UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2017. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers a new flight from Yekaterinburg to Kaliningrad and back, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting July 21, 2017, the airline’s passengers can enjoy a direct, no-stopover flight to Kaliningrad every Tuesday and Friday. In addition to the convenience of a direct flight, prices, which start from 6,000 RUR (one way), are another advantage. ‘Kaliningrad is often called Russia’s most European city where medieval Europe rubs shoulders with modern Russia. There are plenty of recreational and sightseeing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2017. Ural Airlines added yet another airplane to its fleet of aircraft: Airbus A321 with Sharklet wingtips that improve the plane’s aerodynamic parameters, allow for a greater flight range, and help reduce fuel spending. According to the air carrier’s press service, this is the second Sharklet-fitted airplane the company has acquired so far. Ural Airlines currently operate 43 airliners all in all. ‘This VP-BSW arrived in Yekaterinburg from Taiwan. The plane is fit for 215 Economy seats and operated its first flight in Ural Airlines’ colors from Yekaterinburg to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2017. Subscribers on MegaFon Ural’s Tune In! payment plan can now purchase over sixty new smartphones at a special price, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. The offer holds for Samsung, ASUS, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, and ZTE phones. ‘Samsung J5 Prime sounds like the perfect option for staying in touch. This smartphone has a power-saving mode that switches all the background applications off and thus reduces battery spending. It also has a large-aperture lens with F1.9 diaphragm to ensure best quality pictures even in the dark; the phone’s

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 30, 2017. MMK Group’s Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works directed 2.8m RUR to help local schools get ready for the new school year, MMK press service reports. The money will be spent on repairs, building materials, and new plumbing supplies. Over fifty schools, boarding schools, and lyceums in Magnitogorsk will receive some help. ‘Helping local schools in the summer is something this city’s primary employer has done for a long time now. MMK Group’s member enterprises support schools on a regular basis and organize job counseling sessions for schoolchildren as well as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 30, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) made payments on the 9th coupon of its Eurobond issue ($4.08m altogether, with coupon yield at $60 per share in the last six months). According to the bank’s press service, the coupon yield for the bank’s UBRD Capital Limited bonds was set at 12% a year, with payments to be made twice a year. The next coupon payment will be made at the end of December 2017. The bank went through with its subordinated bond issue on June 27, 2013; the bonds are to be in circulation for 5.5 years, with face value at

UrBC, Moscow, June 29, 2017. The Bank of Russia reports some of the country’s banks were affected by the recent hacker attack, Interfax refers to the regulatory authority as stating. ‘The Bank of Russia reports some hacker attacks were detected that were aimed at Russian lending institutions. According to the Bank, a few banks found their IT infrastructure infected,’ their press service says. It is reported that banks’ systems and services operated and were available as usual. ‘FinCERT, the Bank of Russia’s monitoring center, is working together with the banks to repair the damage done by the

UrBC, Moscow, June 29, 2017. Lenovo, the owner of Motorola, announced the prices for its smartphones on the Russian market, Vedomosti reports. The new Motorola-branded smartphones were presented to the public on June 27. These are, for example, Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus (quad-core processor, 16 GB of memory space, a 13-megapixel camera) that can be had for 10,000 RUR and 14,000 RUR, respectively. The smartphones will hit the market next month. The Z2 Play smartphone make (octa-core processor, 32 GB of memory space, a 12-megapixel camera, Moto Mods enabled) will be sold for 35,000 RUR. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2017. Russia’s Minister for Natural Resources & The Environment Sergey Donskoy asked Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) to facilitate Russian Copper Company’s project on liquidation of Korkinsky Mine, keep the project under their special supervision, and provide the ministry with regular updates on the project’s progress. The decision to place the agency in charge of the project was taken by the minister following a meeting on environmental safety in particularly vulnerable areas on June 27, 2017. The meeting was attended by Head of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2017. 96 students on ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program received their secondary vocational education certificates this summer, the company press service reports. Five students graduated with highest honors and twenty-eight with honors. The students on the program mastered Industrial Equipment Assembly & Maintenance, Electric Equipment Maintenance, General Metallurgy & Thermal Treatment of Metals, Metal Treatment Under Pressure, and Machine-Building Technologies. The program’s best alumni are already employed at the

UrBC, Moscow, June 29, 2017. 20% of dairy products and 50% of fish on offer on the Russian market are, in fact, adulterated, RNS refers to Russia’s Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov as saying at a recent Federation Council meeting. According to the minister, counterfeit, adulterated, and illegally imported foods make it difficult for quite a few economic sectors to develop normally. ‘Up to 35% of products on the processing industries market are traded illegally; the share of adulterated dairy foods is estimated at 20%, that of fish sometimes reaches as much as 50%. On top of this,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2017. Managing Director of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) and Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK) Alexei Kushnarev denied all rumors regarding alleged layoffs of 500 workers in Kachkanar; the rumor was apparently spread by the company trade union. According to Kushnarev, the plant does have some over-staffed production departments, but the extra workers could always get switched to other divisions. All in all, the plant could actually use some more workers at the moment. ‘I have a clear idea of how many

