UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 25, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the annual Competitive Purchases Leader Contest, the key professional competition for Russian customers and supplies, as Leader of Purchasing Innovations. ‘The company’s logistics and supply schemes are fully automated and rely on an ORACLE-based corporate IT system. We started using ORACLE in 2004 and launched our own ORACLE-based trading platform in 2007. So far, the platform has been used for over 20,000 purchasing transactions involving supplies or services worth more than 80bn RUR

UrBC, Moscow, October 25, 2016. 51% of urban-living Russians consider themselves middle class, according to Sberbank CIB’s this year’s survey of respondents living in cities with population of 100,000 or more, Kommersant reports. The number dropped by about 7.4m in the last two years, as actually about 60% of those surveyed said they were middle class in September 2014; on the national scale, the decrease stands at 14m. ‘A Russian’s average ‘middle-class’ income came to 37,000 RUR a month in September 2016 against 31,000 RUR two years previously. These days, you can only feel ‘middle-class’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) inspected 834 tobacco-selling outlets in the nine months of this year and identified cases of non-compliance with the law in 306 instances (36.7% of all inspected outlets), the agency’s press service reports. Rospotrebnadzor officers inspected 5,853 cigarette packs and found 501 packs defective, which comes to 8.6% of the entire amount. Mostly, the problem was that the packs lacked the necessary accompanying documentation. Inspections targeted at checking businesses’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. Yet another apartment building at 9 Pavel Shamanov St was recently commissioned in Yekaterinburg’s Akademichesky District, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The building is situated in the district’s first quarter along Pavel Shamanov St and consists of four 12- to 18-story sections and underground parking lots. There is a sports and a children’s playground in the yard and a kindergarten, a pedestrian area, and a workout spot next to the building. A children’s clinic, two schools, and a stadium are located across the street. ‘Because of its

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. SKB-Bank and SME Corporation signed an agreement to offer small and medium enterprises loans at a reduced interest rate, the bank’s press service reports. The bank representatives explain the agreement was signed during a round table discussion on the development of SMEs in the Urals; the discussion was coordinated by the Expert-Ural magazine and Expert Analytical Center. ‘The bank’s customers from among medium enterprises can now apply for funding at 9.6% a year, and those from among small enterprises can apply for a loan at a 10.6% annual interest

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant celebrated its 80th anniversary at I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture in Nizhniy Tagil, the company press service reports. Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh, acting Sverdlovsk Region Prime Minister Alexei Orlov, Chair of All-Russian Defense Industry Workers’ Union Andrei Chekmenev, and directors of the corporation’s member enterprises all came to take part in the celebrations. Igor Kholmanskikh, acting on behalf of the Russian Federation