Egypt’s Tourism Ministry is launching an advertising campaign in Russia aimed at promoting the Red Sea holidays. The Ministry intends to spend over $3bn on the project, the Director of the tourism department of the Embassy of Egypt in Moscow Nahed Nazmi Ayad Khan told RIA Novosti. The large-scale Egypt-promoting campaign will hit the Russian television, radio, and shopping malls on April 25, 2011. What is more, we are also planning on coordinating plenty of events in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada as well as Moscow to support travel there. Among such events are, for example, music festivals,’

The Japanese car manufacturer Nissan announced its Leaf power trucks had to be called off for maintenance due to a possible electronic gear deficiency, Auto.Lenta.Ru reports. About 5.3 million cars will have to be recalled altogether: this is exactly the number of automobiles produced since the time of the launch.

Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2011. The company shipped to consumers 1.07 million tons of steel pipes, which was 15.4% better than in the first quarter of 2010 and nearly on a level with the record-setting figures of the last quarter of 2010. In the first three months of 2011, TMK delivered to customers about 108,000 tons of premium tubing joints designed by the company’s Russian (TMK family) and American (ULTRA) branches; this exceeded the figures for the fourth quarter of 2010 by 20.6%. The share of ULTRA-manufactured joints

The stockholders of AKB Rosbank decided in the course of an extraordinary general meeting that the bank should get reorganized through a merger with Bank Société Générale Vostok. The decision was made on April 15, 2011, and the Bank of Russia’s Moscow division must be notified within three working days of the general meeting. The proposal was first made by Rosbank’s Board of Directors. Both banks belong to the French group Société Générale; according to the group’s report, its Russian assets – Rosbank, Bank Société Générale Vostok, Rusfinance Bank, and Delta Credit – were only a cause of ?35m

The Russian cosmetics manufacturer Concern Kalina now has new stockholders: HSBC Bank PLC, which used to own a 7.08% shareholding in the business, UniCredit Securities International Ltd, with its 8.72% shareholding, and UniCredit Bank Austria AG, whose shareholding amounted to 10.72%, are no longer the cosmetics company’s shareholders. In addition, Kalina Finance reduced its stake in the business from 12.72% down to 3.59% and Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited reduced its share from 19.89% to 7.98%.

Nomos-Bank decided to raise the credit limit offered to ChTPZ Group and its daughter enterprises by 3.5bn RUR, that is, up to 10.37bn RUR. The company can now use the extended limit to enjoy a wide range of banking products such as the floating assets replenishment options, long-term loans, factoring transactions, and trade finance scheme. ‘The decision to raise the credit limit for the company stems from the bank’s high opinion of ChTPZ financial dynamics and its market position. What is more, our companies happen to be long-term partners, and ChTPZ has proved a dependable one,’ says Vice

It has been reported that CIS Holding’s heat and power generating companies produced 21.13bn kilowatt-hours of electric power and 49.65m gigacalories of heat in the first quarter of 2011. This is actually 0.6% and 3.2% less, respectively, than in the first quarter of 2010, as that particular period was extraordinarily cold The Urals-based heat and power networks produced 1,810,348,645 kilowatt-hours of electric power and 6,886,258 gigacalories of heat in the first quarter of 2011. This is less than the 7,197,543 gigacalories in the first months of 2010; the same is true of the electricity

According to a recent examination of its financial state, Uralfinprombank’s liabilities currently come to 3.1bn RUR, including 2.85bn RUR that the bank owes to its private customers by way of deposits. Now the bank’s own assets (excluding the possible loss reserves and the capital consumption) amount to 2.05bn RUR. 71% of Uralfinprombank’s assets is constituted by loans offered by the bank to private and business customers. A trustee in bankruptcy is currently trying to locate the debtors and determine their actual financial situation. According to the preliminary estimates available, the

Ural Airlines offers the Great Patriotic War veterans a free flight to one of the Russian cities that served as the battle scenes in the course of the war and back home. The airline has offered this opportunity to the war veterans for the sixth time this year. This offer is targeted specifically at people who cannot afford to see their wartime friends, fellow soldiers, and relatives or return to the memorable sites. The company is well aware of the special nature of such flights and bears in mind the age and health conditions of the unusual passengers. This is why Ural Airlines offers special

The freight electric locomotive Granite No. 002 (2ES10 Series) traveled from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Pervouralsk with a 7,000-kg train attached to it. Senior Vice President of Russian Railways Valentin Gapanovitch and the General Director of Ural Locomotives (Sinara Group) Alexander Saltayev made the trip in the driver’s cabin, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The new freight loco with an asynchronous traction gear of the 2ES10 Series is unique not only to Russia but also to the entire 1520 area. This model is particularly strong and enjoys enhanced locomotive power. Despite its

