Ural Airlines have already serviced 1.7 times more transit passengers in the nine months of 2006 compared to January-September 2005. The company plans on performing flights to 19 destinations (including Dushanbe, Moscow, Yerevan, Nadym, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk, Noviy Urengoi, Salekhard, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Mineralniye Vodi, Sochi, Tashkent, Hudzhant, Chita, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and Yakutsk) in the winter of 2006/2007. These flights provide for over 70 two-sided interfacings that offer the best conditions for a passenger to travel to the place they need with a connection

Ural Turbine Works (part of Renova Group) and ElSib Scientific Production Association of Novosibirsk declared their cooperation as being strategic in nature, which was confirmed in the corresponding agreement signed at the end of September. They will now be partners not only in the field of power engineering projects but also in more general spheres of business and scientific activity. ‘This mutually beneficial cooperation with the Siberian company will allow us to expand our sales of goods and services and master a higher level of performing on the power engineering industry market,’ says GD

According to the spokesperson for Federal Antimonopoly Service in Sverdlovsk Region, it ordered SverdlovEnergo, the local heat and power supplier, to eliminate all the violations of Provision on Competition and Limiting Monopolist Activity on Consumer Goods Market on September 27, 2006. SverdlovEnergo violated the legislation by preventing the other supplier from entering the wholesale market and was reluctant to sign the agreement that would allow the use of their networks in the way suitable for Ural Chemical Company. The corresponding complaint was placed with the antimonopoly service by

‘The legal suit involving Ilya Gaffner is going to damage the customer confidence in EuroGreen,’ the spokesperson for Intellis Legal Advice Ltd. said to UrBC representative. The verdict of guilty was returned on September 20, thus closing the case that had to do with arrears of wages to employees of SevTymenTransPut; the guilt of the accused was fully proved, with Mr Gaffner getting three years on parole with a 12-month probation period. The public prosecution authorities of Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Region appealed the decision based on extreme leniency of the sentence.

Ural Airlines have already serviced 1.7 times more transit passengers in the nine months of 2006 compared to January-September 2005. The company plans on performing flights to 19 destinations (including Dushanbe, Moscow, Yerevan, Nadym, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk, Noviy Urengoi, Salekhard, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Mineralniye Vodi, Sochi, Tashkent, Hudzhant, Chita, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and Yakutsk) in the winter of 2006/2007. These flights provide for over 70 two-sided interfacings that offer the best conditions for a passenger to travel to the place they need with a connection

MetcomBank JSC has recently reduced the minimal annual interest rate for mortgage loans from 11.5% to 11%. The loan terms provide for 15 years of payments, given that the client has paid for at least 50% of the dwelling. The maximal mortgage interest rate is now .5% less as well and amounts to 14%; this rate is set for 30-year loans, given that the client has paid for at least 10% of the dwelling. ‘Reducing our mortgage rates is quite logical and has to do with the development of Russian economy and current state of the real estate market. Besides, the bank supports the mortgage program

The Municipal Engineering, Architecture and Land Resources Administration approved of the project design of Parkoviy trade and entertainment center, reports the spokesperson for the Olips, the project developer. The company is currently drawing up all the documents that need to be approved of in order to start the construction. The would-be center is expected to be located in Lunacharskiy-Tveritin-Bolshakov-Krasnoarmeyskaya streets, with the total area coming to 74,554 square meters plus 27,716 square meters of underground parking area meant for 1,190 cars. Most of the center will be occupied

Russian Copper Company participated in the forum of bordering regions of Russia and Kazakhstan on October 2-3, 2006. The forum took place in Uralsk (Kazakshtan) and was devoted to the possible areas of cooperation, resulting in a number of important agreements on further development of bilateral cooperation. Russian Copper Company presented its Kazakhstan-based project, Aktybinsk Copper Company, and this presentation was attended by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbaev, who had a chance to look at the range of products offered by the company. Mr Putin paid great attention to all

‘ Most small businesses in Chelyabinsk Region deal in wholesale and retail trade (47.7%). This might be due to the fact that trade is the field of business with the lowest starting capital needed; these data are comparable to the average Russian figures that come to 45.8%,’ Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Chelyabinsk Region Igor Lashmanov said to UrBC representative. ‘I’d like to emphasize that Chelyabinsk also usually gets on Russia’s top largest cities list in terms of per capita amount of trade centers and areas. The same is true of cafes, restaurants and the like, which means

