August 26, 2013. On August 21, the national team of WorldSkills Russia met with the Russian Education & Science Minister Dmitri Livanov in Moscow; the meeting was dedicated to the results of the worldwide championship WorldSkills International that took place in Leipzig on July 2-7, and to the ways of improving vocational education in Russia. The meeting was attended by students of Pervouralsk Metallurgical College who are on ChTPZ Future of White Metallurgy Program: Alexander Litvinenko and Artur Islamov. The minister said taking part in the championship should help the participants

August 26, 2013. The administrative commission of Yekaterinburg Leninsky District court imposed a 10,000-ruble fine on the director of OOO RUS Burger for violating the urban improvement regulations, the spokesperson for Yekaterinburg Council reports. Some unauthorized waste dump was found in the backyard of 36 Malyshev St (the location of this Burger King restaurant) that contained consumer, production, and food waste. The administrative commission experts determined that this waste belonged to OOO RUS Burger (Burger King). A protocol regarding the violation of Article 15-1 of the

August 26, 2013. Ural Airlines came up with a new pricing system and early and late booking discount options for the season of fall/winter 2013-2014, the airline’s press service reports. The new system applies (among others) to flights operated from Yekaterinburg to Munich, Tel Aviv, and Harbin. The idea is that the price of a ticket depends on what date you book the flight on. The airline offers three price categories: the one for late booking (two or fewer days before the flight), the one for early booking (more than 30 days and fewer than 60 days before the flight) and the one for very

August 26, 2013. The city’s largest Preobrazhensky Park is going to be set up in Academic District of Yekaterinburg; it will be 4.5 kilometers long, Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Sergey Myamin said at an off-site meeting dedicated to the city’s prospective development in the south-western direction, the city council’s press service reports. According to the developers, the project for the park layout is virtually ready. Preobrazhensky is expected to become a recreation area for the residents of Academic District as well as a cultural spot. In addition to amusements, fountains, and other

August 26, 2013. The share of foreign currency deposits in Ural Federal District-based banks in the total deposit volume rose by 1.1% and reached 9.9% in the first half of 2013. The volume of these deposits itself rose by 26.1% (by 18% in nominal terms) and reached 42.1bn RUR in the ruble terms on July 1, 2013. As for the national currency deposits, these went up by 10.5% and amounted to 382.7bn RUR, Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation’s report states. In the first half of 2013, the long-term deposits (over 3 years long) proved those that have increased the most (by 28.7%); their share

August 23, 2013. 3.1bn RUR will be directed to road repair in Sverdlovsk Region in 2013 altogether, which is 2.5 times more than a year earlier, the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department refers to head of Uralupravtodor (the local division of Rosavtodor, the road construction authority) Andrey Stolyarov as saying. Stolyarov explains that the funding of road repair jobs has increased considerably once the Federal Road Funds were introduced. ‘We expect the financing to remain at least no less than in 2013,’ Stolyarov says. Uralupravtodor is planning to use the money to

August 23, 2013. Some 10,000 residents of Yekaterinburg might face a winter without heating this year. Yekaterinburg Council’s press service reports this has to do with the fact that the Russian Defense Ministry’s facilities are completely unprepared for the winter season. The facilities in question are four boilers at military units 20421, 32979, and 71599, at Ural Military District’s headquarters, and Power Station 19 at Military Station 32. All of these heating facilities are maintained by three companies and provide heat to 102 buildings and 2 socially important objects. ‘The local

August 23, 2013. Machine-building and mineral production in Sverdlovsk Region proved one of the most highly-performing industries, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press service reports. The machines and equipment production rose by 33.1% in the first half of 2013 against a year earlier, the mineral resources production output went up by 7%, the pulp and paper and the printing and publishing sector increased by 6%. At the same time, the transport vehicles and machines production declined by 23%, the oil production dropped by 24.5%. It was also reported earlier that Sverdlovsk Region industrial

August 23, 2013. The Labor Ministry drafted a project on changes in the pension insurance and the fees that will mean all the preferential terms offered to SMEs will be lifted. Within the next five years (starting from next year), the insurance fee will keep rising steadily from 20% to 30%. This means that by 2018, the rate imposed on the SMEs will be same as the one imposed on the larger businesses, Vedomosti reports. The rate increase will affect small businesses and sole traders involved in construction, building, or social (education, healthcare, sports, culture), sectors, pharmacy

