UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 27, 2016. Moody’s Investors Service promoted Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works’ CFR from Ba2 to Ba1 and its PDR from Ba2-PD to Ba1-PD. Incidentally, these ratings conform with Russia’s current ones; MMK is now one of the few national metallurgical enterprises whose ratings got confirmed by Moody’s. The improvement is reflexive of Moody’s expectations for MMK financial indicators to remain at least as good, for its debt burden to be reduced, and for the company’s performance indicators, profit figures, and cash generation to still remain high. According to a press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Soyuz-2.1A, a rocket launcher carrying three satellites took off at Vostochny spaceport on April 28. Uralcryomash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) was among the companies directly involved in the cosmodrome preparations. ‘Our Nizhniy Tagil experts have been contributing to all of Russia’s space programs, including the very first one,’ the company press service says. Uralcryomash engineers took part in the construction of the launcher system, namely, the transportation and filling equipment. The company had to design the equipment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Metcombank Chairman of the Board Dmitri Torbenko was among Russia’s fifty most successful bankers according to Sravni.ru, the bank’s press service reports. Sravni.ru carried a rating of Russian bankers whose businesses achieved the best financial performance indicators in the last five years. Torbenko was given the 43d position in the rating. The web portal’s research involved 230 banks and was based on these banks’ asset volume as of April 1, 2016. To make it to the rating, a banker had to have been in office for at least two and a half years between 2011

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Ural Airline makes its flights to Larnaca, Heraklion, Rimini, and Tivat available again, the air carrier’s press service reports. Yekaterinburg-Larnaca flights will be operated every Wednesday and Sunday starting from April 27 and also on Fridays starting from May 27; Yekaterinburg-Heraklion flights will be operated on Thursdays starting from April 28 and also on Tuesdays and Sundays starting on May 29; Yekaterinburg-Rimini and Yekaterinburg-Tivat flights will be operated every Saturday starting from May 28. ‘The best time of the year for a holiday at the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Yekaterinburg existing home prices have gone down by 2.5% since the start of the year (and by 8.7% compared with one year earlier), Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The average asking price came to 68,929 RUR per m2 on April 25, 2016. There are currently slightly over 10,200 apartments and 1,850 rooms in communal apartments for sale in the chamber’s database. It typically takes four and a half to five and a half months to make a sale. Prices declined most noticeably for centrally located and remotest homes in the last four months (-2.9% to 3% on average).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2016. Yekaterinburg Leninsky District Court upheld a motion regarding the detainment of Alexei Pyankov, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Minister, who will remain in detention until June 25. The official was detained after a search of his home and office on April 26. The searches were related to two criminal lawsuits, one of them with charges of bribe-taking (Article 291 (Part 5) and Article 291.1 (Part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). ‘The inquiry officers believe the minister accepted a total of 31.5m RUR worth of bribes for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Karabashmed (a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company) organized a guided tour of the premises for students from Karabash School 1 on April 21, the company press service reports. The event was part of the National No Turnstile Week, carried out at Karabash Employment Center’s initiative. The plant’s Senior Chemist Alexander Zavarin took the school-leavers on a bus tour of the mines, all of the production departments, and the railway station, telling the young people about the plant’s history and development throughout the 20th century and its upgrades

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. The 3d local physics contest for high school students closed in Nizhniy Tagil recently; prizes were established by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Executive Director Vladimir Roshchupkin, the company press service reports. Sergei Vorobiev from Nizhniy Tagil School 9 and Pavel Cheshkov proved the strongest among 15- and 16-year-olds, while Alexei Zudov from Nizhniy Tagil School 51 won gold in the 17-year-old contestants category. 15-year-old Sofia Shipiguzova from Nizhniy Tagil School 61 won the Judges’ Choice Award for the original solution to a physics

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Vityaz, a machine-building enterprise and part of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation, is going to ensure engineering supervision for its two-section carrier vehicles in Novaya Zemlya, Schmidt Island, and the New Siberian Islands in 2016 and 2017, the company press service reports. The company is already in charge of the vehicles’ operation and maintenance under the terms of the contract signed with Russia’s Defense Ministry. ‘Keeping the Army and the Navy’s armored vehicles combat-ready is one of the Russian Armed Forces’ and the defense industry enterprises’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Metcombank made it to the list of Russia’s one hundred largest banks again, based on its undistributed profit figures, asset volume, and amount of own funds, the bank’s press service refers to Interfax-CEA as stating. Metcombank’s financial outcome reached a record-setting high last year, which secured the company the 42nd position in the national rating. The bank was also Russia’s No. 83 in terms of own funds growth (by 4.1% in 2015) and No. 98 in terms of asset volume. ‘Getting on the Top100 list means we keep developing stably and remain reliable even

