Officers of Nizhniy Tagil customs have filed 6 criminal suits related to smuggling of foreign cars since the beginning of the year. This is thrice the number recorded in January-May 2006, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. The total value of cars came to 3.8 million RUR.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of self-regulatory financial institutions’ deposits in Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down 77% (from 79.093 million RUR to 17.587 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

'The State Construction Surveillance Administration has imposed fines on over 30 Sverdlovsk Region builders since the beginning of June. The fines mostly had to do with the builders violating housing quality requirements or lacks of construction permits. These fines are sure to be keenly felt by the perpetrators, as we are now allowed to impose a fine ranging between 100,000 RUR and 1,000,000 RUR,’ head of the State Construction Surveillance Administration Ivan Rabtsevich announced at a press conference on June 15, 2007.

'Chelyabinsk Region is promoting the idea of switching from consent-based employment policies to those based on actual law. We are going to both encourage and make the regional municipalities invest just as much as we do in fighting unemployment. This is expected to attract millions of rubles worth of investments,’ First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Andrei Kosilov announced at an Employment Support and Coordination Committee meeting on June 15, 2007. 'Chelyabinsk Region Government means to accomplish two key tasks for 2007-2010. Firstly, we’ll try to raise the financing

‘The growth of foreign meat production is predicted to be almost ten times greater than that of Russian meat output within the next four years. In the meantime, it is quite obvious that the price of foreign produce results from the subsidies these countries provide their meat producers with. What kind of fair competition can one speak of then? On the one hand, Russian farmers are told they need to produce more meat, whereas on the other, the state allows enormous influx of much cheaper foreign foods into the country,’ Head of Sverdlovsk Region Meat Union and GD of Good Taste Sergey Emelyanov

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-owned profit-making organizations for 181 days to 1 year went down by 75% (from 5.6 million RUR to 1.394 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

Severnaya Kazna’s chief accountant Lidia Glebova sold her .722%-share in the bank’s authorized capital; thus the number of the bank’s stockholders was reduced to 38 people. At the same time, the share holding of chairman Andrei Volchik went up by .73% (from 7.691% to 8.413%) and that of Maxim Kostyukov dropped from .069% to zero. This is the third time Mr. Volchik has made changes in his share holding: he reduced his share from 7.995% to 7.044% in early May 2007 and from 10.024% to 7.995% on April 25, 2007. In the meantime, chairman Vladimir Frolov decided to decrease his share in the

President of Uralfinprombank Tamara Udelnova quit her position and was elected member of the bank’s Board of Directors. She is going to be succeeded by BOD member Stanislav Zharkov; the decision was taken at the BOD meeting. This information was published by the bank in compliance with the demand that a joint stock investment fund must disclose any information that can affect its stock price.

'The case of Vista Travel Agency related to the company’s alleged violation of the federal advertising law is still being considered by the regional antimonopoly authorities; experts are currently busy collecting additional evidence and data,’ Lyudmila Smirnyagina of Federal Antimonopoly Service Advertising Law Surveillance Department said to UrBC. ‘The Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region asked some experts from Ural State University to examine the travel agent’s ads. What’s more, we intend to assess the data obtained through an opinion poll conducted among radio audiences.

Conversbank is officially reported to have sold its 19.693% share holding of GRAN Bank to Mavlon Invest Ltd., an offshore company. This information was published by the bank in compliance with the demand that a joint stock investment fund must disclose any information that can affect its stock price. The decision to this extent was taken by the bank’s Board of Directors, who agreed to suggest that the company’s shareholders vote for GRAN Bank’s merger with Investbank.

Nizhniy Tagil customs’ foreign trade turnover reached $513.6 million in May 2007, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 88.2%, the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration reports. $458.9 million worth of goods (89.3% of the total turnover volume) were exported to or imported from the far abroad, the share of goods exported to or imported from the NIS came to $54.8 million, or 10.7%. Only $46.3 million worth of goods, or 9%, were actually imported, with the share of exported goods amounting to $467.3 million, or 91%. The area’s trade turnover related to the NIS went up by 72.8%

Ural Airlines is going to introduce its third Yekaterinburg-Yakutsk flight (U6 490/489) on June 18, 2007. This flight is part of an agreement signed by Ural Airlines and Yakutia, the company’s press officer reports. TU 154 planes are to leave Yekaterinburg at 11 PM and to arrive in Yakutsk at 8.10 AM every Monday. The flights are estimated to last 5 hours and 10 minutes.

71,827 Sverdlovsk Region dwellers chose to transfer their pension savings from state to private funds or management companies last year. 96% of those who went for private savings applied for self-regulatory pension funds and 4% selected a management company of some sort. An interdepartmental committee on private pension savings in Sverdlovsk Region and the regional division of Russian Pension Fund report that 13 private funds kept attracting people’s savings in 2006.

RENOVA Stroy Group’s stand on their Academic multi-faceted area development construction project that was exhibited at the 11th International Economic Forum enjoyed great popularity with Russian and foreign top business executives (including RENOVA Group President Viktor Vekselberg) as well as with Russian governors and city mayors, the company’s press release states. A group of delegates from Perm Region was able to have a look at the stand as well; this was particularly significant since RENOVA is thinking of using the region for its next multi-faceted area development project. Governor of

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making self-regulatory organizations’ deposits in METCOMBANK valid for 91 to 180 days went down 53% (from 51.3 million RUR to 24 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Economics and Labor reports the number of accidents with lethal outcomes at regional enterprises decreased by 17.3% last year; that of grave industrial accidents dropped by 33%, that of group accidents by 2.2%.

RENOVA Stroy Group accepted the invitation made by Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref and took part in the 11th International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg on June 8-10, 2007. The company’s representatives were involved in most of the events on the forum agenda and presented the Academic construction project (currently implemented in Yekaterinburg) at the investment projects exhibition, the company’s press officer reports. First Vice Premier Dmitriy Medvedev was able to have a look at the project stand and meet RENOVA’s President Veniamin Golubitskiy on June 10, 2007.

RosBusinessConsulting published its Russia’s Largest Banks rating for the first quarter of 2007. URSA Bank was ranked 20th in terms of net wealth as well as in terms of its loan portfolio and 22nd in terms of equity capital (as of April 1, 2007). It was also Russia’s No. 4 on Top 30 Investment Banks list in January-March 2007. The bank became Russia’s 8th most successful bank in terms of consumer loans and 24th most successful bank in terms of loans provided to legal entities. Its deposit portfolio was Russia’s 17th largest one in January-March 2007 (with volumes of legal entities and natural

Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant (part of Russian Copper Company) completed the construction of a new copper rolled wire production shop. The commissioning of Southwire equipment (made by U.S.-based Southwire Company) was started in June 2007, and the shop is expected to be launched on the day of the plant’s 250th anniversary traditionally celebrated on Metallurgist’s Day, the spokesperson for Russian Copper Company reports. The construction was started in November 2006, with design modeled on a Southwire-equipped shop set up at Novgorod Metallurgical Works (part of Russian Copper Company).

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by AGROPROMBANK to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down 15% (from 65.762 RUR to 55.889 RUR) in January-April 2007.