UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2018. The number of MegaFon Ural’s customers who use their smartphones to pay for their shopping has tripled since the start of the year. According to MegaFon’s analysts, the option is mostly popular with men, who make up 70% of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay users, the company press service says. Smartphones got used for nearly 40,000 shopping transactions at all kinds of Ural stores in July (total amount: RUR 12.1m). Every other payment was made at a grocery store/restaurant/bar/cafe/bakery. Gas-filling stations, pet shops, taxis, and pharmacies were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2018. Nevyansk’s public prosecution authorities report on a case of air protection legislation breach at AO Nevyanskiy Tsementnik. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities’ press service, the plant’s production facilities have been emitting nonorganic dust with high silicon content, even though the cement-making company has no emission permit of any kind. Legal action was taken against the plant’s Head of Job Safety, Industrial Safety & the Environment Department, with charges based on Article 8.21 (Part 1) of the Russian Federation

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2018. UralTransBank’s branch at 7 Chernoistochinskoye Chaussee (Bldg 4) in Nizhniy Tagil closes on August 31, 2018, the bank’s SMM service announces through their VKontakte account. Now UralTransBank also closed three of its branches in Yekaterinburg in April 2018. These were the outlets at 6 Gotvald St (Bldg 4), 17 Titov St, and 15 Kosmonavtov Ave. The bank has also been on the Central Bank’s non-compliers list for sixteen months now, the regulatory body’s website states.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2018. A half-finished building of a business center at 5 Oktyabrskaya Ploschad will soon be used for a new purpose. The construction began as early as 1993; the building can now serve as ad space for Yekaterinburg’s EXPO 2025 promotion campaign. Two parts of the semi-completed structure at 5 Oktyabrskaya Ploschad in Yekaterinburg got bought out by Navigator (founder: UMMC Director-General Andrei Kozitsyn) for RUR 200m in May 2018. Yekaterinburg Duma deputy Oleg Khabibullin purchased yet another section of the building. The asset got put on sale after SO

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court will soon be looking into Yekaterinburg-based OOO VVK’s insolvency application, the court reports. The application got submitted with the court on August 2, 2018. The claim was placed by the company’s creditor OOO Ofion, whose claims currently amount to RUR 25.167m. OOO VVK was set up as a residential and non-residential buildings developer in 2015. According to public sources, Evgeny Beloussov, who got sentenced to nine years in jail for housing fraud in March 2018, is one of the company’s co-founders. Beloussov was