Moody's Investors Service, the international rating agency, changed the outlook of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Ва3 corporate rating and Аа3.ru national scale rating from Stable to Positive, the agency reports.

OAO Svyaznoy Ural has promised to compensate the damage done to the company’s customers by a dishonest employee. ‘The employees’ unlawful actions get tracked by our security service and the control departments of our partner companies. Our customers will receive their compensation,’ Svyaznoy Ural informed UrBC. Meanwhile, Yekaterinburg’s Leninskiy district court’s ruling regarding the corporate fraud within Svyaznoy came into effect. The lawsuit involved charges of fraud related to loan-giving practices of one of the mobile service chain store’s employees. The court determined that the

Yekaterinburg’s Oktyabrskiy district court made OAO Koltsovo Airport stop violating the rights of the disabled. Sverdlovsk Region’s prosecution authorities checked the airport’s compliance with the law for the protection of the disabled and detected a number of problems there. It was determined that despite the federal legislation requirements and construction norms, the staircase leading to the airport’s VIP terminal does not have any protective rails, so the motion impaired passengers cannot enter the business class terminal safely. What is more, the bathrooms of the VIP terminal and of the

The head of Ural Federal District’s division of the Federal Strong Drinks Market Regulating Service Dmitriy Lebedev declared OOO Omega Spirits Group had committed numerous offenses in the past. ‘The company now owes millions and cannot pay its creditors back. It’s easy to say that the cause of its insolvency is the ban our Service imposed on the group’s license. This ban is, in fact, quite a story. All of this company’s problems are rooted in its way of doing business,’ Lebedev announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘OOO Omega Spirits Group turned to be a multiple offender, and now

Yekaterinburg customs drew up a performance report for the first half of 2010. 1,400 local legal entities got involved in foreign trade in January to June 2010, which was 15.6% more than in the first half of 2009. These companies filled in 26,700 cargo manifests (against 20,500 manifests a year earlier). The trade turnover amounted to $3.4bn, which was 28% more than in the first half of 2009. Ordzhonikidzevskiy district’s customs had the greatest increase in foreign trade turnover over the given period, that is, 29%. The total trade turnover within the Yekaterinburg customs area rose by 22.3%

Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for the first half of 2010. The company rendered its services to 34% more passengers and operated 35% more flights than in the first half of 2009: all in all, 753,420 people used the airline in January-June 2010 and 7,020 flights were operated, of which 3,680 flights were domestic ones, 2,050 flights were international ones, and 1,280 flights were operated within the CIS. As for the passenger turnover, 366,880 passengers used the carrier’s domestic flights in the first half of 2010, which was 36% more than a year earlier. 270,620 people took

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came up with a production performance report for the second quarter of 2010. The company manufactured 2,985,000 tons of steel and 2,623,000 tons of goods over the given period, which was, respectively, 9% and 7% better than in the first quarter of 2010. The enterprise’s hot-rolled production dropped by 112,000 tons, or 7% in the second quarter compared with the first quarter of the year; on the other hand, the output of goods with high added value increased by 174,000 tons, of 24%, with the share of such goods in the company’s total goods output rose

OOO Renaissance Capital Commercial Bank is closing down some of its representations in the Russian regions. The decision to this extent has been made by the company’s only stockholder. The change will involve the bank’s offices in Perm, Yekaterinburg, Naberezhniye Chelny, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, and Lipetsk.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court supported the ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division regarding OAO MRSK Urala and OAO RSK as valid and legal, the spokesperson for the FAS’s Sverdlovsk Region division reports. The division declared on September 9, 2009 that OAO MRSK Ural and OAO RSK violated Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. ‘The offense consisted in the two companies colluding in such a way which resulted in inflicting disadvantageous terms of access to RSK’s electricity network and electric power supply upon GSK-50. The

Transaero Airlines’ Yekaterinburg-Hurghada chartered flight will take off with an eight-hour delay. The company reports this has to do with the airplane’s engineering malfunction. ‘Because of this, the plane couldn’t leave the airport at the designated time. A reserve aircraft is expected to arrive in Yekaterinburg now, with the departure set for 5:20 PM,’ Transaero says. The carrier’s flight UN949 was supposed to have taken off at 9:40 AM. The passengers have already checked in.

Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) section division (managed by OOO NLMK-Sort) sold 686,000 tons of metal goods to customers in the first half of 2010; this was 5% less than in the first half of 2009. According to the company’s official report, the 14% drop in the rod-shaped reinforcing bar sales (these went down to 375,000 tons) was made up for by the growing sales of other products. For one, the enterprise sold 82,000 tons of coil-shaped reinforcing bars (which was 42% more than a year earlier), 38,000 tons of wire rods (which was 15% better than a year earlier), and 104,000 tons of

President of LORAN High Style Group and the owner of KEF Restaurant Valeriy Loran denied the alleged sale of the eating house. ‘It’s true that the rumors regarding the sale do pop up every now and then, but I do not understand their origin. People say a lot of different things nowadays, but these are just rumors. The premises of the restaurant are now rented, but the restaurant itself has not been sold,’ Loran said to UrBC. KEF Restaurant is a premium class eating house that serves Oriental, European, and Japanese cuisine and has been operating in Yekaterinburg since 2003.

Ural Airlines offers every visitor to InnoProm 2010 (the Ural International Industry & Innovations Fair) an opportunity to book and buy an airplane ticket for any of the carrier’s scheduled flights as well as to check in right at the company’s stand in Chkalovskiy terminal. The self-service check-in kiosks operate in real time mode; in addition, a test trial is available at the same time, so all the ‘passengers’ can ‘check in’ for a virtual flight. What is more, the airline’s stand provides all the information about the company its customers might be interested in. InnoProm 2010 will be

A fire broke out in Denezhkin Kamen nature reserve, Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor reports. ‘Denezhkin Kamen informed our department of the fire in Quarter 202 at 4: 00 PM on July 15, 2010. According to the preliminary data available, the fire covered the area of some 1.5 hectares. It is, in fact, about three kilometers from the fire area to the nearest body of water. Six nature reserve workers and two automobiles were sent in to fight the fire,’ Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) says. The causes of the emergency are now being investigated; experts are

The Times of India announced recently that the Indian authorities adopted the symbol for the rupee, the national currency, on July 15, 2010. ‘This currency symbol looks somewhat like an R without the vertical line and somewhat like र (ra), the letter of the Devanagari alphabet,’ the newspaper says. The rupee symbol will probably come in use in India within six months’ time and is expected to hit the global market in eighteen to twenty-four months. OOO Koltso Urala Commercial Bank’s Currency Transactions Director Igor Nesterovitch says the graphic currency symbols don’t really have an economic

Deputy Minister for Regional Development Yuri Osintsev visited Academic, Yekaterinburg’s newest district currently still under construction. The official came to the area to see the opening of the Energy Efficiency Center that is created for the exchange of energy-saving experience with the construction companies. Yuri Osintsev spoke very favorably of the local developer’s energy-saving achievements and suggested that they should be introduced in the existing homes as well. ‘We’ll direct some extra money to the housing overhauls in Nizhniy Tagil, Asbest, and Pervouralsk to make sure these

Today the 10th Russian-German St. Petersburg Dialogue Forum finished up with a session where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented their speeches to the audience. The spokesperson for Governor of Sverdlovsk Region says some reports on the results of the forum were also made by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and the forum’s German co-Chairman, retired Prime Minister Lothar de Messier. The day before, Zubkov encouraged the forum attendees to draw up a list of proposals that could really improve life in both countries. For one, the

The 6th Russian Defence Expo — 2010 exhibition opens in Nizhniy Tagil on July 14-17, 2010.The event is supported by SKB-Bank as usual. This year, over 250 Russian enterprises from twenty-nine Russian regions are expected to take part in the event, and over 200 foreign experts are expected to visit the exhibition. In addition, 250 companies from thirty-five different countries will probably pay a visit – this is 30% more than a year earlier. The exhibition is to be held at the firing ground located by Staratel settlement which belongs to Nizhniy Tagil Metal Testing Institute. Apart from this

Under the recently signed septilateral agreement, Sverdlovsk Region is going to get more than 14 billion RUR worth of investments, the region’s Governor Alexander Misharin announced at the close of the Russian-German Energy Forum on July 15, 2010. In the course of the forum itself, the top executives of UMMC Holding and Siemens AG made detailed reports on their companies’ current and future projects. UMMC Holding’s General Director Andrei Kositsin said, for instance, that his company was planning to put up two coal stations. One of them, Demidovskaya thermal power plant, will be located in

InnoProm 2010 exhibition and forum starts in Yekaterinburg on July 15, 2010. Over 500 enterprises and organizations from twenty-five different countries are expected to participate; the exhibition will be opened by Russian Vice-Premier Igor Sechin. The agenda of the forum provides for a number of official ceremonies, some debates and presentation sessions, business meetings and coaching workshops. Some round table discussions and plenary sessions are also expected; they will be attended by heads of large Russian and foreign companies and will be dedicated to ways of launching innovations in