The value of Uralvagonzavod Finance’s assets went down by 17.26%. The enterprise explains this has to do with a decrease in the amount of the company’s long-term liabilities, as they repurchased the second issue of their bonds worth 766.133 million RUR altogether in the second quarter of 2008.

Tyumen Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against LUKoil-Uralnefteprodukt, Gazpromneft-Tyumen, and AZS-N1, accusing them of violating the existing legislation on the protection of competition. The data available from the weekly monitoring of the wholesale and retail oil product prices indicate that the three companies have been using the same retail oil product prices for a long period of time. Tyumen Region’s division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service sees this as a violation of the antimonopoly legislation through illegal price collusion. Article 11 of

Sberbank’s Ural branch processed 430,000 Blitz money orders worth 13.2 billion RUR altogether in the first half of 2008, while the number of money orders made in April-June 2008 exceeded that made in January-March 2008 by 36.5%. Besides, the number of the bank’s subsidiaries in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan Regions and Bashkortostan where Blitz money orders are available went up by 93 units and came to 736 bank outlets in June 2008.

The ongoing fall of Mechel’s stocks (presumably brought about by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s unfavorable critique) has already made some of the company’s investors lose money. The share quotations dropped by over 45% and 40% at Russian stock exchanges and at New York Stock Exchange, respectively, on July 25, 2008. The enterprise’s market capitalization decreased by more than 115 billion RUR in just one day. Mechel Group reports about a quarter of their shares can be bought and sold freely, while the rest of the stock belongs to investors, Igor Zyuzin being the major one. Following the

‘The drop of RTS index on Friday cannot be solely explained by the Prime Minister’s unfavorable remarks on Mechel’s pricing policies. I feel the uninspiring statistics (typical of the current state of the global economy in general) had the main part to play. One must realize that the Russian stock market was bound to do badly anyway as long as we still depend on the U.S. market’s success,’ says Eurogreen’s General Director Evgeniy Kostarev. RTS index dropped below 2,000 points on July 25, 2008, coming to 1,994.35 points at 11 AM on Friday morning (Moscow time). Evgeniy Kostarev reports the

‘This was not a good morning for the Russian stock market, as American stock indices kept going down and the oil kept getting cheaper. In addition, the Prime Minister’s unfavorable comments related to Mechel’s primary proprietor were a shot in the eye for the market. These comments led to people selling Mechel’s ADRs and consequently to considerable changes in the whole mining and metallurgical sector,’ FINAM Investment Company’s analyst Denis Kruglov said to UrBC. RTS index dropped below 2,000 points on July 25, 2008, coming to 1,994.35 points on Friday morning. ‘At the moment, Raspadskaya,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Bank24.ru valid for 1 to 3 years dropped by 72.01% (from 191.292 million RUR to 53.536 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in VUZ Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 75% (from 1.2 million RUR to 300,000 RUR) in January-June 2008.

Ural Airlines stated selling e-tickets for all of its international flights that take off in Yekaterinburg via the company’s official website www.uralairlines.com. ‘Before the service became available online, the purchase of e-tickets had to be handled through the booking offices, but now one can book and buy an electronic ticket without even setting foot outside one’s house. This certainly saves you a lot of time,’ the carrier’s press officer reports. Payments can be made with the help of Visa, EuroCard/MasterCard, DINERS CLUB, and JCB cards or using YandexMoney, WebMoney, E-port, or Credit

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 71.42% (from 140 million RUR to 40 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in UralFinPromBank valid for 91 to 180 days dropped by 23.88% (from 61.116 million RUR to 46.519 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

‘The soaring inflation rate is a grave factor on the financial services market. This factor does not create an advantage for some players at the expense of others but manages to modify the market as a whole. This is normally most noticeable when the entire branches (for instance, banks and the food industry) rather than mere banks compete with one another, trying to lure in more customers,’ says the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Strategic Development Director Andrei Emelyanov. The executive reports inflation growth and any other market changes affect banks large enough to

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ deposits and other investments in Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down by 13.87% (from 75.695 million RUR to 65.189 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Starting August 5, 2008, S7 Airlines (Siberia Airlines) will operate flights from Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg to Adler airport of Sochi, the company’s press officer reports. Starting September 2, 2008, a daily Yekaterinburg-Moscow flight will be introduced by the carrier. The plane will take off in Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg and arrive in Domodedovo airport of Moscow. ‘Until quite recently, Yekaterinburg was Russia’s only city with the population of over a million people that did not have any of S7 Airlines’ flights available. Apart from flights to Moscow and Sochi, the carrier

BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov made a report on the supply of metal goods onto the domestic market in the course of a meeting on the Russian metallurgical sector’s problems supervised by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on July 24, 2008. MMK’s top executive said over 85% of the Russian metallurgical market’s needs were met by home producers in 2007, and the figures kept coming up every year. MMK, on its part, makes one-fifth of all the metal goods produced in the country, while its development strategy is a prime example of how a Russian

Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecutor for transport issues placed a claim against Polygon’s management with Beloyarskiy district’s court. The official insists on banning the storage of food waste within less than fifteen kilometers of Koltsovo airport and Uktus airport. Polygon’s present dump is located within only 6.5 kilometers of Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg; the land allotment has been provided by the regional Ministry for Federal Property Management. The proximity of the food waste dump threatens the safety of flights operated from the Koltsovo and Uktus, as hundreds of birds fly to

‘We found these two retail gasoline traders guilty of violating the current legislation,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service Tatiana Kolotova said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt and LukoilPermnefteprodukt have been sued for a price collusion that involved AI 76 (80), AI 95 (96), and diesel fuel. The collusion lasted from January 1, 2007 to March 27, 2008. ‘We demanded that both companies must stop colliding. The Service will have to initiate administrative suits and impose some fines on the offenders. The decision

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of private individuals’ demand deposits and other investments in TagilBank went down by 40.40% (from 148.825 million RUR to 88.686 million RUR) in January-June 2008.

Mechel Bank announced it was about to launch a re-branding campaign and to change its current name to Commercial Bank Monetniy Dvor (the Mint). The decision was taken at the bank’s extraordinary general meeting on July 23, 2008, the bank’s press officer reports. The re-branding has been brought about by the bank’s growth and large-scale development. ‘The former name primarily referred to the city of Chelyabinsk; however, the bank is now operating all over the Urals, that is, in Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, and Orenburg Regions as well as in Moscow,’ the press officer explains. ‘The bank

‘Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service grew alarmed when Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg started raising its jet fuel prices at the end of 2007. We started monitoring Koltsovo as well as some other airports’ pricing policies and sent a letter to the Service’s headquarters. The letter said the fuel prices might have gone up due to price increases launched by the producer factories,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service Tatiana Kolotova said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘We’ve been keeping an eye on the jet fuel market