UrBC, Moscow, April 27, 2016. The insurance company Rosgosstrakh incurred 4.65bn RUR worth of net loss (calculated in accordance with the IAS) in 2015 against 4.24bn RUR in net profit a year earlier, Prime refers to the company’s financial report as stating. ‘Most of the losses resulted from payments on the obligatory third party liability car insurance,’ the company explains. The company paid almost 16% more in insurance premiums (up from 129.9bn RUR to 150.7bn RUR) and 53% more in payouts (up from 65.5bn RUR to 100bn RUR). At the same time, its net ROI rose from 8.9bn RUR to 18.7bn RUR. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation held its 13th research-to-practice conference for young workers in Nizhniy Tagil; the conference was dedicated to the corporation’s prospects in the current economy, cost optimization, and quality improvements, the company press service reports. Reports were presented by employees of the corporation’s Nizhniy Tagil-based head plant, Yekaterinburg-based Plant 9, Uraltransmash (Yekaterinburg), Electromachine (Chelyabinsk), Vityaz (Ishimbay), Omsktransmash (Omsk), and KULZ (Kamensk-Uralsky) as well as by students of Ural State

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Sinara Development (a member enterprise of Sinara Group) is starting to work on a new apartment building at 1 Butorin St in Yekaterinburg (a downtown location near Kuibyshev St), the Group’s press service reports. The developer obtained its construction permit on April 15, 2016 and is now busy setting up the construction site. The building is expected to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2017 at the latest. ‘This twenty-five-storey apartment building, with its only entrance and a panoramic view of the city at the top, is to become the block’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Institute of Reactor Materials in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region (a member enterprise of Rosatom Corporation) is planning to start producing Lu 177 (lutetium) in 2018 to support cancer treatment, the institute’s director Dmitri Markov said in the course of his recent press tour. According to Markov, the institute currently focuses on supplying its customers with radionuclide materials necessary for making radiopharmaceuticals. However, the organization is planning to switch to the more sophisticated produce in the near future and sell it on both home and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Downward trends persist on Yekaterinburg commercial estate market, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. ‘The letting market and the buying market are reacting differently to the dropping demand. The average shop’s rent declined by 4% in the first three months of the year, while that of an office went down by 5%. At the same time, owners willing to sell their property are not so eager to reduce their asking price. It appears not all the sellers actually realize what the current situation is like and what may happen next,’ says the chamber’s analyst Mikail

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Yekaterinburg Duma deputies accepted the city council’s report on budget implementation in 2015. The report was presented by Andrei Koryukov, who was recently appointed Deputy Mayor for Strategic Planning, Economic Issues & Finance. According to Koryukov, the budget was originally adopted with 1.5bn RUR-plus deficit: expected municipal revenues came to 33.11bn RUR, while the city’s yearly expenses were estimated at 34.68bn RUR. By the end of the year, however, Yekaterinburg budget’s revenues amounted to 32.64bnRUR ( 96.8% of the target figures), while

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted Bulat Okudzhava Theater Days Festival in celebration of the plant’s 80th anniversary, the company press service reports. Both the plant’s management and current and retired employees gathered together in Nizhniy Tagil Drama Theater on April 22 for the first night of We, the Undersigned, a play by Alexander Gelman. The city mayor Sergei Nosov gave a welcoming address to the audience before the show began. The corporation’s deputy DG Alexei Zharich stressed the festival’s particular importance

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. KMEZ, a copper electrolysis plant and a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company, pays special attention to training and professional development of its production instructors, the company press service reports. ‘These instructors, working together with the plant’s experts and managers, are in charge of providing blue-collar job training right in the workplace. These are usually workers with both impressive skills and vast experience but also with a bent for explaining all the intricacies of a job to a novice. Certain teaching skills and willingness to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is offering its subscribers 36 gigabytes of prepaid Internet traffic which will be available in every part of Russia, the company press service reports. According to MegaFon, their subscribers rely heavily on their tablet computers when traveling around the country. The new Internet Tablet S offer means they can now freely share their holiday pictures and watch videos online when away from home. ‘A tablet computer is a great companion on the road, offering all the benefits of a TV, a music player, a play station, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s non-food consumer goods index changed by 2.6% since the start of the year, Sverdlovskstat reports. The prices of perfumes and cosmetic items rose most noticeably, by 5.9%, those of electrical appliances and household goods by 5.6%, those of tobacco items by 5%, and those of household chemicals by 4%. Additionally, the price of footwear went up by 4.1%, that of jersey wool and knitted items by 2.6%, and that of other clothing articles by 1.8%.