August 23, 2013. The volume of overdue mortgage payments rose by 100m RUR in the first half of 2013 (0.2%) and reached 41.8bn RUR, the National Collection Service reports. At the same time, the share of these payments in the total loan book is now smaller and comes to 1.8%, while a year earlier, the figure was 2.5%. The total loan book rose by 13% in the first half of 2013, while the mortgage market, which increased by 18%, has outstripped the retail lending sector, which rose by 17.5%, for the first time this year. The total worth of loans offered to private individuals was more than 9

August 22, 2013. Ural Locomotives (Sinara Group and Siemens AG’s joint venture based in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region) got the IRIS certification and now meets the international railway requirements. The certificate was issued by a group of auditors from Quality Austria and upon its recommendation, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. The IRIS (International Railware Industry Standard) certification system was designed at the European railway union’s (UNIFE) initiative to improve the quality of products and services among the railway industry suppliers. Ural Locomotives started

August 22, 2013. A solemn awarding ceremony for the winners of media contests held to support the professional skills (held under the slogan of Glory to the Man of Labor!) took place in Yekaterinburg. The awards were given out by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘Glory to the Man of Labor proved a successful project and is now growing nation-wide. This was in many ways due to the strong media support and the contests held within the framework of this project. The interest these contests

August 22, 2013. As of July 1, 2013, Sverdlovsk Region fiscal authorities published about 131,000 notifications on excluding the non-operating legal entities from the United State Register of Legal Entities in Vestnik Gosudarstvennoy Registratsii, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. In the first half of 2013, 23,000 notifications were published and 101,000 legal entities were excluded from the register altogether (14,000 in the first half of the year). Now the registering authority has the power to take certain types of organizations off the list

August 22, 2013. The median interest rate on a ruble loan proposed by Russian banks (excluding Sberbank) to its private customers came to 24.3% in July 2013, the Central Bank reports. This is the lowest figure in this year so far; a month earlier, the rate came to 24.9%, in January, it was 26.2%. The median interest rate on loans that are over one year long also went down to this year’s lowest (from 20.5% down to 20.1%), Banki.ru reports. The median interest rate on loans offered to corporates outside the financial sector for a period of less than a year is now 9.9% against 10.1% a month

August 22, 2013. A criminal lawsuit involving the former DG of Yushalinsky Woodworking Plant Ekaterina Zoteyeva was directed to court. The spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities is now accused of failing to act as a fiscal agent for reasons of personal gain (Article 199.1(Part 1) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and tax evasion (Article 199.2 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). The investigative team believe Zoteyeva, when she was the plant’s director in May 2010 to June 2011, avoided paying over 2.4m RUR worth of personal income tax due to be paid by

August 21, 2013. The supply is rather limited at the moment at the warehouse market in Yekaterinburg: the existing space is still not enough to meet the demand. Besides, nearly 120,000 sq m worth of storage space is frozen for the time being. Rent has gone up by over 50% in this market segment in the last three years, experts from Ural Chamber of Real Estate Analytical Department report. Because of the developers’ low activity when the recession struck, the market got a very limited supply of new storage space, so at the moment the shortage is keenly felt, especially in the good quality space

August 21, 2013. Laos sent a note of support to the BIE selection board to support Yekaterinburg’s application for the right to host the international exhibition EXPO 2020, Laos Planning & Investment Minister said at a meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev, the region’s government’s press service reports. A copy of this diplomatic statement was handed over to the Governor; later on, the paper will be forwarded to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was also announced during the meeting that Laos Government is planning to join the 9th International Arms &

August 21, 2013. A professional skills contest aimed at selecting the best foreman was held at Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company), the company’s press service reports. 15 foremen and senior foremen from STZ departments (all of them in the under-35 age group) took part in the competition. The main idea behind the contest was to find young leaders with great managerial skills and to encourage the employees to boost their self-development and improve their managerial performance. A written test is one of the important stages of the contest. This year, there were

August 21, 2013. 505,400 sq m of housing was commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-July 2013. According to the official data from Sverdlovskstat, this is 11.9% more than in the seven months of 2012, 23.4% less than in June 2013, and 28.2% more than in July 2012.

August 21, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor carried out a scheduled inspection of EVRAZ KGOK and detected 20 violations of the sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing requirements, the spokesperson for the division reports. For one, EVRAZ KGOK does not provide the necessary working conditions for its employees, and the dust and pollutants content in the air inside the production zones does not meet the existing hygienic requirements. The company also lacks a full list of the raw materials it uses with the corresponding documentation to accompany it; nor does it have the