February 11, 2015. This year’s certification audit of engineers and technicians takes place at Kamensk Uralsky Foundry/KULZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation). According to the corporation’s press service, the first round of the audit involved ‘new staff’- those who joined the company or were promoted to a new position slightly over a year ago. The audit committee, headed by the plant’s Technical Director, examined a number of workers and managers to see if they comply with their work obligations. ‘The professional audit involved an economist, a

February 11, 2015. The judges in the Russian Construction Ministry’s first urban development contest presented their list of finalists in several categories. According to Yekaterinburg Council’s press service, Yekaterinburg competes in three categories: Best Completed Energy-Saving Project on Economy Class Housing (the city’s Academic District), Best Multi-Faceted Area Development Project (Academic District), and Best Completed Low-Rise Construction Housing Project (Michurinsky District). These three projects compete with projects from Vladikavkaz, Megion, Surgut, Tyumen, Moscow, Kirov,

February 11, 2015. Sverdlovsk Railways’ freight turnover rose by 7.3% in January 2015 compared with January 2014 and amounted to 17.05bn ton-kilometers. At the same time, the amount of cargo consisting of building materials dropped by nearly 25% and came to 1m tons, Sverdlovsk Railways’ press service reports. Besides, scrap metal and ferrous metals shipments declined by 16%, industrial raw material and molding material shipments declined by 12%, and coke, chemical and mineral fertilizers, and non-ferrous ore and sulfur stuffs shipments declined by 11.3%, 8.8%, and0.4%, respectively. At the

February 11, 2015. The unemployment rate in Sverdlovsk Region came to 154,200 people in January: this comes to 6.7% of the working-age population in the area, Sverdlovskstat reports. The figure stood at 6.5% (151,300 people) last December. The overall working-age population has remained the same – some 2.3m people.

February 11, 2015. 672 residents of Sverdlovsk Region are now allowed to leave the country because of their debts, which total to 397m RUR, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers’ press service reports. ‘217 people are those who failed to pay their criminal fines; their accumulated debts come to over 10m RUR. These debtors are not allowed to go abroad based on Article 15 of the Federal Act on Leaving and Entering the Russian Federation; the 10,000-ruble ‘debt threshold’ does not apply here,’ the press service says. 191 people owe a total of 151.6m RUR to