UrBC, Moscow, September 16, 2015. Sales of household appliances and electronic goods dropped by 26.2% (in physical terms) in Russia in the first half of 2015 compared with a year earlier, Interfax refers to GfK as stating. In money terms, sales declined by 15.3%, even though these goods actually grew 38% more expensive on average. ‘There is little immediate hope for the market recovery, since the ongoing devaluation of the ruble will most likely keep the inflation rate going up and the demand going down, which makes the year 2016 look very uncertain,’ says GfK Head of Digital Goods Department

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 16, 2015. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob gave orders for the heating season to begin, the city council’s press service reports. ‘The take-off does not actually mean that radiators will grow hot at all the buildings at once on the very first day of this very important campaign. You can’t ‘warm up’ a large city by simply pressing a button. An entire chain of facilities, where every actor has a specific function to perform, needs to be activated. First of all, heating suppliers will focus on getting the heating grids filled with water. After that,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 16, 2015. Yekaterinburg residents have over 3.5bn RUR worth of unpaid housing bills altogether, Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexei Kozhemyako said at a press conference today. According to the official, the better part of the debt amount has to do with heating power and hot water supply. At the same time, 98% of all the communal housing bills do get paid. ‘We use every legal means of persuading the debtors to pay, including courts issuing collection warrants, district housing committees collaborating with the debtors, and suppliers limiting access to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 16, 2015. Supreme Hockey League’s new season 2015/2016 began with Sputnik Hockey Club (sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Corporation) and Pensa-based Diesel meeting in Nizhniy Tagil. The players were welcomed on the ice by Sputnik Director and Club Chairman Takhir Dukayev and Sputnik Board of Trustees Chairman and Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Deputy DG Alexei Zharich. I’d like to wish both teams good luck and to encourage supporters to come to the games. A Hyundai Solaris will be given out in a prize-drawing which all the season ticket holders can join, and a TV is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 16, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is getting a new, 2,000-ton strong hydraulic press installed on the premises. The corporation’s press service reports the press, made at Kolomensky Heavy Machine-Building Plant, will be used for making friction discs for special vehicles; this is part of the national import replacement program. A lot of preliminary work had to be done prior to the installation. First, a 3.5-meter pit had to be made in the operating production facility some six months ago, to fit the