping Center in Yekaterinburg was robbed of a bag with several million rubles in it right in the mall’s parking lot, the press office of Yekaterinburg Department of Internal Affairs reports. ‘Two strangers attacked the man as he was getting into his car, VAZ 2114. They hit him on the head with some metal object, sprayed some toxic substance into his eyes, and reached for the bag with the week’s revenues. The exact sum is being determined now,’ the Department explains. The man was able to call the police; the