UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 28, 2018. Ural Airlines offer passengers flying from Samara a 7% discount on their Tel Aviv flights if they book on the company website, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer holds for Samara-Tel Aviv-Samara flights through October 17, 2018. The flights themselves will get operated between November 8, 2018 and March 28, 2019 (with the exception of December 27, 2018-January 10, 2019). The 7% discount is only offered if you book online at www.uralairlines.com. ‘Tel Aviv is a city that is never dull. Israel’s largest resort offers plenty of walking and

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry recently confirmed its original forecast for the expected USD/RUR exchange rate: 1/64 by the end of the year, Prime refers to Minister Maxim Oreshkin as stating. ‘As I said earlier, our end-of-the-year forecast is still RUR 64/USD 1: this is, approximately, the level the ruble should essentially stay at under current conditions. So this is more or less the level expected to last till the end of the year,’ Oreshkin said in answer to the question as to what exchange rate the ministry expected to see in late December.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 28, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Almaty (Kazakhstan) and back. The flights will be available on weekdays starting from December 24, 2018. ‘You can go on a business trip or a vacation on Almaty-Zhukovsky flight five times a week, Monday to Friday. Flight U6 2463 to Almaty departs from Zhukovsky at 11:00 AM, flight U6 2464 to Zhukovsky departs from Almaty at 7:25 PM local time,’ the company’s press service reports. Economy class tickets are available for as little as $185 (one-way) and $293 (round

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. There are still too many people living below poverty line in Russia, even though 2018 will likely be the first one in the last four years when working-age people’s and retirees’ disposable incomes are expected to go up, Interfax refers to Head of Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin as stating. ‘Poverty rate is still alarmingly high: 19.3m people, that is, 13.2% of the country’s population, live on less than a living wage,’ Kudrin said at the State Duma session Thursday. According to Kudrin, ‘this year will be the first one to result in growing disposable incomes:

UrBC, Moscow, September 28, 2018. The state-run company Dom.rf raised the interest rate it sets for mortgages, the company website indicates. The interest rate on a mortgage involving an existing home now comes to 10%-10.25% a year rather than the earlier 9%-9.25%. The interest rates on mortgages relating to new homes come to 9.25%-9.5% a year, depending on how large the down payment is. Urban Group’s apartments will be available for a 9.75% to 11% interest rate on a mortgage. Now the Bank of Russia determined in the course of a meeting on September 14 that the key rate would go up from 7.25%

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 27, 2018. MMK Group’s member enterprise Magnitogorsk Metal Goods Plant (MMK METIZ) is currently implementing its large-scale investment program on mastering new metal goods types and doing production upgrades. The investments are estimated to amount to more than RUR 2.5bn, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. According to head of MMK METIZ Sales Management Department Marina Kholopova, who presented her report at the 7th All-Russian Wire 2018 Conference in Gelendzhik, the upgrades program will run from 2017 to 2019. The goal is to strengthen the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2018. Zhukovsky International Airport (Moscow Region) and Ural Airlines are now offering their customers a new flight from Kulyab (Tajikistan) to Zhukovsky and back. The flight got introduced on September 24. Kulyab is now the tenth scheduled-flight destination Ural Airless fly to from Zhukovsky Airport. ‘Ural Airlines are among our oldest and most trusted partners; the airline is a market leader in terms of destination network growth and is now decidedly Zhukovsky’s most important and active air carrier: every one in two passengers flying from Zhukovsky

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) will host the 9th International Cast Iron Metallurgy Conference on its premises on September 25-27. The event is coordinated by the International Blast Furnace Workers’ Union, MetProm, and NTMK. According to the company’s press service, 180 workers and managers employed in the metallurgical, coke-manufacturing, and machine-building businesses, design office workers, and researchers from national and international research institutes will be contributing to the forum. ‘We are delighted

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2018. Ural Airlines won the 9th Annual Consumer Rights and Customer Service Quality Prize (PravPro): the airline proved the best among all the competing air carriers in Retail Services, the company press service reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place on September 21, 2018. ‘Every year, the prize is given out to companies that take consumer rights, production, and customer service responsibly and prove worthy of the highest trust,’ the press service says. The prize is an annual, socially acknowledged award that serves to distinguish the most

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 27, 2018. Chair of Federal Grid Company United Energy System’s Board Andrei Murov announced during his recent meeting with the heads of the company’s local HQs that a series of large-scale emergency drills should get carried out in each of FGC UES’s divisions throughout the country, the company’s Western Siberia branch reports. The drills are meant to prevent large-scale power outages caused by bad weather conditions in the upcoming fall/winter season. The Western Siberia branch’s electric mains are expected to grow 9,600 hectares longer/bigger in the next three

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 26, 2018. EVRAZ Holding coordinated an international environmental quest in teamwork plogging and recycling in Kachkanar for the first time this year. 1,500 kg of plastic, glass, metals, and paper stuffs got picked up on the shores of Kachkanar Pond as a result, the company press service reports. Thirty-seven teams took part in the quest all in all, consisting of schoolchildren, teachers, and employees of EVRAZ Holding’s Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise and their families. The quest participants needed to collect and sort different categories of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 26, 2018. In-plant training foreman on ChelPipe Group’s The Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program Bulat Ibrayev won gold in the National WorldSkills 50+ Championship, the Group’s press service reports. ‘Ibrayev represented Sverdlovsk Region in Wiring. More than 130 contestants from all over Russia competed in twenty-six categories at this WorldSkills challenge for people over fifty,’ the press service says. Bulat Ibrayev helps students on The Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program master electric wiring and coaches

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 26, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is working on a number of projects to reduce the plant’s man-made impact on the local water reservoirs, MMK’s press service reports. One upcoming project is to stop dumping any water in Magnitogorsk Pond entirely. To achieve this goal, the plant is now investing in reconstruction of its water circulation system: the chill tank will have to get bigger, among other things; also, a dam will be put up to protect the pond from the impact of MMK’s water circulation system. All this is expected to stop any inflow of

UrBC, Moscow, September 26, 2018. The international rating agency Fitch expects Russia’s banking sector to keep losing market players next year, TASS refers to the reports presented at a conference on the banking sector and the country’s microeconomic situation in Moscow on September 25 as indicating. ‘The Central Bank called off the licenses of thirty different banks in the six months of 2018. We expect this trend to continue in 2019 as well,’ Fitch explains. Now Head of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said in early September that the market had been cleaned from the better part of

UrBC, Moscow, September 26, 2018. The Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor is planning to fine those who make and sell adulterated foods, Interfax refers to the agency’s head Anna Popova as stating. ‘The first thing we are going to propose to the government is making amendments in the food adulteration regulations. There’s no notion of adulteration as such in either the Administrative or the Criminal Code, so there’s no punishment, either,’ Popova said at the Federation Council’s recent meeting on social policy issues. According to Popova, ‘the chemical industry has advanced

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 25, 2018. MMK Group directed RUR 161.7m to employee medical and healthcare programs in the first half of 2018, the company press service reports. The Group makes a special focus on keeping its workers healthy. Employee Health Improvement Program was adopted last year that meets all the modern standards and employees’ expectations in the in-company healthcare sector. The Program currently covers three important areas: job safety; treatment and prevention of diseases and illnesses; and a healthy lifestyle. In addition to regular physicals, the company clinic also

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 25, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) is introducing SAP Process Mining by Celonis in order to make its loan-issuing procedures more effective, detect and give up on all the inefficient sales scripts, and cut down on the amount of time and money spent on lending-related activities, the bank’s press service reports. ‘Apart from this, the goal is to reduce the workload of our real sector employees through an analysis of non-standard customer service cases and a set of steps that will help reduce the number of such cases the workers

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 25, 2018. A pawnshop at 9A Vainer St in Yekaterinburg was robbed of RUR 100m worth of jewelry last night. Yekaterinburg division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s press service says the police are now investigating the case and estimating the scale of the damage done. ‘The police got informed of a pawnshop robbery at Vainer St on September 23. The case is now being investigated. The amount of damage incurred is yet to be determined. The decision as to the further proceedings will have to be made based on the preliminary inquest results,’ the police

UrBC, Moscow, September 25, 2018. Russia is set a few steps back i noted World Governance Indicators rating, Kommersant refers to the World Bank’s annual report as stating. According to the report, Russia’s WGI stayed below zero last year and reached as little as -0.48. In 2016, the index stood at -0.42. A country’s WGI is based on six different criteria: accountability, political stability and low level of violence, government’s efficiency, quality of regulations, rule of law, and controlled corruption. Bloomberg reported earlier that businesses have been forced to take their money back to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 25, 2018. The annual cycling race that nuclear industry workers take part in took place in Yekaterinburg on September 22. The race usually involves some radiation level checks; for the first time this year, the event went through in a quest format, Yekaterinburg Nuclear Energy Information Center’s press service reports. Employees of AO SverdNIIKhimmash, Ural Electromechanical Plant, Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station, AO Reactor Material Institute, and Sverdlovsk Region’s division of RosRAO in Ural Federal District all took part in the race alongside