Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service instituted legal proceedings against Ural-Avstro-Invest, Nordus Hotel, a number of Euro-Asian Management Company’s executives, ZAO Intensivnik (Premier Hotel and City-Hotel), Hotel Yekaterinburg-Tsentralniy, Grand Avenue Hotel, and Iset Hotel, with charges based on Article 11 (part 1, paragraph 1) of the Competition Protection Act, the spokesperson for the division reports. The companies in question are suspected of colluding on June 1-30 2009 (which covers the days of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRIC summits in

Ural Airlines will start operating its new Samara-Dubai-Samara flights on October 27, 2009. These direct flights will be operated using an A320 aircraft every Tuesday. The plane takes off in Samara at 2:00 PM and arrives in Dubai at 6:40 PM. The return flight’s departure time is 8:10 PM; the plane lands in Samara at 12:55 AM. The departure and arrival time is local. This means that, thanks to Ural Airlines’ interline agreements with Emirates, Hainan Airlines, and Air China, the dwellers of Samara can now fly to Thailand, Malaysia, China, Singapore, the Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Sri

The General Director of Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant and former CEO Pnevmostroymashina Dmitriy Yakshin was killed, as the authorities insist, in a firearms accident last weekend. Dmitriy Yakshin was appointed the plant’s GD on May 15, 2009. The funeral is to take place on September 9, 2009.

Rus-Bank-Ural was given the 213th position in RIA RosBusinessConsulting’s rating of Russia’s largest banks as of July 1, 2009. This means the bank was promoted from its 211th position on April 1, 2009, their press officer reports.

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to look into the claim laid by Bank Severnaya Kazna against Mayak Corporation and Uralinvesttsentr on September 8, 2009. The plaintiff insists on being paid 50,350,624.66 RUR worth of the defendants’ debts and on having their mortgaged property arrested. The property in question is Uralinvesttsentr’s detached two-storey building with a number of extensions a total area of 11,422.4 sq m; the company also has some tenant rights over a 148,190-square-meter land allotment whose opening price has been determined at 63,801,000 RUR. Both the building and the

The net profit of Bank Yekaterinburg plunged by 93.4% in the second quarter of 2009, from 35.64 million RUR in January-March 2009 to 2.35 million RUR in April-June 2009. The bank explains this had to do with greater interest payments due to resources growing more expensive; additionally, the company had to direct more money to the possible loss compensation nd.

The tubes and pipes manufacturer produced 83,210 tons of tubular goods in January-August 2009, which was 44.1% less than in the eight months of 2008, Uraltrubprom’s Marketing Department reports. The company’s oil country tubular goods output went down to 48,619 tons, which signified a 10.7% decrease in production; the shaped tubes output declined by 2.73 times and only amounted to 34,591 tons in the eight months of 2009. The plant delivered 84,155 tons of tubular goods to consumers in January-August 2009, which was 42.6% less than a year earlier. This figure included 48,096 tons of oil

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court keeps looking into the numerous claims laid against Uralstalkonstruktsiya Trust’s General Contractor Projects Administration, the spokesperson for the court says. On August 5, 2009, the court considered the claim laid by PromBytPol; the plaintiff insisted on being paid 1,857,257.24 RUR by Uralstalkonstruktsiya Trust’s General Contractor Projects Administration. In the end, the hearing of the case was put off until September 24, 2009. In fact, another claim was processed as early as July 6, 2009; this claim was laid against the defendant by Ural Trade &

Ural Airlines will keep operating scheduled flights to Beijing while the People’s Republic of China revels in celebrating its 60th anniversary. The flights will be operated on Wednesdays and Sundays as usual. Meanwhile, Air China canceled its Beijing-Yekaterinburg flights every Monday this September, namely, the ones that had to be operated on September 7, 14, 21, and 28. The return flights to Beijing on September 8, 15, 22, and 29 have also been called off. The decision was taken due to Chinese public holidays and upon the Chinese Government’s request. Ural Airlines’ non-stop flight on an A

It has been reported to UralBusinessConsulting that Vladimir Frolov, a well-known Yekaterinburg-based businessman, has probably made up his mind as to what bank to cooperate with in order to work on his new project. Bank Severnaya Kazna’s former Chairman declared as early as May 2009 that he was going to set up a new bank early in the fall; this bank was to become a foundation for ‘the world’s best online bank’. The new bank’s launch deadline, set by Frolov himself, hits on September 15, 2009, that is, in just one week, but the entrepreneur still hasn’t announced either the name of the bank

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is to consider Corus’s bankruptcy application on August 7, 2009. The trustee in bankruptcy will probably be selected among the members of Ural Self-Regulatory Organization of Trustees in Bankruptcy Noncommercial Partnership. Corus, a member of CORIN Holding, deals in design and construction of civilian and medical facilities. According to the data provided by the company, they used to design about 100,000 sq m worth of buildings every year.

