UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2018. Officers from Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Security Service uncovered and stopped an illegal immigration channel in the area, the service’s press office reports. Two Tajikistan nationals have been detained under the suspicion of running an illegal immigration hub. According to the Federal Security Service, they put fabricated exit/entry border crossing stamps into the passports of foreign nationals who, in fact, never left Russia. The suspects were also allegedly engaged in making fake work permits, migration cards, and other papers. ‘A

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2018. Ural Airlines introduced a new service for its Wings Club members recently, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Smartphone owners who use our Wallet App can add their existing Wings Club membership card to the system (or get a card issued with as few as two clicks) and collect bonus points, check their bonus balance, and stay in the know of the airline’s most relevant special offers. Ural Airlines are the first air carrier to enable loyalty card issuance through a special mobile aggregator service. Wallet App does more than just digitalize the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) was assessed very favorably as Introduction & Integration Partner of The Year at the international Crystal Headset Contest. Crystal Headset is a reputed contest for call centers and customer service centers. In 2017/2018, the judges’ panel had to evaluate the highest number of applicants throughout the event’s entire history. Nearly 300 businesses based in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan submitted their applications and essays for the competition,’ the bank’s press service

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 30, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy System’s Western Siberia branch made a public announcement to remind the locals about the protected areas around their electric mains. ‘Protected areas are strips of land and air along both sides of the mains. This is 20 meters for 110-kilowatt mains, 25 meters for 220-kilowatt mains, and 30 meters for 500-kilowatt mains,’ the company explains. Any activity within the protected areas must be coordinated with the company’s power engineers, be it construction jobs, repairs or demolition; mining, explosive, or reclamation

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 30, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) drew up a report on its partnership with the Republic of Bashkorstostan, MMK Information, PR & Adverting Department reports. ‘Bashkortotan and MMK have a long history of economic and social connections. In 2016, the two parties signed a bilateral cooperation agreement. About two years later, the time has come to look into this cooperation to see if it proved efficient. A round table discussion on the topic was contributed to by MMK Social Programs Senior Manager Yegor Kozhayev, MMK Prospective Development

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 29, 2018. Russia’s Industrial Development Foundation and South Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry issued loans to six Chelyabinsk Region-based companies in 2017, the CCI’s press service reports. The loans fell within the RUR 20.5m to RUR 500m range. According to President of South Urals CCI Igor Aristov, sixty companies joined the chamber last year, which means the overall membership expanded to 920 businesses (including those pertaining to Miass and Magnitogorsk Chambers of Commerce & Industry). The majority of these (some 75%) are small and medium

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 29, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on a new, large, up-to-date sintering plant that will be unique to Russia, the company press service reports. Builders embarked upon the preparatory stage of the project (area layout and getting the foundations ready for assembly) in December 2016. They are now busy assembling the structures. A power substation was the first facility to get built on the construction site. The substation is already connected to a high-voltage main and is ready to provide additional power supply onto the sintering

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region had RUR 337.8bn invested in the form of fixed capital expenditures, which fell below the previous year’s level by 3.6% (in comparable prices), Sverdlovskstat reports. 70.4% (RUR 237.9bn) of these funds got directed to large and medium enterprises operating in the area, which exceeded the figures for January-December 2016 by 4%. Most of the investments came from the industrial sector > 41.1%, or RUR 97.7bn.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2018. Only 17% of Sverdlovsk Region’s workforce expect their pay to go up this year, HeadHunter’s press service reports. 35% of companies are not planning for any changes in their current pay policy. 45% of those surveyed are not sure what their employers are up to, money wise. 3% of locally employed respondents said their management had actually cut down on their salary budgets. According to the survey participants, their pay is expected to decline because of the business going badly (49%), plummeting sales (26%), and a new KPI system (23%). Interestingly,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 29, 2018. The Urals-based home buyers invested RUR 7.4bn in building cooperatives in 2016-2017, Bank of Russia’s Ural Administration’s press service reports. In fact, their investments make up 47% of all the building cooperatives’ funds throughout Russia. ‘One advantage a building cooperative has over a mortgage is that you only pay slightly more for your home than you would when paying the full amount up front. Besides, you don’t need to collect all sorts of papers or prove your solvency in order to apply for this option. There are, however, some downsides to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 28, 2018. SIM cards will now be contributing to traffic safety: the Ural division of Russia’s Transport Ministry’s Security Service Administration and the telecommunications provider MegaFon announced they were going to work together, MegaFon’s press service reports. MegaFon is now the selected high-speed mobile Internet service provider for the Administration. Their contract is valid through December 1, 2020. ‘The Russian Transport Ministry’s Security Service Administration officers work to ensure safety at all the key transport facilities throughout the country,

