An official representative of American University in Cairo did not support the claim made by Viktor V. Solkin, a prominent Russian Egyptologist, head of MAAT (the Association for Ancient Egypt Studies), that he had defended his PhD in the History of Egypt there. In June 2008, Viktor Solkin took part in The School for Scandal, a popular NTV show hosted by Tatiana Tolstaya and Avdotya Smirnova. He said he decided not to defend his thesis in Russia because of some unfavorable reviews and comments and went through with the procedure at American University in Cairo. This claim was met with a bit

An official representative of American University in Cairo did not support the claim made by Viktor V. Solkin, a prominent Russian Egyptologist, that he had defended his PhD in the History of Egypt there. In June 2008, Viktor Solkin took part in The School for Scandal, a popular NTV show hosted by Tatiana Tolstaya and Avdotya Smirnova. He said he decided not to defend his thesis in Russia because of some unfavorable reviews and comments and went through with the procedure at American University in Cairo. This claim was met with a bit of disbelief by a number of Russian Egyptologists, and

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubersnkiy Bank valid for 91 to 180 days went down by 35.37% (from 60.002 million RUR to 38.777 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

SKB-Bank’s office started operating in Krasnodar’s Zapadniy district and can now be found at 141 Kirov St/327/3 Kalinin St. The office is located in downtown, next to a big square and Academic drama theater. The bank’s outlet welcomes small and medium enterprises’ representatives from 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM on weekdays. SKB-Bank runs over eighty offices in twenty Russian regions at the moment and is planning to introduce new offices in Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Kazan, Izhevsk, Yugorsk, and Tarko-Sale.

Okami-Vostok, one of Yekaterinburg’s car centers, has been unable to fix the problem one of the cars they’d sold had for ten days now, the owner of the car reports. The unfortunate customer was told by the center’s experts that the part needed to fix the faulty air conditioner had been sent off Taganrog car factory and was located in Moscow for the time being. The part would take another ten days to arrive in Yekaterinburg. Okami-Vostok initially told the customer that the delivery of the car part could take between 14 and 45 days within the day of application.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to private individuals for 181 days to 1 year went down by 17.33% (from 198.943 million RUR to 164.454 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

SKB-Bank has offered over 5 billion RUR worth of loans to small and medium enterprises so far. The number of loans came to more than 10,000. RBC.Rating reports SKB-Bank is one of Russia’s top ten banks in terms of loans given to small and medium-scale businesses. SKB-Bank keeps working on the development of its lending practices, as growth of small and medium-scale business is an important catalyst of Russian economy and these companies actively cooperate with the banks. Experts believe only 20% to 25% of Russian small businesses’ demand for loans has been satisfied so far. ‘Our Spin Up

Sberbank’s Ural branch signed a government contract with Sverdlovsk Region’s Youth Affairs Department regarding the bank’s participation in the federal housing program in 2007, the bank’s press officer reports. According to the contract, the state offers young families a subsidy they can use to buy themselves a place and transfers the money into an account that has to be opened in Sberbank of Russia. The particular sum depends on the number of family members and comes to 35% to 40% of the dwelling’s cost. After a family has found a suitable apartment and provides the bank with the purchase

A report was made by Academic construction project’s manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin in the course of a monthly meeting on the socially important construction in Sverdlovsk Region. The meeting was chaired by Governor Eduard Rossel. ‘We manage to stick with the construction schedule. Eight cranes are currently employed at the site, and all the engineering infrastructure is to be commissioned in the third quarter of this year. The water conduit will be commissioned in the very near future,’ Stanislav Pridvizhkin said. The Governor and the region’s Minister of Construction and Housing Maintenance

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of for-profit self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in UralFinPromBank valid for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% (from 19.5 million RUR to zero) in January-May 2008.

