Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service might investigate the advertising campaign launched by ZAO Bank Tinkoff. The new video clip features the TV news presenter Arina Sharapova, Interfax refers to the bank’s Vice President for Marketing Oleg Anisimov as saying. The advertisement was broadcast both on television and via the Itnernet; the video starts with a cue from ‘Sberbank’s customer’, a woman climbing the stairs who complains to the news presenter about her worries: ‘It’s always really busy at Sberbank,’ she laments. Arina Sharapova replies by telling her about the loan offers available at

Starting May 18, 2011, OAO Ural Airlines will be operating a scheduled international flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia to Kiev, Ukraine, and back. The flights will be operated on a weekly basis, that is, every Wednesday, using an A 320 airplane.

Starting April 29, 2011, OAO Ural Airlines is going to operate a scheduled international flight from Novosibirsk, Russia, to Larnaka, Cyprus, and back. The flight will be operated once a week, every Friday, using an A 320 airbus. The cheapest tickets are available at ?699 plus fuel fees. The flight to Larnaka is, in fact, Ural Airlines’ first international flight departing from Novosibirsk.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) announced it had bought a 50% minus one share holding in MMK-Atakas. The transaction amounted to $485m, the company reports. This means MMK can consolidate a 100% shareholding in the company now. The deal will be through by November 1, 2011. The obligatory prerequisite for the transaction is getting all the necessary permits first. ‘Consolidating a 100% share in MMK-Atakas is part of MMK’s strategy aimed at securing our presence of the sprawling markets in Russia and the Middle East, primarily Turkey. This will make running the company even more

MMK-Atakas, a joint venture of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Atakas Group launched its electric steel-smelting facility in Iskenderun, Turkey in the course of a ceremony attended by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. ‘The launch of the department means MMK-Atakas in Iskenderun is actually complete. The metal goods output is expected to reach over 800,000 tons this year already, whereas in 2012, it will come to over 2 million tons. The facility’s production capacity is estimated at 2.3 million tons of ready goods annually,’ MMK reports. The decision to build MMK-Atakas

The analytical center Expert-Ural came up with its traditional rating of the Ural Region-based banks, with data for the start of 2011. SKB-Bank was featured among the leaders in all the ratings, becoming Sverdlovsk Region’s largest organization in terms of asset volume (88.8bn RUR) and Ural Federal District’s second largest bank. The bank was also Ural Federal District’s largest in terms of lending portfolio volume (49.4bn RUR) and proved No. 1 in terms of loans offered to private individuals (the total volume amounted to 24.4bn RUR). As it happens, SKB-Bank managed to raise the volume of

OOO Bank Koltso Urala’s business customers can now feel more comfortable doing business in Asia as the bank now offers them the possibility of transactions involving the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. ‘We offer our customers an opportunity open a bank account in Japanese yens or Chinese yuans, which will make it easier to do business and will speed our customers’ transactions with their contractors,’ says the bank’s representative Igor Nikulin.

The personnel and customers of MEGA shopping center in Yekaterinburg had to leave the building following a message that a bomb had been left on the premises. The shopping mall’s press center informed the reporters that a team of miners has already arrived at the scene to look for explosives. MEGA in Yekaterinburg hosts IKEA, Auchan, and OBI hypermarkets.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) declared upon looking into the performance of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks that the issue of consumer rights protection is as vital on the financial services market as on any other one. Customers unhappy with various banks keep placing increasingly more complaints with the service: the number of those went up from two in 2006 to 33 in 2007 to 84 in 2008 to 86 in 2009 and to 320 in 2010. In the year 2010, most complaints were placed against OOO KB Renaissance Capital, OOO Rusfinance Bank, OAO AKB Rosbank, and

Bank VTB might assume actual control over the Bank of Moscow as soon as this week, Kommersant reports. A source close to one of the Bank of Moscow’s stockholders told the newspaper that Bank VTB’s share in the business will rise not due to acquiring a 3.88% shareholding (currently owned by Goldman Sachs) but due to buying a 2.77% share from Credit Suisse as well as buying a minority shareholding in the Bank of Moscow of about 1.6%.

Following a claim laid by Prosecutor of Salekhard, Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region against OAO Uralsvyazinform, a telecommunications provider, the defendant was made to limit access provided to websites that contain information about the illegal tobacco and other smoking admixtures. OAO Uralsvyazinform disagreed with the municipal court’s ruling and took the case to Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region Court. The district court’s civil cases judicial division looked into both the cassation and the prosecutor’s arguments and supported the ruling pronounced by Salekhard court, finding it both

Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Division’s Economic Offense Department keeps investigating the case of OOO Intek, OOO Torgovy Tsentr, and ZAO Forum Group’s management who are suspected of offenses committed in the process of using a land allotment in Volgogradskaya St-Zoologicheskaya St-Repin St-S.Deryabina St. in Yekaterinburg. The company intends to put up a retail park there and has felled down all the trees in the area to clear the space for it. ‘The necessary requests have been sent to obtain more exhaustive information about the use of the land allotment. We have also

A delegation of Sverdlovsk Region officials is to take part in the international real estate investment fair MIPIM-2011. Governor Alexander Misharin, who heads the delegation, is going to visit the fair that will take place in Cannes on March 8-11, 2011. Sverdlovsk Region’s stand will be housed in Azur Pavilion and will be finished off in one ‘trademark’ style. Throughout the exhibition, non-stop presentations of projects (including Academic, Yekaterinburg’s newest district and a multi-faceted area development project) will be made at the stand.

ZAO Bank Socété Générale Vostok is likely to merge with OAO Rosbank soon. The decision to reorganize the latter will be considered by the bank’s stockholders on April 15, 2011 OAO Rosbank BOD has already suggested that the shareholders approve of the merging agreement with ZAO Bank Socété Générale Vostok.

The international rating agency demoted X5 Retail Group’s corporate rating and its default probability rating, RIA Novosti reports. Moody's downgraded X5 from B1 down to B2 after the company had bought up Kopeika, one of the country-wide discounter food chains. The agency’s experts explain that the rating had to go down because of the expected deterioration of the company’s financial performance immediately following the transaction. The rating outlook for both ratings is Stable. X5 Retail Group completed the deal at 51.5bn RUR in December 2010. Kopeika’s stores will undergo a

Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) received eleven customer complaints from Yekaterinburg Oktyabrsky and Kirovsky districts dwellers about a number of motor shows, the division’s press service reports. The motor shows customers complained about the poor quality of cars they had bought, the consumer rights-infringing provisos in the purchase or loan agreements, the lack of full and accurate information about the product’s application characteristics, the seller failing to meet the delivery date deadlines, the seller refusing to fix the

Transaero Airlines stopped doing business with the tour operator Fostour PTS and offered its seat quotas to Biblio Travel, South Cross, TEZ Tour, and Transaero Tour Center, the company announced in an official press release. The decision was taken because Fostour still owes the airline $3.3m; the air carrier intends to take the case to court. ‘Fostour’s debts had been accumulating since last fall. The total amount exceeded $3.3m in February 2011, and only $572,000 are actually covered by a bank guarantee,’ the press release states.

The bilateral international agreement signed by the Hungarian and Danish Governments has made it possible for Hungarian Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg to issue short-term Schengen visas to Denmark, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations’ press service reports. This means that, with the Danish agreement, the consulate can also offer travelers and businesspeople visas to Austria, Latvia, Slovenia, and Finland in addition to issuing Hungarian visas proper.

Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service decided to halt the issue of ZAO Ural Boeing Manufacturing’s ordinary registered paperless shares. The company is based in Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk Region. The shares were issued through a private offering; state registration number is 1-01-09324-K-003D as of July 8, 2010.

Ural Airlines passengers flying from Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Krasnodar, Chita, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok can use the Lent-Diet Meal offer between March 3, 2011 and April 23, 2011. During the days of the Lent, the airline can offer its customers the dishes that both fully comply with the religious requirements and are remarkably tasty: the company can serve its fasting passengers, for instance, piquant rice with a range of seasonings and baked apples stuffed with pine nuts. We are very respectful towards believers, so the special Lenten menu has already become a sort of a tradition,’