The bank looked at its success on October 1, 2006; its balance sheet total came to 26.64bn RUR, which exceeds the figures for October 2005 by 94%. The bank’s profit amounted to over 803m RUR at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2006, which is 90% better than a year earlier. The company’s authorized capital reached the point of 742m RUR, with owned capital coming to 1.89bn RUR (60% better than in October 2005). The net indebtedness rose by 103% and amounted to 16.42bn RUR. The deposit investments increased by 102% and reached the point of 15.85bn RUR, including the natural person accounts

National Cable Networks Group announced the completion of a purchasing agreement with TeleSet Service Ltd. (aka CABiNET), the local internet provider. This acquisition is the logical continuation of the company’s strategy aimed at the expanding of business and increasing capitalization. ‘We are trying to build up our share of the regional markets through buying out the local operators. With TeleSet becoming part of our group, we’ll be able to boost our development and offer the residents of Yekaterinburg an integrated service pack that will include both access to the Internet and cable TV

Vanadium, Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (part of Evraz Group), keeps trying to expand the database containing information on iron content in the ore the company extracts. The corporate technicians are currently busy making a new iron-distribution map of the development fields for 2007. The data on iron content and distribution are to be obtained via drilling wildcat wells, well testing, and use of geophysical methods. Provided such diagnostic is precise, it will raise the production throughput impressively. The development of Gusevogorskoye deposit of titaniferous

Ural Turbine Works is now upgrading its quality service as part of its technical modernization program. In order to increase precision and speed of product quality testing, the company has already bought and introduced AA6300 atomic absorptive spectrophotometer and a special device meant for hardness gauging produced by Kraut Kremer of Germany. All this is primarily aimed at completing the plan for 2006-2007, which requires reducing the preparation phase of production, reports the company’s spokesperson.

The trustee in bankruptcy of Tyushevskiy Distillery Ltd. announced that the company’s spirit-making facility, equipment (pledged as security) and non-pledged equipment were put up to auction. The opening bid is 13,454,420 RUR. This price covers the VAT and requires a deposit of 10% of the opening bid, each next bid must exceed the previous one by no less than 5% of the opening bid. The applications are accepted since October 2, 2006 at 163 Bolshevistskaya St. Off. 35, Perm. The auction will be held on at 163 Bolshevistskaya St. Off. 313 at 2 PM on October 31, 2006, with applicants registered

Ural Turbine Works has been upgrading its gas turbine facility; so far, the company has already introduced four universal continuous milling machines meant for producing spare parts. The works has also been considering buying the multi-purpose machining center in order to raise the range of products and amount of spare parts produced, reports the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Works.

‘This flight to Georgia used to be performed by Dbilaviamsheni Airlines on Sundays, but, apparently, there will be no more flights,’ the spokesperson for Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg Yulia Fedotova said to UrBC representative. The Russian Federation Department of Transportation cancelled all kinds of transport and postal connections to Georgia on October 3, 2006. According to the Head of Russian Federation Public Air-navigation Service Alexander Neradko, the canceling of flights was caused by the accumulating debt of Georgian carriers.

The top managers of OGK-2, the heat and power generating company, received abstracts of the united state register of legal entities that report the closing down of Stavropolskaya, Pskovskaya, and Surgutskaya power stations as independent legal bodies on September 29, 2006; they have now become subsidiaries of OGK-2. According to the company’s GD Mikhail Kuzichev, their investment program for 2006-2010 consists of three projects targeted at increasing the throughput of the corporate powers stations, putting up a 330-megawatt coal-based power generating unit at Serovskaya power station,

South Ural Medical Insurance Company will hold EGM on October 27, 2006. The agenda has to do with the issue of possible closing down and selecting the settlement committee.

‘The total area of Mega Family Shopping Center comes to 127,000 square meters, including the premises of IKEA that cover 26,000 square meters,’ Director of the center Michael Nilson announced at today’s press conference devoted to the upcoming opening ceremony (scheduled for October 7, 2006). According to Mr Nilson, there are still a number of operations that will not be completed before the due date, for instance, part of underground parking lot and 20 to 30 shops still have to be finally furbished and equipped.

Leonid Soloviev was appointed Head of Production Department of TGK-9 (heat and power generating company) in Sverdlovsk Region. Now the company’s management is two-fold, excluding the previously operating regional managing subsidiaries. The managerial layers now include special production departments that keep track of a particular region’s success, covering stations and heat networks. Vladimir Matasov is now the head of Production Department in Perm Region, and Yuriy Tseshkovskiy heads the Production Department in the Republic of Komi, reports the company’s spokesperson.