Yekaterinburg is not going to get its own TV tower after all, General Director of Regional TV Alexander Mikh announced at today’s press conference. He says the federal authorities who insist on completing the construction of the tower have been trying to impose somewhat unattractive terms on the investors. The latter, for instance, must be prepared to pay 1.5bn RUR in order to get the permission to deal with the project, whereas its whole budget only comes to no more than 300m RUR. Mr Mikh thinks the investors willing to spend a sum like this are highly unlikely to appear, especially since

The Urals’ largest Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo dealer was operating as usual (9 AM to 9 PM) during the winter recess. Even though the winter holiday season is traditionally seen as the time for vacations, the experts of Krasnolesie car center say they get more clients now against the usual days. Their car mechanic’s department has been busier than ever, as many owners of nice expensive cars tend to have their vehicles serviced while they are on holiday, in order to save time. The mechanics have dealt with the increased workload quite successfully; all the cars have been serviced and are now

‘VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation has been trying to implement lean practices (targeted at cutting production costs and making the company’s performance more effective) as well as ISO tips for quite a while now. We’ve got good results in some departments, but you wouldn’t say we’ve been using lean practices to their full potential,’ Effectiveness Enhancement Director of VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation Nikolai Kondratenko said to UrBC representative. ‘We naturally do succeed in some projects; in most cases, however, achieving tangible results requires involving a large number of experts, some of whom yet

ROSNO Insurance Company used its right provided by the general agreement to conduct the independent examination by auditors and consultants in order to estimate the accrued loss incurred by UralTransBank after the insured event, reports Investments and Banks Information Agency. After the meeting of Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency executives devoted to the clash between ROSNO and UralTransBank regarding credit insurance, the agency strongly recommended that the bank allow the insurer to conduct an independent examination of the accrued loss. ROSNO used FBK Company Ltd., an independent

‘As regards the construction process in the would-be Academic district, we currently use most of our resources to set up the engineering services,’ reports project manager Stanislav Pridvishkin. ‘Our workers have already built 3.6 km of the main conduit using fiberglass, today’s most updated material that is guaranteed to last at least 50 years; what is more, the water will be delivered to people’s homes just as clean as it was at the filter plant,’ Mr Pridvishkin said. ‘Even though RENOVA Stroy Group has been managing the project, we have been using external resources as well. The management

A scheduled comprehensive inspection of all the facilities of Pervouralsky Novotrubny Works was conducted by Rostehnadzor, Russia’s state environmental watchdog, in February 2006. Compliance with the environmental norms and requirements was one of the categories under examination. As a result, Rostehnadzor issued 16 orders regarding inaccurate records management. No violations in terms of increased air or water pollution, or dumping waste were found, reports the spokesperson for CHTPZ Group (Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant Group). 18 violations of the environmental legislation requirements

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development introduced the new version of the internet trading system QUIK — 5.07. The changes made to the new version mainly involve the charts and data export; ten additional technical analysis indicators have been added as well. The new version makes it possible to shift the charts time wise, to build them in percentage terms, to overlay the horizontal lines, to save the numerical data contained in the charts in the text file format; these data include the bidding records and the stochastics values.

The report on the state of the environment and the way environmental factors affect the health of Sverdlovsk Region population indicates that Sredneuralsky Copper Smelting Plant (part of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC)) is one of the major waste producers among the non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises of Sverdlovsk Region. It has already produced 1,671,200 tons of waste, but only 1,085,700 tons have been recycled. The plant has collected 61,533,100 tons by the end of 2006.

308 violations of the environmental legislation requirements were found in 30 divisions of Sverdlovsk Railways in the course of the inspection conducted by the Ural division of Rostehnadzor, Russia’s state environmental watchdog. 97 offenses have to do with the atmospheric pollution, 143 violations are connected with mismanagement of waste; there are also four violations of the state environmental impact assessment, and 56 offenses involve failing to meet the general environmental requirements such as water pollution. As a result, Rostehnadzor issued 338 orders to be carried out within a

The volume index of industrial production in Ural Federal District in the eleven months of 2006 reached the point of 105.4% against January-November 2005 (the average index for Russia comes to 104.1%), reports the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. The electricity production went up 8.2% against the corresponding period of 2005, the oil and gas production increased by 1.7% and 2.7%, respectively, the condensate recovery rose by 7.6%, the cement production went up 6.4%. The iron ore production rose by 7.7%, that of steel tubes and pipes by