Nothing extraordinary can realistically be expected to happen in the special economic zone Titanium Valley in Sverdlovsk Region within the first few months of the decision to set it up, President of Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Dmitri Pumpyansky announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. On the one hand, it’s great to have a location with clear logistics links where some new production site can be situated. This also means new jobs and new business opportunities. On the other hand, the Union’s council has already mentioned that nothing out of the ordinary

Ural Airlines operated 4,030 flights in January-March 2011, which was 39% better than in January-March 2010, the company’s press service reports. For one, the carrier operated 810 international flights (a 31% increase against 2010), 2,372 domestic flights (a 37% increase against 2010), and 848 flights within the Commonwealth of Independent States (a 51% increase against 2010). In March 2011, the airline operated 1,300 flights, which exceeded the figures for March 2010 by 27%. The company’s press service explains that this growth has to do with the launch of new international and domestic

Yekaterinburg Customs came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2011. 88.8% of all the goods ($1.3m worth of products in terms of turnover) came from or went to the far abroad, 11.1% of goods ($162.8m) came from or went to the member states of the CIS. 26.4% of foreign turnover’s worth ($388m) was imported and 73.6% ($1.1bn) was exported. The freight turnover reached 553,700 tons, with the countries of the far abroad receiving 75.3% of the total freight turnover volume (417,000 tons) and the member states of the CIS getting 24.7% (136,700 tons). Both the goods turnover and

Cargo Airlines Instanbul-bound flight was cancelled at Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport. Flight MNB 973 was to be operated at 12:15 PM local time today. However, the flight was called off for unstated reasons. The flight was to be operated on an Airbus A300-600F.

A member of the Russian Academy of Architecture & Construction Sciences (RAASN), Russia’s deserved architect, and the chief architect of UralNIIProyekt Institute Gennady Belyankin spoke against the construction of the Radisson SAS Hotel at the intersection of Malyshev St and Krasnoarmeyskaya St. in Yekaterinburg at a recent urban development council’s meeting. The project developer Atomstroycomplex promises to finish the building off by the end of 2013. Moreover, the director of Demidov Creative Workshop Boris Demidov suggested making the building lower and simpler. The idea of putting up

Starting April 16, 2011, Ural Airlines will be operating flights to Egypt once again; these will be available from Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg, the carrier’s press officer reports. ‘Egypt is an open destination now, so no problems are expected there. All our A321 airplanes take off in Yekaterinburg fully loaded. We will build up on this market again,’ the press officer says. Yekaterinburg-Hurghada flights will be operated twice a week; the flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Hurghada will start on April 29, 2011 and will be available three times a week. Flights from

Head of Rospotrebnadzor (the state federal watchdog) Gennady Onishchenko calls for Alfa Bank Chairman of the Supervisory Board Rushan Khvesyuk’s resignation, RBC daily reports. The official insists on this because the bank has numerously failed to meet Rospotrebnadzor’s demands. As for the banking business, I cannot remember any preceding cases when a resignation of the management was insisted upon, but this does not mean there were actually no such cases,’ says Consumer Rights Protection Director of Rospotrebnadzor Oleg Prusakov.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service Sverdlovsk Region division inspired and coordinated a set of measures aimed at disclosing legal offenses in the field of illegal employment of foreign workers at the construction site at 39 Mira St. This is a well-known place of guest workers’ clashes that once nearly ended up in a mob fight. The inspection of the site was carried out with the region’s public prosecution officers, the police force from the Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region Department of Internal Affairs, and a number of labor inspectors. The officers found a number of Uzbek, Tajik, and

EVRAZ Holding is undergoing a re-branding campaign at the moment. The company gave new names to a number of its Russia- and Ukraine-based assets, adding the name of EVRAZ to the earlier denominations. The holding member companies’ shareholders voted for the new official names of the following enterprises: EVRAZ Vysokogorsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (EVRAZ VGOK), EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (EVRAZ KGOK), EVRAZ Nakhodkinske Commercial Sea Port (EVRAZ NMTP), EVRAZ United West-Siberian Iron & Steel Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK), and EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel

The duty free shop of Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg still sells no strong drinks. At the moment, the only things available for sale are cognacs that come at about ?1,000 a bottle. The strong drinks disappeared from the duty free shop’s windows as early as March 2011. Neither the airport nor the shop itself can provide any comments, so it’s not clear if and when the drinks will reappear in the shop. UrBC found out that the assortment problems may have to do with an expiring license allowing the shop to sell alcohol.