'Our park of municipal GAZel vans is being gradually replaced with some newer foreign ones. This is something we absolutely must do in order to avoid all these car crashes that are happening now,’ Yekaterinburg Transportation and Traffic Committee’s leading expert Sergey Temnyakov said to UrBC. According to Mr. Temnyakov, GAZel’s design is definitely not perfect, which is why passengers keep getting hurt. 'A GAZel van costs about 360,000 RUR, and it’s simply naïve to hope you can buy any kind of safety with that. Ford vans, for example (the ones we are buying to renew our van park),

'The recent changes in the consumer rights protection legislation are bound to hit the car dealing business quite badly. I think there will definitely spring up plenty of fraudsters who will be taking advantage of the new amendment; that is, they are going to demand discounts, threatening to give the car back otherwise, and in general, people are just going to return more cars back to dealers now,’ says Tatiana Bulavina from the Marketing and Advertising Department of Delta Center (Mercedes Benz’s official Yekaterinburg dealer). The new amendment to the Consumer Rights Protection Act is

'Russia New Growth Fund's acquisition of URSA Bank’s shareholding can be descried as a wise portfolio investment,’Unicom Partner Universal Investment Company’s Asset Management Director Vitaliy Kalugin said to UrBC. 'I believe the bank’s new stakeholder expects the holding to grow at least 40% more expensive every year,’ he added. Troika Dialog broke the news in the course of a press conference organized by URSA Bank’s top management and the bank’s business partners in Interfax’s press center. It was announced that Russia New Growth Fund managed by Troika Capital Partners (TCP)

SKB-Bank keeps building up its share of Khanty-Mansiyskiy Autonomous Region’s market through introducing more and more offices. The bank’s newest addition in the area was set up in Raduzhniy, Nizhnevartovskiy Region. SKB-Bank’s new customers can use the entire range of banking services for legal entities and private individuals (including both ruble and foreign currency transactions) in the new office. The place is open for businesses from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays; individuals are welcome from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends. The office is located at 28 2nd

'Taking part in UC RUSAL Social Welfare Projects Center’s programs helped a lot of schoolchildren attain self-actualization; some of them were able to reveal their leadership qualities, proved their independence, and learned to be held responsible for their actions. Besides, project work gave them a chance to master their analytical and problem-solving skills. Kids looked into problems, elaborated ideas and looked for partners who’d help them make their projects a reality. And then they could enjoy the results and outcomes of their projects, too,’ UC RUSAL’s local press officer Roman

RusRating affirmed credit ratings of 43 Russian banks on November 2, 2007. SKB-Bank’s credit rating was affirmed at BB-, which is better than what quite a few Moscow banks were given. RusRating first estimated SKB-Bank’s rating at B+ in August 2006 and promoted it to BB- in July 2007. The agency’s analysts say SKB Bank’s rating is based on the fact that SKB-Bank is a medium-sized provincial bank (one of the largest in Sverdlovsk Region, though) that has been cooperating intensely with the region’s authorities for a long time. In addition, it can boast a well-developed subsidiary network, an

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 65.86% (from 255.187 million RUR to 87.131 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

The value of net assets of Energy - Mixed Investments (the unit investment trust) managed by Eurogreen Management Company Ltd. went down by 4.12% between November 1, 2007 and November 2, 2007. According to Eurogreen’s website, the company’s net assets decreased from 4,177,544.88 RUR on November 1, 2007 to 4,005,637.64 RUR on November 2, 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Plato Bank to sole traders for 1 to 3 years went down by 92.17% (from 1.66 million RUR to 130,000 RUR) in January-October 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service keeps preparing for UralTransBank and Severnaya Kazna’s trials: the two banks are charged with violating the antimonopoly law. The Service is now busy collecting all the papers needed for the case; the first court hearing has been scheduled for November 12, 2007. The Service first took legal action against two Yekaterinburg-based banks in October 2007. UralTransBank and Severnaya Kazna were suspected of limiting competition through signing certain agreements with a number of local insurers and were therefore accused of violating

