April 28, 2015. Saint Petersburg-based Armored Vehicles Repair Plant 61 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) repaired 11 T-34-85 tanks and 9 SU-100 self-propelled guns in preparation for the V-Day Parade in Moscow’s Red Square. ‘The legendary combat vehicles from the war times are going to enter the country’s No.1 square for the second time this year. They were first used in the parade five years ago, when the 65th anniversary of winning the war was celebrated. Coincidentally, these were the same foremen and workers who repaired the vehicles this year and back then,’ the

April 28, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s revenues rose by 14% in 2014 compared with the year 2013 and amounted to 128,123m RUR, the company’s press service reports. The Group’s gross profit went up by 31%, its EBITDA increased by 25% and came to 22,741m RUR. The company’s EBITDA profitability rose by 1.5% and thus reached 17.7%. Even though the group’s sales were up last year on a year earlier, the operating performance results were badly affected by factors beyond the company’s control such as the unstable global economic situation, rising metal prices, and increased volatility of the foreign exchange

April 28, 2015. 260,800 new passenger and commercial vehicles were sold in 25 Russian cities with population of over 500,000 people in January, February, and March 2015. This was 41% less than a year earlier. The market shrank more noticeably in these cities than it did in the country on the whole (-36%), Avtostat reports. The car markets declined by over 50% in three cities: Ufa (-59%), Tyumen (-55%), and Yekaterinburg (-52%), while those of Novosibirsk (-29%), Togliatti (-32%), Kazan (-33%), Naberezhniye Chelny (-33%), and Krasnodar (-34%) look a bit better than others.

April 28, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises are faced with the shortage of funds necessary to work on import replacement, Sverdlovsk Region Industry Minister Andrei Misyura said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘For import replacement to become a reality, quite a lot of money needs to be invested in R&D and production expansion. Not every enterprise can afford this, as quite a few businesses’ profitability still remains considerably below the Central Bank’s refinancing rate,’ he said. According to the Minister, there are, nevertheless, 126 large-scale import replacement

April 28, 2015. Sberbank cancelled rental agreements for 177 of its branches in large Russian cities, the bank’s press service reports. Sberbank decided to annul rental agreements for 177 of its branches located in cities with population of over 100,000 people. The decision had to be taken because, despite the earlier arrangements, the owners refused to reduce the rent and keeping these offices therefore grew inexpedient,’ the press service explains. For one, Sberbank branch in ComsoMall Shopping Center in Yekaterinburg will be closed down, as will the one at 61 Lenin St in Chelyabinsk. The