German Consul General in Yekaterinburg Tilo Klinner feels the consulate’s major achievement lies in the introduction of a visa section that is currently working on visas for all the applicants from Ural Federal District and Perm Territory. Before the end of this year, the consulate will also start issuing visas for applicants from the Republic of Bashkortostan and Orenburg Region. Over 4,000 visas in just one month (including more than 1,000 business type ones) have been issued for the first time this July. The consulate expects to issue over 35,000 visas altogether in 2008, which is to

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tagilbank to private individuals for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.01% (from 184.449 million RUR to 147.525 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to private individuals for 31 to 90 days plummeted by 100% (from 3 million RUR to zero) in January-July 2008.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Industry delegation is going to visit Yekaterinburg in September 2008, the newly appointed U.S. Consul General in Yekaterinburg Timothy Sandusky said in the course of his meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. ‘We are interested in cooperating with the American companies and banks in all possible ways; the mid-Urals offer some virtually unlimited opportunities for business people. Besides, many thousand machines have to be replaced at our machine-building enterprises; we buy a lot of modern equipment in the United States, and our needs keep

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of call loans given by VUZ-Bank to private individuals went down by 46.36% (from 8.72 million RUR to 4.677 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘One unique thing about RenovaStroyGroup’s Academic construction project is a lot of attention the developer pays to environmental issues. Their multi-faceted area development approach provides for the construction of objects needed not only for work and rest but also for the harmonious relations between humans and nature. This means the developer is trying to create a totally new environment for the local people’s full-fledged life,’ says Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the All-Russian Environmental Protection Society and Director of Oleniye Ruchi natural park Nikolai Kalinkin.

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg handled fewer flights bound for the south and east of Russia in July 2008. For instance, the number of passengers who traveled to Sochi, Anapa, and Krasnodar through Koltsovo airport went down, while the number of passenger flights to Turkey only increased by 24% in July 2008 compared to 33% a month earlier, the spokesperson for the airport reports. The airport believes this can be explained by soaring jet fuel prices. Koltsovo airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin says the market can be faced with stagnation as soon as 2009, should the price growth

Ural Airlines keeps reducing the fuel fee – an essential part of an airplane ticket’s price. The fuel fee for tickets travelers use to fly to Egypt has gone down by 12% since the beginning of August 2008, while the fuel has grown 13% less expensive in Egyptian airports over the same period of time. The airline’s press officer reports most Russian airports are only planning to decrease their fuel prices in mid-August. ‘In case the fuel becomes, say, 2% cheaper, we’ll have to decrease our basic prices by 1%, and this will be the right thing economically. At the same time, we are hoping to get

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in SberInvestBank valid for 31 to 90 days dropped by 84% (from 5 million RUR to 500,000 RUR) in January-July 2008.

The officers of Yekaterinburg Railway Customs Post and Yekaterinburg Customs Intellectual Property Rights Department detected a set of radio recorders worth 760,000 RUR altogether that a smuggler illegally imported to the Russian Federation in August 2008, the spokesperson for the Ural Customs Administration reports. An investigation followed, whereupon it was revealed that 2,000 radio recorders bearing Panasonic trademarks were delivered to Russia from the United Arab Emirates by a Yekaterinburg-based firm. The whole shipment was supposed to have been transported to Kazakhstan by railway

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Bank24.ru to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 57.33% (from 27.573 million RUR to 11.764 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘The introduction of greater financial guarantees might squeeze a number of tour operators out of the market,’ ORANGE tur’s Tourism Director Svetlana Stolyarova said to UrBC. In the meantime, a number of insurance companies feel the current scale of tour operators’ financial security guaranteed by the existing legislation is not enough to make up for the consequences of their possible bankruptcies. These insurers say the back-up sum has to be more impressive. ‘I feel we need to work with the existing legislation for three years at least before introducing any changes. Detour was faced with

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 20.32% (from 78.215 million RUR to 62.316 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

Moscow, 14 August 2008 – UC RUSAL, the owner of 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, announces its intention to call for an extraordinary meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders to elect a new Board of Directors and will file a demand to convene this meeting in early September. UC RUSAL believes that the current Board, fully controlled by Interros, is incapable of reversing a slide in Norilsk Nickel’s market value.љ UC RUSAL is completing consultations with Norilsk Nickel minority shareholders held over the last two months to discuss the current situation at the company and the creation of a

During his meeting with the heads of regional municipalities, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin suggested that humanitarian aid collecting centers should be set up in each regional town and district. The Governor said, ‘The Georgian troops have destroyed the land of South Ossetia, sparing no one; Our President Dmitriy Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and the Russian armed forces’ efforts helped to restore peace in the area, but the local people are still in dire need of our help. I’m sure Chelyabinsk Region’s dwellers will both provide them with humanitarian aid and take part

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 31.16% (from 469.712 million RUR to 323.318 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

‘The introduction of greater insurance claims will result in only three tour operators able to work on the Russian market,’ Director of Schastliviy Sluchai Tour Operator Regina Klimova said to UrBC. In the meantime, a number of insurance companies feel the current scale of tour operators’ financial security guaranteed by the existing legislation is not enough to make up for the consequences of their possible bankruptcies. These insurers say the back-up sum has to be more impressive. ‘If one wants to be a travel agent and sell trips abroad, one will have to take out a 100,000-ruble insurance

‘Offering our business customers certain salary schemes where the employees’ pay is transferred onto their bank cards is one of SKB-Bank’s major retail business priority. The bank has already provided its customers with nearly 500,000 VISA-SKB cards, most of which are used for these salary schemes,’ says SKB-Bank’s Retail Products Management Director Vitaliy Kopysov. ‘The proportion of ‘salary’ bank cards in the total volume of cards the bank issues clearly indicates that SKB-Bank is thoroughly concentrated on this market segment. The profitability of salary schemes primarily depends on the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year went down by 15.44% (from 9.081 million RUR to 7.678 million RUR) in January-July 2008.

The number of complaints related to Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg’s performance decreased from twenty-three in the first half of 2007 to twenty-one in January-July 2008. The spokesperson for the airport reports most complaints have to do with the delayed and/or damaged luggage. The problem has therefore been taken under the management’s special control; in addition, the legal upper limits for the luggage wait have been reduced.