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2017. Special offers now hold for parking slots in Akademicheskiy District, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘You can now pay for your parking slot in installments, with a very modest monthly repayment, which makes this less painful for your family’s budget,’ the press service says. Special terms apply to parking slots in District’s Quarter 1 (under apartment buildings at 68 and 70 Sakharov St and 17,15, and 13 Pavel Shamanov St). There are parking slots 14 m2 to 52 m2 big currently on offer. The repayment period may come to as many as 74 months, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2017. Based on the Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s and SKB-Bank’s BOD’s ruling, Vassily Kochnev was appointed the bank’s Chair of the Supervisory Board on June 26, 2017, the bank’s press service reports. Prior to his new appointment, Kochnev was the bank’s Retail Lending & Bank Cards Director. The new Chair’s responsibilities include the bank’s retail segment development (consumer lending, bank cards, payroll accounts, and so on). Now that Vassily V. Kochnev has been appointed SKB-Bank Chair of the Board, the Board comprises seven members altogether.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2017. Oleg Moskalenko’s team, headed by foreman Yaroslav Yerchenko, produced 1,000,000,000 kg of valuable GZh coal at EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Uskovskaya Mine in four months’ time, the company press service reports. Moskalenko’s team extracted the coal from two long faces, 50-10 and 50-08 (launched in May 2017). The miners produce up to 250,000,000 kg of coal a month. ‘Uskovskaya is one of our most productive mines in Kuzbass. Organization of labor is getting better all the time, new excess gas removal technologies get introduced on a regular

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 28, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems is going to set up 2,200 new glass insulators and overhead ground-wire cables at Sverdlovsk Region mains, the company press service reports. The goal is to make the power supply from Verkhnetagilskaya Power Plant and Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant to end users in Verkhniy Tagil, Zarechniy, Asbest, Novouralsk, and Kamensk Uralsky more reliable. The new equipment will get installed at 220-kilowatt mains from Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant to Kamenskaya Substation and Okunevo Substation and from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2017. Representatives of Kemerovo Region’s Department of Natural Resources & the Environment, media reporters, and public group members went on a tour of EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine as part of the Russian Year of the Environment, the company press service reports. The visitors were told about the company’s environmental policy, measures taken to protect local bodies of water, reduce harmful atmospheric emissions, and recycle mining waste. Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Director-General Sergey Stepanov greeted the ‘environmental

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2017. Metcombank and Russia’s first private national-scale museum, Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, launched a co-branded project: a number of Visa cards featuring the masterpieces from among Carl Fabergé’s Imperial Easter Eggs, the bank’s press service reports. The idea is to get the bank’s private customers acquainted with the exhibits that are now part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. Additionally, the bank’s premium co-branded cardholders can also get 100% of their money back when visiting the museum. To join the program, you just need to buy your

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2017. ChTPZ Group supplied a number of hot-rolled steel pipes and bent rods to the construction site of Volgograd Arena, a stadium that needs to be put up in time for the World Cup 2018, the company press service reports. The Group delivered its produce to Kurganstalmost, the company that makes metal frameworks for the stadium. The shipment comprised 85,000 kg of steel pipes (diameter: 168 mm; layer thickness: 6 mm; steel type: 09G2S) and metal arches made from 180-mm pipes (layer thickness: 7 mm and 8mm). The pipes were made at the Group’s Chelyabinsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2017. Ural Airlines sell tickets for their Yekaterinburg-Dubai-Yekaterinburg flight for as little as 18,500 RUR (all fees included, as well as 5 kg of cabin luggage and 23 kg of regular luggage) between June 23 and July 16, 2017; the flights will be operated on June 23-August 31, 2017, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Dubai stands for the clear waters of the Persian Gulf, the unbelievable skyscrapers, the fascinating architecture, all the treasures of the Orient, and the kind of shopping not to be found elsewhere. This is the place to get tanned, go for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 27, 2017. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) coordinated Fresh Idea on the eve of Inventor’s Day: the event was aimed at involving more company workers into ongoing improvement activity at the plant, the company press service reports. This is the second time the event has been coordinated at the plant. MMK Group’s workers have an opportunity to share their improvement proposals and get a prize. Last year, since orange was chosen as the event’s logo, all of the Fresh Idea participants received some actual oranges and souvenirs bearing the logo. This year, the