Governor of Chelyabinks Region Petr Sumin received a letter of thanks from the Russian Federation Minister for Sports, Tourism, and Youth Issues Vitaliy Mutko. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, the minister spoke very approvingly of the way the region’s athletes prepared for and performed at Russia’s fourth summer Student Olympics in Pensa this year. ‘I’d like to thank you, as well as the coaches, the sports players, and the championship coordinators for helping to bring up a generation of talented, sporty young people,’ the letter says. Pensa actually hosted contests in

Pnevmostroymashina placed its bankruptcy application with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court, the spokesperson for the court reports. The various creditors’ claims (including the claims laid by foreign companies) against this Finpromco’s member have been estimated at over 700 million RUR.

Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities carried out inspections of a number of local enterprises in order to check their compliance with the existing Labor Code. As a result, three companies fully paid off their workers’ wages between August 21, 2009 and September 1, 2009, the spokesperson for the authorities says. The sum in question amounted to 5.15 million RUR. For one, Uraltyazhstrubstroy eliminated its 3.978 million RUR worth of wage arrears (the workers’ wages for May and June 2009); Tavdinskiy plywood factory and Norvud paid off their 970,000 RUR and 209,000 RUR worth of

Ural Airlines will start operating the new Samara-Baku-Samara flights on September 25, 2009. These direct flights will be operated using an A320 aircraft every Friday. The plane takes off in Samara at 2:10 PM and arrives in Baku at 4:40 PM. The return flight’s departure time is 5:40 PM; the plane lands in Samara at 8:15 PM. The departure and arrival time is local. The cheapest tickets start at ?170 for a single ticket and at ?270 for a return one (excluding the fuel and other fees).

SKB-Bank Chairman of the Supervisory Board Vladimir Pukhov is going to take part in the 7th Russian Banks International Banking Forum; the forum, coordinated by Association Russia, will take place in Sochi on September 3-6, 2009, the bank’s press officer reports. The agenda of the forum covers the 11th banking conference on creating a stronger banking system in Russia despite the global recession, some round table discussions on various banking issues, and a meeting of the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe’s International Coordination Committee of Banking Associations. The forum will be

Bank UralSib was given one of the worst positions in Nextep’s August rating that monitored the Ural banks’ customers’ satisfaction. Nextep reports their monitoring involved seven banks based in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and Perm. As for UralSib, the bank scored 66.9% out of 100% in the Objective Criteria category and 52.8% in the Subjective Criteria one. Nextep’s analysts believe this signifies the low level of customer satisfaction in terms of meeting/greeting routines, the bank’s products and services supply, and the employee creativity and their willingness to make the product appeal to

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on its prospective metallurgical production unit in the Republic of Turkey. Their Russian-Turkish joint venture, MMK Atakaş A. Ş. is about to complete the seaport on the company’s premises in Iskenderun, Turkey. According to MMK’s PR Department, the port will soon be capable of servicing up to 80,000-ton vessels, while the length of the wharf will allow for unloading of up to six ships at a time. For the time being, the port can be used to deliver building materials and equipment to the construction site, and once the construction of the

Yekaterinburg-based Bank Monetniy Dom is launching a Customer Week on September 21-27, 2009, the bank’s press officer reports. This special offer means that all of the bank’s customers (both private and business ones) can get serviced free of charge. For one, business customers can have an account opened for free and have a free subscription and a thirty-day trial of Bank-Client program; private individuals can have a Visa Electron issued at the bank free of charge. The special offer is dedicated to the bank’s 19th anniversary.

Rosaviation suggested that it would be best for KD Avia’s passengers to return the tickets they have bought. ‘KD Avia stopped offering tickets for sale on September 1, 2009; the carrier informed us that they were forced to stop operating due to lack of own funds. The state aviation authorities feel it is best for the passengers whose flights haven’t been operated yet to apply for a refund at the booking offices,’ Rosaviation reports. According to the agency, the passengers whose flights have already been operated one way and who now need to fly back will be transferred onto other Russian