Ural Airlines is going to perform Yekaterinburg-Surgut-Yekaterinburg flights beginning from June 15, 2007 (flight U6 419/420) using AN 24 aircraft. These two-hour flights will be available four times a week. The carrier’s press officer says the introduction of these flights nearly coincided with Surgut’s ‘birthday’ (the city celebrated its 42nd anniversary on June 12, 2007).

First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Vladimir Molchanov chaired a governmental meeting on the management of the public grant offered to the region so that it can have more quality highways constructed within the area. The projects provide for the construction of 33 roads with the help of 3.277 billion RUR worth of regional budget investments and 613 million RUR worth of federal budget contributions, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Industry, Power Engineering, and Science reports. The regional government decided on a highway connecting the towns of Verkhnyaya

A meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Small Business Development Coordinating Committee took place in Yekaterinburg on June 13, 2007. In the course of their discussion, the attendees came to a conclusion that the regional small businesses’ scientific potential was being underused, and companies kept being hindered in terms of further innovational development despite all the supportive measures. The meeting participants also commented on the fact that Sverdlovsk Region was not doing very well as far as innovations were concerned; those amounted to less than 6% of all the industrial produce in the

Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg informed the Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region that it had actually complied with their requirements and transferred 16,751,999 RUR worth of illegal profits to the federal budget. The regional division of the Federal Antimonopoly Service declared on January 30, 2007 that the airport had been violating the competition and antimonopoly legislation from January 1, 2005 to October 25, 2006 and the competition protection law from October 26, 2006 to November 30, 2006), demanding that the airport transfer the profit obtained through violating these

Sverdlovsk Energogaz Company set up an official online ‘office’; their site provides for information about the company and the history of its success; there are also sections for the enterprise’s customers and partners as well as news, projects, and proposals, the company’s press officer reports. An interactive map of Sverdlovsk Region with indicators of the company’s offices is expected to appear soon; besides, there is professional counseling available online. An authorized user section (meant for businesses and regional organizations) is currently under construction; this section will help

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down 42% (from 75.03 million RUR to 43.336 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

Sverdlovsk Energogaz Company set up an official online ‘office’; their site provides for information about the company and the history of its success; there are also sections for the enterprise’s customers and partners as well as news, projects, and proposals, the company’s press officer reports. An interactive map of Sverdlovsk Region with indicators of the company’s offices is expected to appear soon; besides, there is professional counseling available online. An authorized user section (meant for businesses and regional organizations) is currently under construction; this section will help

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank to natural persons for 181 days to 1 year went down 42% (from 75.03 million RUR to 43.336 million RUR) in January-May 2007.

‘This June, Bank24.ru’s e-customers can transfer money into their Yandex Money electronic accounts commission-free. To make payments easier, our bank created special e-templates designed for these payments (the template can be found under Other Payments/Internet Money heading on the corporate website),’ the bank’s press release states. ‘The advantages of this offer are quite obvious: payments are fast and free (no commission is taken by either Bank24.ru or Yandex Money). Bank24.ru is currently Yekaterinburg’s only bank that does not charge for e-payments,’ Retail Development Director Kseniya

A regional mortgage lending fair (coordinated by Chelyabinsk Region Ministry for Economic Development) was held in Chelyabinsk on June 6, 2007. URSA Bank was one of the fair participants. ‘Our experts were trying to find the best mortgage schemes and the most suitable payment periods for the visitors. URSA Bank’s Chelyabinsk branch Deputy Director Alexander Igoshev presented his report on mortgages offered on dwellings under construction in the course of a thematic conference,’ the bank’s press release states. ‘URSA Bank’s mortgage loans make it possible for a customer to make virtually any

‘Europe Day – a festival devoted to the European Union – in the Ukraine has been backed by Khortytsa (aka Hortiza) Distillery for the second time this year. This was by no means coincidental: Khortytsa is Ukraine’s top strong drinks producer (its share of the market comes to 28%). ‘The brand is currently acquiring transnational importance; all of our production processes have been brought in compliance with the European standards, and our produce is exported to forty-five countries all over the world, with 25 more countries expected to open their markets for us by the end of 2007,’ the PR

According to the spokesperson for Rambler Ltd., their TV channel is going to close down on June 10, 2007; the company’s management sent out agreement-canceling notifications to all of their partners. The channel was introduced in January 2003 in over 500 Russian cities and towns; more than 40 million people were reported to be watching it on regular basis. The channel’s controlling share holding was acquired by Prof-Media in October 2006. Rambler was a fully digital TV channel broadcast with the help of ABS (LMI) an Express AM2 satellites. It was also available for NTV Plus subscribers.

