Following Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin’s decision, the regional administration for physical education, sports, and travel was transformed into a ministry in the hope of helping it deal with the mass and professional sports development in the region more effectively. The current head of the organization Yuri Stepkin will keep on working as the ministry’s top official. The new Minister reports they are planning to support Chelyabinsk Region’s team during this year’s Olympics. Ten local athletes have already been presented with trips to Beijing. The Ministry has been coordinating

Eleven ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Russia to several different countries are going to visit Yekaterinburg’s future Academic district’s construction site on July 11, 2008. The visits of this kind are coordinated by the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to give the Russian ambassadors a chance to get acquainted with the Russian regions’ economic and cultural potential. Once every two years, the Russian Federation President holds two-day meetings with the ambassadors, whereupon they begin traveling around the Russian provinces. The agenda of the

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to private individuals for 31 to 90 days dropped by 100% (from 5 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

Maxi Group’s Board of Directors decided to coordinate an extraordinary general meeting of the company’s shareholders on September 5, 2008. The main point on the proposed agenda is the early termination of Maxi Group’s BOD members’ powers and electing the new Board of Directors.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Ural Innovational Commercial Bank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 88.63% (from 9.206 million RUR to 1.046 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Expert-Ural came up with its rating of best websites among the Urals and Western Siberia’s thirty largest banks. SKB-Bank’s online office was featured in several top positions at once, the bank’s press officer reports. The magazine has compiled its rating of banks’ websites for the third time this year. Expert’s analysts report they’ve used quite a new ranking technique this time, though. For one, several parameters were discarded as unnecessary, while a few categories were united into subgroups like graphics, e-banking services, etc. Besides, the design and navigation ease played a more

‘The number of chartered flights to Turkey available on Sverdlovsk Region’s market tends to go down lately. The main reason for this is the fact that the supply outstrips the demand at the moment; besides, Vasco and Detour’s recent bankruptcy was a factor, too,’ says Inna Tour Travel Agency’s Director Inna Averyanova. ‘For one, flights that were supposed to have been offered by More Travel, Coral Travel, and Orange Tour on Friday had to be cancelled. Several hundred seats remained unused altogether,’ she notes.

Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor (the state environmental, technological, and nuclear safety watchdog) is going to inspect the compliance of Sinara Pipe Plant (based in Kamensk-Uralskiy, Sverdlovsk Region) with the industrial safety and energy preparedness requirements. The inspection is to last until July 11, 2008. Severskiy Pipe Plant (based in Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk Region) is to undergo a similar inspection on July 14-18, 2008, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of Rostechnadzor reports. The inspections will touch upon the issues of obeying the federal

Moscow, 8 July 2008 -љ UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer and 25% shareholder in Norilsk Nickel, is issuing the following statement in relation to the results of the first meeting of the new Norilsk Nickel Board of Directors which was held on 7 July 2008.љ The decisions made at this meeting demonstrate that the Board is controlled by Interros and does not represent the interests of all shareholders. The first meeting of the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel did not comply with the practices used by public companies.љ It was called by Interros on one working

COMSTAR OTS (LSE: CMST) acquired a 100% shareholding in Strategia, a company which, in its turn, owns 100% of Ural Telephone Company, Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region’s second most important telephone operator. The price of Strategia’s 100% shareholding in Ural Telephone Company comes to 1,015 million RUR ($43.4m). The spokesperson for COMSTAR reports Strategia was bought from a private proprietor rather than a legal entity. Ural Telephone Company offers private customers and businesses local and area network telephone connection as well as broadband Internet access (based on ADSL and

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 21.38% (from 9.081 million RUR to 7.139 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The Federal Environmental Management Surveillance Committee and Sverdlovsk Region and Ural Federal District’s divisions of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) carried out a scheduled inspection of Uralelectromed (a Pyshma-based copper enterprise) between May 19, 2008 and June 18, 2008, the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of Rosprirodnadzor reports. In the course of the inspection, twenty-four violations of existing environmental legislation were detected, including eleven offenses related to subsoil resource management and thirteen violations related to water

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by SberInvestBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 29.22% (from 95.393 million RUR to 67.515 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s coordinating committee for transport and logistics’ recent meeting was devoted to some large-scale projects currently implemented within the region. The meeting was attended by First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and Minister for Industry and Science Anatoly Gredin and heads of the region’s leading transport and logistics companies. The construction of Euro-Asian international logistics center was seen as one of the region’s most promising projects. Some applications for the federal budget money (allocated within the framework of the federal project on

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met a delegation of officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 7, 2008. Congo’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia and Senator Leonard She Okitundu were among the delegation members. The Congolese officials arrived in Yekaterinburg in order to set up Congo’s Honorary Consulate in the city. In the course of the meeting, Governor Eduard Rossel said Sverdlovsk Region had a well-developed industrial infrastructure and could therefore make excellent use of raw materials Congo is rich in.

‘We keep on developing our mortgage lending sector and have recently reviewed our products’ standards in terms of risks and borrower requirements. URSA Bank decreased the cost of its mortgages by 2% in June 2008, so now if you take a mortgage for three to thirty years and make a 10% down payment, the average annual interest rate will amount to 15%. One can apply for anything between 100,000 RUR and 15 million RUR,’ URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s Vice President Alexei Sannikov says. ‘We managed to make the interest rate go down due to the loan financing becoming less expensive; for one, we borrowed

Workers of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s OCTG shop are currently busy upgrading their Bracker hydraulic press meant for testing pipes under pressure. This upgrading project is part of the company’s investment program for 2008, for which 27.8 million RUR have been provided, the spokesperson for ChTPZ Group (which Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant is a member of) reported to UrBC. The upgrading project is to be implemented in two stages. First, a new hydraulic power station will be installed and launched, and then the high-pressure units will be replaced in order to avoid any hydraulic impact during

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to Russian subjects’ financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 41.76% (from 5 million RUR to 2.912 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 33.22% (from 92.8 million RUR to 61.965 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development-Finance made 25.55 million RUR worth of coupon payments on the second bond issue’s eighth coupon. 25.55 RUR was paid for every bond with face value of 1,000 RUR. Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development-Finance is the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s full daughter enterprise. The company is going to launch an offer on its bonds after the eighth coupon yield is paid on July 10, 2008. The bonds are to be retired on July 2, 2009. According to the issuer’s decision, the interest rate for the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupon