April 24, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s food prices rose by 11.4% in March 2015 compared with December 2014; this was 4% more than in March 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food items (excluding alcohol drinks) grew 12.4% more expensive (compared with 3.9% a year earlier). Vegetable prices rose the most, that is, by 47.9%; for one, garlic and cabbage grew 1.8 times more expensive, onions and cucumbers grew 1.6 times and 1.5 times more expensive, respectively, while the price of carrots, frozen vegetables, and potatoes, went up by 43.7%, 42.8%, and 36.1%, respectively. Fruits grew 34% more expensive;

April 24, 2015. The National Rating Agency confirmed the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s national rating at AA, their press service reports. The agency stressed the bank’s prominence on local markets, successful implementation of a chosen strategy, unfailing financial performance, and a conservative approach to risk assessment. The bank is believed to take counter-cycling measures quickly when necessary, which means the company can both react to changing macroeconomic factors and maintain a good asset and liabilities ratio as well as remain solvent and make sure its working

April 24, 2015. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s Power Generating Unit 3 was stopped for scheduled repairs till May 27, 2015. This is the world’s only power-generating unit with a fast-fission reactor that produces electric power on an industrial scale. The unit has generated nearly 135bn kilowatt-hours of electric power in the last thirty-five years and is now responsible for 10% of power output in Sverdlovsk Region. Says Deputy Chief Engineer for Repairs Vladimir Zenitz: ‘The repairs are in full swing; the unit undergoes a wide variety of repair operations every four years; every specific

April 24, 2015. An agreement was signed by Uralvagonzavod Corporation and a number of Cuban industrial enterprises at the 13th Intergovernmental Russian-Cuban Trade & Economic and Scientific & Technological Cooperation Committee meeting in Kazan. The corporation’s press service reports UVZ Logistic, Cuba’s Grupo GESIME and Cuban Railways signed an agreement in the presence of Russian Vice Premier Dmitri Rogozin. The plan is to set up a transportation and logistics joint venture and to get the facilities of Planta Mecánica, a machine-building plant, upgraded. The plant will then deal

April 24, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant is now hosting an exhibition dedicated to the plant trade union’s 80th anniversary, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The plant’s trade union is the largest one in the machine-building sector. The union was set up in 1922 when the construction of the industrial giant started; the first Collective Agreement was signed in 1933, and the first committee was selected at the trade union meeting in May 1935, which date is considered to mark the establishment of the union,’ the press service says. The opening page of the plant’s first