UrBC, Moscow, May 31, 2018. The All-Russian Passengers’ Union placed a complaint with the Federal Antimonopoly Service regarding soaring prices of flights operated during the World Football Championship days, RIA Novosti refers to the union’s Vice Chair Ilya Zotov as writing to Head of the Service Igor Artemyev. The union looked into prices of plane tickets to the game-hosting cities on the day before the game is scheduled to take place and on the day following the game one. They also looked into the price of air travel in July, August, September, and October in order to determine the average

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 31, 2018. Fifty foreign nationals got deported from Yekaterinburg on May 21-25, 2018 since they had violated the existing immigration laws, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers reports. Most of these people come from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan. ‘All of the deported foreign nationals were found guilty of an administrative offense consisting in unlawful entry to and staying within the Russian Federation (Article 18.8 (Part 1.1) of the Administrative Offense Code),’ the division says. 620 foreign nationals have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 31, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based end users owe their heat and power suppliers RUR 8.5bn in unpaid heating and electric power bills, the constituency’s Minister for Energy & Housing Utilities Nikolai Smirnov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. According to Smirnov, RUR 6.6bn out of the total amount stem from the debts of end users based in the Mid-Urals. ‘Unfortunately, the debt figures keep rising; they used to go down in the summer months, but this only happened on a little scale last summer. So now that the summer’s here, we can rely on the existing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 31, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the 25th International Caspian Oil & Gas 2018 Exhibition in Baku; the exhibition opened on May 29, 2018, the company press service reports. ‘Azerbaijan in particular and the Caspian Sea area in general are among MMK’s most appealing and promising markets. In 2017, MMK supplied more than 140,000,000 kg of goods to Azerbaijan, which is the largest amount delivered to the Southern Caucasus and to a NIS member state,’ the press service says. The Caspian Oil & Gas 2018 Exhibition is dedicated to

UrBC, Moscow, May 31, 2018. EVRAZ Holding and Russian University of Transport (MIIT) signed a cooperation agreement to work together to design, build, and operate transportation infrastructure facilities, the company press service reports. The paper was signed during the International Research-to-Practice High-Speed Rail Conference that Russian Railways’ Deputy Director-General Alexander Misharin is taking part in. Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties will cooperate in the field of designing, building, and operating transportation infrastructure facilities (including high-speed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 30, 2018. The developer RSG-Akademicheskoye is coordinating a tender for the construction of a secondary school and a highway junction in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy, the developer’s press service reports. Tender 1: Design and survey work/building information model for a secondary school in Akademicheskiy’s Quarter 10. Opening bid: RUR 10,426,996. Tender 2: Building information model for a multi-level highway junction at the intersection of Serafima Deryabina St and Obyezdnaya St in Yekaterinburg. Construction Stage II. Opening bid: RUR 18,351,538.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 30, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the 3d International Metallokonstruktsii 2018 Exhibition, the company’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘The company is presenting its highly durable and wear-resistant MAGSTRONG steels. The steels can be used for making metal structures. Their mechanical properties ensure enhanced abrasive wear resistance and impact strength; the steels are highly weldable and treatable and expand the metal goods’ lifespan considerably in comparison with the conventional materials. This means

UrBC, Moscow, May 30, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) and Rostelekom signed a cooperation agreement during Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. The agreement covers the ways the two parties will cooperate on the development and operation of communication networks. The paper was signed by FGC UES Chair of the Board Andrei Murov and Rostelekom’s President Mikhail Oseyevsky. The companies agreed to mutually use their respective infrastructures to station fiber optics and telecommunication devices and to work together

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 30, 2018. ChelPipe Group supplied a set of polyethylene-coated pipes for the Nord Stream 2 Project, the company press service reports. ‘ChelPipe Group completed its shipments of three-layer polyethylene-coated pipes for the construction of two pipelines within Nord Stream 2. The pipes (diameter: 1,153 mm; layer thickness: 34.6 mm) with internal and external corrosion-resistant coating made at the Group’s Vysota 239 Department have been delivered to Kotka, Finland. All the pipes meet the strictest global quality standards and environmental safety requirements set forth

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 30, 2018. Ural Airlines introduce direct flights to Bologna from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, and Samara. The flights get operated every Saturday. Prices (round trips, all fees included) start from RUR 27,500 (Yekaterinburg-Bologna-Yekaterinburg); RUR 25,400 (Samara-Bologna-Samara); RUR 22,600 (Krasnodar-Bologna-Krasnodar); RUR 19,000 (Moscow-Bologna-Moscow); RUR 25,300 (Rostov-on-Don-Bologna-Rostov-on-Don); RUR 24,900 (Kazan-Bologna-Kazan). ‘A trip to Bologna is an extra travel option for those who enjoy a seaside