2.821m square meters of housing were introduced in Ural Federal District in January-November 2006, which exceeds the figures for the eleven months of 2005 by 33.3%, reports the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District. It appears that more dwellings were put up due to concentrating on the more economical apartments in terms of living space. This is why the increase in the number of apartments offered in the eleven months of 2006 (which makes up 139.2% of the corresponding period of 2005) outstrips the growth rate of the total area of the housing

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of deposits placed by non-profit NGOs in UralTransBank for a term of 1 to 3 years went down 73.6% (from 66.370m RUR to 17.494m RUR) in January-December 2006.

United Machine Building Works (aka OMZ (Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody, formerly United Heavy Machinery)) has fully paid the dividend for 2005, spending 33,000 RUR. The decision to set the dividend at 0.012 RUR per one preference share was made at the annual general meeting on June 5, 2006. It was also decided not to pay the ordinary share dividend, reports the spokesperson for United Machine Building Works. The company’s authorized capital comes to 3.823m RUR; it is divided into 35.48m ordinary shares and 2.75m preference shares with face value of .1 RUR. These shares are available at

The complaints about certain banking services have become much more frequent and acute lately, state the regular reports produced by the local division of the Federal Consumer Rights Protection Agency and by Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee. ‘Most complaints have to do with consumer lending and credit cards. Some banks give a loan and make a client open an account that costs pretty much the amount of money you borrow to maintain,’ says Elena Bogacheva, the expert of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer rights watchdog. According to Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee, people

The Ural division of Rostehnadzor, Russia’s state environmental and technological safety watchdog, looked at the results of the investigation of a grave accident that led to the death of the smelter from the smelting shop of Sredneuralsky Metallurgical Works on November 11, 2006, reports Rostehnadzor’s press officer. The accident was caused by the violations of the safety measures: the workers used a faulty mould as a slag pan and did not try to control the temperature; in addition, they were not wearing the protective broadcloth suits or boots. The workmanship instruction that would tell the

Sverdlovsk Mortgage Lending Agency went through an additional share issue. ‘Sverdlovsk Region Government bought 75% of these shares; the remaining 25% were acquired by SKB-Bank. The regional government empowered Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for State Property Management to act as the buyer, and the deal came to 49,999,998 RUR,’ Alexander Komarov, the director of Sverdlovsk Mortgage Lending Agency, said to UrBC representative. Thus, the additional share issue has been fully bought out; the agency is planning to issue more shares in 2007 as well.

The foreign trade turnover of Sverdlovsk Region reached the point of $9bn in 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 20%, reports the spokesperson for the Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region. The share of exported goods and services amounted to $7.2bn; the share of the import came to approximately $1.8bn, or four times less than that of the export share. The region is currently cooperating with 115 states; its partnerships with Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, China, and Germany have proved to be the most fruitful ones.

Ural Airlines made a special offer called Your Dreams – Our Wings in December 2006; the offer provided for a travel tour lottery among the company’s clients. The winner was identified in the course of an online drawing on January 1, 2007. This lucky passenger’s name was Olga Bazhenova, who could choose between a trip to Velikiy Ustyug, Russian Santa’s place of abode, and a visit to the Moscow-based beauty salon run by the leading expert of Slava Zaitsev Fashion House, reports the company’s press officer.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved of a Russian-American transaction on behalf of the U.S. Government. The transaction involves Evraz Group, a Russian company that has been allowed to acquire Oregon Steel Mills Inc., The Oregonian newspaper reported today. According to the newspaper, the U.S. Government sees no reasons for preventing the acquisition from happening in terms of national security. Evraz Group announced the purchase of Oregon Steel for $2.3bn on November 20, 2006. According to the Russian Company’s press release, Evraz and Oregon Steel

The experts of Ural Airlines believe that more people are going to travel to Israel after this country’s Ministry of Interior made visa procedures much easier for the citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States. ‘The Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv flight used to be a charter one and only available in the summer, yet this year it’s become regular; one can use this direct flight once in a fortnight on Wednesdays; the passengers will travel by A-320. This destination enjoys stable demand that is believed to have all the grounds for becoming even greater. The flight is mainly taken by people who