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and ChelyabinskRegionGas (on behalf of RAO Gazprom) signed a long-term agreement on the supply of natural gas. The agreement, signed by MMK’s Commercial Director Viktor Kutishev and GD of ChelyabinskRegionGas Yuri Fisher, is going to be valid for five years. According to the contract, MMK is to receive 3 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Mr. Kutishev says the agreement makes the company feel positive that their projects (already planned out through 2012) are sure to get guaranteed power resources. Then, it also signifies an important step in the

Net loss of TGK-9 went up by 142.36% in July-September 2007; it rose from 332,918,000 RUR in the second quarter of 2007 to 806,869,000 RUR (or by 473,951,000 RUR) in the third quarter of the year. The company explains this happened because of a seasonal drop in demand for heat and therefore a decrease in sales revenues.

RusRating estimated URSA Bank’s credit rating at BB+ and its outlook as Stable last week. The agency itself was set up in 2001 and is now analyzing the financial performance of 44 Russian banks. The agency’s analysts believe URSA Bank’s rating is well deserved thanks to the bank’s strong position on the Ural and Siberian markets, its transparent ownership scheme, having some globally recognized international organizations as stockholders, efficient corporate management, and general financial success and stability. Prior to RusRating’s estimates, Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency,

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to nongovernmental financial organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 20.17% (from 11.65 million RUR to 9.3 million RUR) in January-October 2007.

UC RUSAL presented its One Hundred Cool Projects social welfare contest in Yekaterinburg on September 10, 2007. The contest is targeted at supporting the community service initiatives by sixth- to tenth-grade middle and high school students; for the first time this year, some contestants come from Kamensk-Uralskiy, Krasnoturinskiy, Severouralskiy, and Nizhneserginskiy districts of Sverdlovsk Region. UC RUSAL is going to spend 17,000,000 RUR on grants between July 2008 and May 2009. The One Hundred Cool Projects contest is UC RUSAL’s first grant program that has been held on a yearly basis

‘Yuri Repeta, chairman of Noviy Grad (the local developer), keeps saying the municipal authorities and NGOs are preventing the company from doing their job, which is why the buildings are commissioned with great delays, but this is not true,’ Vasiliy chairman of Right to a Dwelling, a local NGO, said to a UrBC reporter. Mr. Ganzhin feels Mr. Repeta is simply trying to make people believe he plays by the rules while suffering from the outer intervention, yet all of Noviy Grad’s problems actually stem from the company’s own dishonesty. ‘Noviy Grad never fell prey to circumstances and is not

‘The development of Sverdlovsk Region’s housing maintenance and utilities services is still being hindered by the painstakingly sluggish payment of housing bills by the local population. In fact, people have grown so careless that their debts come to something between 1 billion and 1.7 billion RUR a month. We’ve tried to get tougher with the non-payers, yet they still owe the services 7.8 billion RUR altogether,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Minister for Construction and Housing Maintenance and Utilities Bogdan Protsyk said at the regional cabinet meeting. Mr. Protsyk claimed the region’s

‘We haven’t heard a thing of a possible tobacco price increase yet, but this could easily happen. Producers have a right to raise prices for objective reasons, because of the inflation, for instance. If they choose to do so, tobacco may grow over 15% more expensive than now,’ Westline Company Ltd’s Commercial Director Olga Lototskaya said to UrBC. Starting January 1, 2007, tobacco producers have to indicate the maximum retail price on each pack of cigarettes they make, and this price can’t be changed any more often than once a month. Rumor has it that a number of tobacco companies are

SKB-Bank organized a cabbage-throwing contest in Surgut on November 4, 2007 (a state holiday in Russia and the day the bank celebrated its 17th anniversary). The championship was held in a square next to Surgut State University; the agenda of the event included both the cabbage-throwing proper and other entertaining activities like round dancing, cabbage volleyball, and treating people to cabbage pies and cabbage-filled pancakes. A 29-year-old plumber Vyacheslav Soldatov, whose cabbage flew a distance of forty-seven meters, won the first prize of $300. Such championships have already been

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for up to 30 days went down by 82.89% (from 85.734 million RUR to 14.666 million RUR) in January-October 2007.