The public prosecution authorities’ investigation that followed the accident at Demidov Business Center’s construction site (based in Boris Yeltsin St. in Yekaterinburg) in February 2008 resulted in a criminal lawsuit. The charge is based on Article 2 (part 143) of Russian Criminal Code and involves violations of labor safety regulations that resulted in involuntary manslaughter. On February 29, 2008, two employees of Iset Construction Company were working on the wall forms of the elevator shaft when due to violations of safety rules they fell down on the bottom of the shaft. One of them was

The participants of the project known as the School of Managing Director supported by Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works (part of Evraz Group) have recently come back from a professional training workshop in Germany. Looking into the organization of production processes at German enterprises was the final stage of the company’s young managers’ training. The company’s middle level managers first went through internship under Nizhniy Tagil Iron & Steel Works’ leading experts and experts from a number of other Russian enterprises. Their training abroad was focused on prospects and

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nongovernmental financial organizations’ deposits in UniCreditBank valid for 91 to 180 days dropped by 93.41% (from 355.967 million RUR to 23.445 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘Nothing has changed regarding the apartment buildings in Bazoviy Lane over last month. Even though there are no legal reasons why Mayak, the developer, should not be given the commissioning permit, Yekaterinburg’s municipal authorities prevent them from getting it,’ Mayak’s Vice President Alexander Kobernichenko announced in the course of a monthly meeting on the socially important construction in Sverdlovsk Region. The meeting was chaired by Governor Eduard Rossel. ‘The city council has numerously claimed that the buildings don’t get commissioned because of their clashes with us related to

Aston, the local developer, keeps putting up its Aston Plaza, an eighteen-storey apartment building in Radischev-Gurzufskaya St. despite the fact that Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities insist on freezing the construction process. The building in question has already been featured in eleven lawsuits, and the neighboring buildings’ dwellers have laid numerous claims against the developer as well as engaged in large-scale protest picketing. The complaints have to do with the fact that that this high-rise building would block all the sunshine from the nearby apartment block,

‘Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg raises its fuel prices too often, which means the fuel fee grows increasingly expensive as well. As for the last price increase, the fuel fee for Spain-bound flights came to ?320 against the previous ?280,’ Director of Avenue Travel Agency Natalya Penkina said to UrBC. ‘These ongoing fuel fee increases naturally irritate the travelers quite a bit. Travel agents have to keep apologizing and explaining the case. Both our agency and the whole market are having some hard time now, and we are not sure what is going to happen next,’ Natalya Penkina added.

URSA Bank set up its 1001st terminal in one of Respect shoe stores in Novosibirsk. The terminal can process Gold Crown, MasterCard, and Visa cards. The bank already runs terminals in forty-six Russian cities where they can be found in cafes and restaurants, clinics and hospitals, stores and shopping malls, at filling stations and mobile operators’ offices. Some companies offer their card-using customers a 1% to 10% discount. ‘Non-cash payments are globally recognized as the most civilized and secure way of paying for goods and services. The increase in the number of plastic card users largely

Sverdlovsk Region’s Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps looking into the claim laid against Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt and Lukoil-Permnefteprodukt. The two companies are accused of price collusion. ‘Since we still need to obtain a number of documents from Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt, the hearing of the case has been put off until July 15, 2008. We are not going to postpone the case for long,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Federal Antimonopoly Service’s department director Yulia Anisimova says. The two previous meetings did not result in any decision, as more papers were needed. Yulia Anisimova reports

Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant (part of Sinara Group)’s Board of Directors decided to terminate the authority of the plant’s General Director Alexander Saltaev on July 7, 2008. This early termination was agreed upon by both parties. Following the BOD’s decision, Anatoly Sabelnikov is going to become the plant’s GD on July 8, 2008.

‘We have already issued quite a few cards, especially for our partners’ salary projects. We are currently servicing about 70,000 cards and planning to increase their number to several hundred thousands thanks to our own processing center. Cards will be launched in all the parts of Russia where the bank operates, from Irkutsk Region to Moscow,’ METCOMBANK’s Plastic Card Director Alexander Peshin said to UrBC. METCOMBANK expects to launch its own processing center at the beginning of July 2008. ‘Having our own processing center means offering a customer a card will take less time; besides, we