UrBC, Moscow, January 14, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to buy RUB 265.8bn worth of foreign currency between January 15 and February 6, 2019, the ministry reports. ‘The overall amount of money directed to making foreign currency purchases comes to RUB 265.8bn. The purchasing transactions will be made on January 15-February 6, 2019, which means the daily amount will come to the foreign currency equivalent of RUB 15.6bn’ the Finance Ministry’s website indicates. Russia’s federal budget is expected to get an additional RUB 220.6bn from the oil and gas revenues in January 2019, which

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 14, 2019. MMK Group’s mutual benefit fund’s turnover came to more than one billion rubles in 2018; the money only comes from the borrowing parties’ fees, which means any loan is interest-free. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the mutual benefit fund has over 21,000 members at the moment, that is, almost every one in two trade union members. More than 17,000 members applied for a loan in 2018. Eligible to apply are the borrowers who have been the members of the mutual benefit fund for at least three months. The loan amount also depends on the

UrBC, Moscow, January 14, 2019. The Bank of Russia issued a warrant aimed at the management of JPMorgan’s Russian branch as the bank failed to comply with the Russian anti-money-laundering legislation, the former’s website states. The warrant has to do with the administrative offense as described in Article 15.27 of Russia’s Administrative Offense Code (Failure to Comply with the Legal Requirements on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 14, 2019. Rosatom/Atomenergomash’s asset SverdNIIkhimmash landed a contract with Atomstroyexport for the design, production, and delivery of the equipment for treatment of non-recyclable components for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant’s Power-Generating Unit 1, the company’s press service reports. The contract amounts to more than RUB 1.5bn; the appliances are scheduled to get delivered in the fall of 2020, with the startup and commissioning scheduled for 2023. ‘SverdNIIkhimmash has plenty of successful experience in the field of supplying and commissioning the said

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 14, 2019. MegaFon Ural’s mobile traffic increased by 1.5 times on December 31, 2018 compared with one year earlier, the company’s press service reports. Local users mostly spent time on WhatsApp and Viber and grew very active after 6 PM on December 31; more than 70% of the company’s mobile traffic got delivered through 4G network; the amount of video content also rose by 3.5 times. ‘There’s no need to wait out to make your voice call or send an image or a video through a messenger app after midnight: the network is quite prepared to handle any amount of traffic,