UrBC, Chelyabinsk, January 22, 2019. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky hosted a meeting with M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk State Academy Opera & Ballet Theater’s Board of Trustees on December 18, 2019, with ChelPipe Group’s shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov on the board among other members. According to ChelPipe Group’s press service, the meeting was dedicated to the board’s performance throughout the year 2018 and to the plans for the year 2019. This year, the board intends to get the main stage and the ballet hall repaired and the theater’s infrastructure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 22, 2019. More than 1,500 Sverdlovsk Region private residents and sole traders went through personal bankruptcy/asset disposal procedures last year, which exceeded the figures for the year 2017 (965 people/sole traders) by 61.3%, United Credit Bureau’s and FedResurs’s joint research findings indicate. It is reported that only 5.6% of potential bankrupts actually went through the procedure in 2018 (overall number: 27,680 private individuals and sole traders, up by 3,320 people on a year earlier). Based on this criterion, Sverdlovsk Region comes No.4 after Moscow,

UrBC, Moscow, January 22, 2019. The average interest rate on a mortgage on an existing home rose to 10.31% on average in December 2018 (compared with 10.21% in November 2018), Rusipoteka’s research findings indicate. The average interest on a mortgage on a new home is now up to 10.18% a year; the average offer on other banks’ loans’ refinancing rate is now 10.23%. ‘Based on our analysis of interest rate dynamics in December, 9% a year appears to be the best offer one can find advertised on the banks’ websites. These appealing-looking ‘best rates’ usually only apply to limited borrower

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 22, 2019. An investigation of job opening ads placed by Sverdlovsk Region’s employers revealed numerous violations of current labor laws. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities, companies routinely discriminate against their potential employees by setting specific age, gender, appearance, bad habits, and pregnancy criteria, as well as demanding that a job candidate should own a car or live in the same part of town where the company is based. For one, Yekaterinburg-based OOO LotEka advertised a vacancy in Sales, insisting that a job-seeker

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 22, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped 1,269,000,000 kg of zinc-coated rolled metal goods to customers in 208; this is, so far, the largest output in the company’s history. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, last year’s figure was 11.9% greater than that for the year 2017 (1,134,000,000 kg). MMK has been raising its zinc-coated products output steadily for the last fifteen years. Two highly productive continuous hot-dip galvanizing units got launched in 2002 and 2008 to achieve the goal; in 2012, an extension to the new