March 12, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation adopted an upgrades and re-equipment program for its head plant. The program will involve the plant’s car assembly, mechanical assembly, metallurgical, and some other departments, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Uralvagonzavod’s technical and technological upgrades are meant to replace the worn-out facilities as well as to stimulate production development. They will allow the plant to complete its strategic tasks, including breaking into new markets, improving product quality, and much else besides,’ the press service says. This year, the

March 12, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based courts processed 291 bribery-related cases in 2014, with verdicts of guilty pronounced on 304 people. A year earlier, 221 cased were processed and 234 people were sentenced, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports. According to the available statistics, the number of those who had to face liability for bribery-related crimes has been on the rise for four years in a row. 69% of cases (201) have to do with bribe-taking, compared with 62% in 2013. Among those found guilty were five law-enforcement officers, eight officers of the Federal Service for

March 12, 2015. The average price on Yekaterinburg housing market has gone down by 0.3% over the last four weeks: one square meter of a place for sale on the existing homes market now comes to 76,449 RUR, Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports. Prices decreased down to 69,957 RUR per m2 (-0.5%) against early February in the city’s second most expensive area, while those in the third and fourth most expensive districts went up considerably, up to 66,344 RUR and 56,219 RUR per m2, respectively. Prices in downtown Yekaterinburg and in the most expensive districts fluctuated only a little and stayed

March 12, 2105. ChTPZ Group intends to work on new types of pipes for the fuel and energy sector that haven’t been produces in Russia before. The order for the new produce was placed by Gazprom, as the company needs something to replace the foreign pipes. ChTPZ Group and Gazprom representatives met on the premises of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant to set out the first stages of their cooperation and import replacement projects. ‘Gazprom would like us to develop and offer on the market the pipes that can be used at their deposits as successfully as their foreign counterparts, and this within two

March 12, 2015. Visitors started signing up for the 6th International Industrial Exhibition Innoprom 2015, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department refers to the event coordinator Formica as saying. The Innoprom 2015 Exhibition will be held in Yekaterinburg on July 8-11. For the first time this year, five specialized fairs will be held in machine-building, industrial automation, energy efficiency, optics and lasers, and urban technologies. ‘It is essential to make sure this local event acquires national status. We expect the local budget’s expenses relating to Innoprom to

March 12, 2015. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works and CROC completed a pilot version of a virtual desktop system that enables users to switch from PCs to ‘thin clients’. ‘Desktop virtualization is a computer technology and infrastructure that makes it possible to transfer all of a personal computer’s functions (calculations, company and user data storage, Windows settings and desktops) onto a virtual space on a server. This means that the software becomes independent from the hardware,’ MMK says. ‘Thin clients’ are special desktop terminals whose hardware components are much less