SKB-Bank has recently come up with a new offer: giving its customers advice on the best mortgage schemes online. ‘All those with an Internet connection are now able to get all the information regarding mortgage loans they need quickly and efficiently by simply typing in their question on the site Chelyabinsk Region/South Ural Enterprises (under Financial Experts. Online Counseling heading),’ the bank’s press release says. ‘This online service was created to make sure the site users can get professional advice on loans fast. Our primary challenge at the moment is involving as many experts as

Evraz Group acquired a 50% share holding of Yuzhkuzbassugol United Coal Company; the financial terms of the transaction have been kept confidential, Evraz Group’s press officer reports. Evraz used to own 50% of Yuzhkuzbassugol, with the remaining half belonging to three individuals among the company’s management. Evraz Group decided to raise its share in the company’s authorized capital after an accident at Yubileynaya mine, promising to reconsider its investment strategy as far as Yuzhkuzbassugol was concerned. The company’s total production output (coming from eleven mines altogether)

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy accepted a project known as All Colors Invited and targeted at facilitating the introduction of new foreign representations and consulates in the city; these are expected to attract additional investments in the city’s economy. There are currently fifteen consulates in Yekaterinburg, with the number expected to rise to twenty in a few years’ time, the spokesperson for the city council reports. In addition, over 500 branches of international corporations are predicted to have been established in Yekaterinburg by 2015 against only 200 representations

‘The only way to support local meat producers at the moment is to impose quotas on meat imported from Poland,’ press officer of Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Agriculture and Food Anatoly Feoktistov said to UrBC. Things turned critical in the first place due to large amount of meat imported to Russia both legally and illegally, which made purchasing prices plummet as well as created enormous difficulties for local producers in terms of selling their pork on the regional markets.

‘The court hearing regarding the criminal suit of Ural Investment and Construction Company Vyacheslav Borisov CEO (involving accusations of large-scale fraud) that has been scheduled for June 6, 2007 had to be postponed due to the accused’ illness,’ Vasiliy Ganzhin, head of Right to a Dwelling, a non-governmental organization, said to UrBC. ‘Verkh-Isetskiy Court of Yekaterinburg decided to put the hearing off and meet again on June 14, 2007. Mr. Borisov is kept in detention at the moment,’ Mr. Ganzhin said.

‘Thanks to the wide spread and availability of car loans, borrowers who only used to be able to afford Russian cars can now buy a medium-price-range foreign one. Yet the buyer’s choice is normally influenced not only by the price and the range of options a car can offer but also by the cost of further maintenance. Even though Geely Otaka is not much more expensive that, for example, Lada, its maintenance, repair, and spare parts are much more costly,’ Iyul Motor Show’s press officer said to UrBC. The first Geely Otaka cars were produced in Novouralsk on June 5, 2007. Its producers claim the

Over 35,000 graduates are going to be looking for a job this summer; Yekaterinburg’s market, however, only needs 19,000 people. There are also going to be 16,000 vocational school-leavers, with 29,000 vacancies available for them. The region’s industrial enterprises are also in dire need of skilled workers that could meet modern requirements, despite the obvious oversupply of engineers. ‘We just can’t count on vocational schools with their obsolete equipment,’ says Anatoly Pavlov, Chairman of Legislation and Self-Government Committee under the regional House of Representatives.

Sverdlovsk Region Duma deputies looked into the project on developing the region’s agriculture in 2007-2009 and voiced their concerns over the need to protect the local pork producers after both legal and illegal import of meat to Russia rose dramatically and made prices plummet. Regional producers have already complained about the hard time they are having trying to sell their pork on Sverdlovsk Region markets. Meanwhile, the Minister for Agriculture and Food has not made his position clear yet, and no effective measures aimed at protecting the local farmers and consumers from the foreign