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region came 20th in the national investment climate rating for the year 2018. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives’ Director-General Svetlana Chupsheva presented Russia’s Top 20 federal constituencies at Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum 2018 on Friday. A year earlier, Sverdlovsk Region was rated No.33 in the national rating. According to the rating, investment climate is best in Tyumen Region this year. One year earlier, the constituency was given the 6th position in the rating.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2018. Yekaterinburg Council agreed with its contractors on the deadlines for building and commissioning a new road that will connect District Akademicheskiy and UNTs (home to Ural Science Center), the council’s website states. The road, currently under construction, will be over 2.5 km long and will be a six-lane one (three in each direction) and highly functional. The goal is provide an additional exit from Akademicheskiy to the southwest for the city and to redirect the excessive traffic from the main thoroughfares, Wilhelm de Gennin St and Krasnolesye St. This

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works (ZSMK) and Air Liquide signed a contract to have a new oxygen converter facility built on ZSMK premises in order to have an air gases supply for the plant’s production needs, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press service reports. The new facility will operate on the most advanced equipment available that will be 30% more energy-efficient than its old counterpart; it also won’t require any costly repairs. In the next three years, EVRAZ ZSMK will get two air separation units (capacity: 90,000 m3/hour) to

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 28, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the prestigious international Clean Energy Ministerial Award 2018 for its outstanding energy management achievements this year, MMK Information, PR & Adversing Department reports. ‘The globally renowned CEM Forum was set up in order to promote clean energy programs and initiatives. An independent judges’ panel comprising international experts selected three organizations from around the world to be distinguished with this great award for their energy management efforts. The awarding ceremony and CEM’s annual

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 28, 2018. ChelPipe Group and Russia’s Economic Development Ministry signed a cooperation agreement (part of the priority Labor Productivity & Employment Boost Program for federal constituencies) at Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum last week. The paper was signed by Russia’s Minister for Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin and Chair of ChelPipe Board of Directors Andrei Komarov. ‘The agreement is meant to serve as the basis for the Group and the ministry’s sharing their experience with the program’s local member companies; the two parties will also

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 25, 2018. ChelPipe Group and SAP CIS signed a memorandum on digital cooperation during Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Group’s press service reports. The paper was signed by ChelPipe Group’s Director-General Boris Kovalenkov and SAP CIS’s Director-General Natalia Parmenova. Chair of ChelPipe Board of Directors Andrei Komarov and SAP President for Central & Eastern Europe Stefan Höchbauer were also present. The memorandum lays out the Group’s plans on the company’s digital transformation. Under the terms of the paper, the company intends to unify

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 25, 2018. MMK Group directed over RUR 517m to charity and CSR projects last year, which exceeded the figures for the year 2016 by 6%, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘The Group’s charity projects mainly focused on supporting retirees and people with disabilities in the first half of the year. The company spent RUR 247m in the first three months of 2018 to help these citizen groups, including the funding of two large-scale, multi-faceted charity projects Zabota and 21st Century Southern Urals’ Children. The former gets coordinated by the

UrBC, Moscow, May 25, 2018. Most of UC RUSAL’s top management, including Director-General Alexandra Buriko, resigned, Kommersant refers to the company’s official statement as indicating. Vladislav Solovyev, Siegfried Wolf, Maxim Sokov, Dmitri Afanasyev, Gulzhan Moldazhanova, Olga Mashkovskaya, and Ekaterina Nikitina all leave the company’s Board of Directors on June 28, 2018. Evgeny Nikitin (52) will serve as the company’s acting Director-General starting May 23, 2018. According to UC RUSAL’s release, the U.S. sanctions might do serious damage to the company’s production and sales. UC RUSAL

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 25, 2018. Yekaterinburg heating, power, and water supply services carried out the first stage of their annual hydraulic tests on water pipes to find thirty-five defects in the pipelines, ETK’s press service reports. The tests were carried out between 11 PM on May 21 and 7 AM on May 24, with limited hot water supply to end users. The hydraulic pressure tests necessitated bringing the overall pipe pressure to above average to ensure compliance with the technical requirements. Damage spots were detected in Lenin Ave-Khokhryakov St, Vainer St-Popov St, Onufriev St,

UrBC, Moscow, May 25, 2018. The World Bank adjusted its forecast for Russia’s GDP for the year 2018 from 1.7% down to 1.5%, Prime refers to the bank’s recent report as stating. It is explained that the forecast had to be adjusted due to the country’s unimpressive economic growth in the second half of 2017 and the uncertainty that recent economic sanctions bring. The forecast for 2019-2020 has remained at around 1.8%. The forecast for Russia’s GDP growth in 2018 had to get decreased somewhat (down to 1.5% a year) because of the economic effects of the poor performance in the second half of