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 28, 2018. First Freight Company’s Chelyabinsk branch piggybacked some 14,000,000 kg of cargo in January-February 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 18%, the company press service reports. The increase was due to the branch working together with the key local freight owners: the concrete goods plant ZhBI 74 and the bridge structures manufacturer KurganStalMost; the company also attracted a number of new consignors. ‘We landed a contract with one of the Southern Urals’ largest construction companies in February. The plant makes unique precast

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 28, 2018. The international hotel chain Park Inn by Radisson no longer operates in Nizhniy Tagil, UralVagonZavod Corporation’s Corporate Communications Director Dmitri Kalinichenko confirmed Tuesday. ‘UralVagonZavod’s press service announces the two parties’ decision to stop doing business together was mutual. There is no one, decisive reason for this. There have probably been a number of factors at play. UralVagonZavod invested millions of rubles in the hotel site, but the company’s new management found out the hotel was partially owned by a number of private

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 28, 2018. No more potatoes will get imported to Sverdlovsk Region from the largest supplier country Egypt starting March 23, 2018. As Sverdlovsk Region division of Rosselkhoznadzor explained to UrBC, the ban applies to potatoes from any part of the exporter country. The ban was imposed after a brown rot agent had been detected in a shipment of Egyptian potatoes. According to the division, this quarantined shipment poses a threat to crop cultivation areas. Rosselkhoznadzor’s local division also said Egypt was one of Sverdlovsk Region’s largest potato importers,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 28, 2018. Cheese, butter, and canned dairy foods were the products that got adulterated most often in Sverdlovsk Region last year, the local division of Rospotrebnadzor (the consumer rights watchdog) states. For one, 34.7% of locally sold butter turned out to be adulterated (compared with 31.5% in 2016), as well as 22.1% of cheese (compared with 18.5% in 2016). The percentage of adulterated canned meat was 41.8%, which is less than in 2016 (55.3%), but still alarmingly high. As for canned dairy foods, 29.8% of locally sold items turned out to be adulterated last

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. Yekaterinburg came second in the rating of top ten Russian cities in terms of new car sales in January-February 2018, Avtostat’s analysts report. 2,840 new automobiles got bought in the city in the first two months of the year. The only location with better sales was Kazan, where 3,000 new cars were sold. Samara comes third in the rating (2,360 units), followed by Nizhniy Novgorod (2,280), and Krasnodar (2,100). Krasnodar happens to be the only city with population under 1m people on this list. Moscow and Saint Petersburg were not featured in this rating,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. The Forbes magazine recently carried its rating of Russia’s one hundred most reliable banks for the year 2018; SKB-Bank was among the banks included, the bank’s press service reports. The rating was based on the data supplied by international and national rating agencies and the banks’ financial performance indicators. Banks got selected along the following criteria: an assigned rating (and the overall number thereof), asset volume starting from RUR 10bn, and private individuals’ deposits amounting to over 3% of the bank’s liabilities. According to Forbes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) made over 1,300,000 kg of H beams suitable for making metal structures in 2017; these will be used for building the necessary infrastructure for Amur Gas Processing Plant, and the supply of beams onto the plant will continue this year as well. According to EVRAZ Holding’s press service, the plant made H beams in nineteen different types for Russia’s largest natural gas processing plant. Some of the beams are made from low-allowed Steel 345. EVRAZ NTMK’s product range currently comprises more than

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. Internet traffic doubled against the usual Saturday amount in downtown Yekaterinburg early in the morning on March 24, 2018, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘The city’s TV tower turned into the most coveted photo shooting spot and a filming location: shots of how the workers prepared to demolish the tower and how they had it pulled down, and videos of the end result filled all social networks and messengers,’ the press service says. Not only Yekaterinburg residents but also people from Sverdlovsk Region’s smaller towns such as Sukhoi Log, Berezovsky,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2018. Ural Airlines switched to summer schedule on March 25, 2018; this schedule will apply through October 27, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. This summer, Ural Airlines came up with convenient travel connections across Russia as well as in the CIS member states and the rest of the world. Most of the usual summer flights will be operated as usual, and more flights will be introduced for the most popular destinations. There will be plenty of flights to Simferopol operated from Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, Samara,