February 25, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation and DG Oleg Sienko are taking part in IDEX 2015, an international exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the corporation’s press service says. ‘In addition to Nizhniy Tagil’s Uralvagonzavod representatives, employees of Omsktransmash, Uraltransmash, ChTZ Uraltrac, Burevestnik, and Plant 9 were among the delegates at the exhibition. The corporation’s 185-meter stand features a life-size sample of its upgraded tank T90C, with special options for the Arab countries. For the first time, the tank is stationed inside

February 25, 2015. Russian Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov presented the 10th International Arms & Munitions Exhibition RussiaArmsExpo 2015 at IDEX 2015 in Abu Dhabi. This year, RAE will take place in Nizhniy Tagil on September 9-12. According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation, the event’s general coordinator, the minister told the RAE’s potential partners about the unique opportunities the exhibition offers. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko and Director-General of Business Dialogue Anatoly Kitsura took part in Denis Manturov’s presentation of the event.

February 25, 2015. META (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) sold 1,357,000,000 kg of scrap ferrous metal in 2014; this was 17% better than in 2013 (1,161,000,000 kg). The figure includes 763,000,000 kg of the Group’s own scrap metal and 594,000,000 kg of transit one, the Group’s press service says. The increase in sales has to do with the fact that the company has been creating more supplies to provide enough pipe ingots for the Group’s weldless pipe production as well as with the fact that the company bought transit scrap metal from external contractors on improved terms. META Perm, META

February 25, 2015. All of Sverdlovsk Region’s industries are at least 50% import-dependent, local Industry & Science Minister Andrei Misyura said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. According to Misyura, the pharmaceutical sector is 72% import-dependent, the oil and gas sector’s and the machine-building sector’s import dependency comes to 60%. The minister pointed out that a few of local enterprises could enjoy a product monopoly as far as the Russian market goes, yet their share of the home market is only 10%. He also said that eighteen out of eighty-two local processing enterprises

February 25, 2015. Migrant workers are less interested in finding a job in Russia because of the devaluation of the ruble and stricter migration regulations, Farukh Mirzoyev, chairman of a Sverdlovsk Region-based NGO called Somon Tajik Culture Society, told UrBC. According to Mirzoyev, the depreciation of the Russian currency is a negative factor. ‘It’s not all that simple, however. The economies of the CIS member states are tightly interwoven with that of Russia, so the Russian problems can’t help affecting the Central Asian republics: jobs and incomes are shrinking there, too,’ he

February 24, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant (KULZ, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to invest about 1bn RUR in reconstruction of friction discs used in its special-purpose machinery. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports the repairs are part of a special-purpose government program that is co-financed by the state budget funds (60%) and KULZ itself (40%). The project is to be completed by the end of 2017. ‘The program’s primary goal is to ensure import replacement. KULZ is to replace their Ukrainian supplier of friction discs, which is why building

February 24, 2015. Ural Airlines are going to launch a new scheduled flight from Chelyabinsk to Saint Petersburg in early March, the airline’s press service reports. The flight from Chelyabinsk will be operated on Mondays and Thursdays starting March 12; starting April 4, another flight on Saturday will be available as well. The return flight from Saint Petersburg will be operated every Thursday and Sunday (starting from March 12) and every Friday (starting from April 4). ‘The new flight offers Chelyabinsk residents a convenient timetable for tourist and business trips to Saint Petersburg as

February 24, 2015. Last year’s yield of local potatoes will disappear from Sverdlovsk Region markets in April, Sverdlovsk Region Agriculture Minister Mikhail Kopytov informed UrBC. He explained this had to do with lack of refrigerating equipment to store all the vegetables. ‘Our potatoes and carrots will have to leave the market between April and July: we don’t have any refrigerators in our warehouses, all things are stored at room temperatures,’ the minister said. Apart from potatoes, local cabbage and carrot supplies were also said to be insufficient. According to the minister, Sverdlovsk

February 24, 2015. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service ruled that MTS Bank’s advertising was unfit for the purpose, the service’s press service reports. The advertisement for the bank’s Hot Deposit offer was distributed in Moscow Underground in the form of 20x40cm and 30x40cm stickers in September and October 2014 and on billboards in several Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. The large print read, ‘Hot Deposit, interest up 12% p.a.’ The other terms of the deposit offer (the ones affecting the final income a customer would make) were given in small, white print against

February 24, 2015. Yekaterinburg came fifth on the list of Russian cities most popular with tourists, the city council refers to TripAdvisor’s data as stating. ‘Ten cities were featured in the rating based on the website users’ ratings of landmarks, hotels, and cafes and restaurants. Moscow and Saint Petersburg are predictably at the top; Yekaterinburg was ahead of Yaroslavl, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, and Suzdal. The rating’s authors said Yekaterinburg, with its plethora of theatres, museums, libraries, and quite a few monuments (including some very unconventional ones) was a place for

February 20, 2015. Carl’s Jr., a premium fast food chain, reopened at Yekaterinburg’s Greenwich Mall. According to the representatives of 73 Malyshev St Society, the restaurant will be operating in exactly the same spot as before and will retain all of its quality and excellent customer service. The place was closed down in January when Yarkaya Zvezda, the franchise holder, announced several of its outlets would have to go into liquidation, including the one in Yekaterinburg. This had to with the country’s economic instability. The franchise was then purchased by another company which had the

February 20, 2015. Yekaterinburg rental market hasn’t had any shortage of supply for a while now, Guram Tukhashvili of Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytic Center told UrBC. ‘According to the Chamber’s database, the rental prices have been going down lately. As early as two years ago, the median monthly rent came to 33,000 RUR and now it only stands at about 22,000 RUR. Quite a few new apartment buildings are put up in Yekaterinburg every year, so the supply is increasingly on the rise,’ Tukhashvili says. He believes the demand is gradually going down since some families who used to have to

February 20, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is going to present its promising special vehicles at the International Defence Exhibition in Abu Dhabi this year, the corporation’s press service reports. The corporation’s two-floor, 185-m2 stand will be complemented by an upgraded T90C tank. The vehicle will be presented with a number of new options that are based on the latest trends in the armored vehicle industry and that make the tank fit for the area’s climatic conditions. ‘The display will be a static show with a set of presentations; this means the customers will be able to get

February 20, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is going to consider Severnaya Agricultural Firm’s insolvency application submitted by Elektrotechnologii. The application was placed with the court on February 16. The defendant was founded on November 14, 2007 and is now managed by Oleg Khan. The company is now involved in a number of lawsuits as a defendant, with the total amount of claims reaching 1.3bn RUR. The debts are to be paid by Severnaya itself, Uralbroiler Yekateirnburg, and other businesses owned by Oleg and Olessya Khan. Sberbank of Russia seized all of the agricultural

February 20, 2015. ChTPZ Group and seven Kazakhstan-based industrial schools signed cooperation agreements under the auspices of ROST-ORLEU Association, the Group’s press service reports. The ceremony took place at Karaganda Polytechnic School; the papers were signed by the Association’s current members and heads of seven more educational establishments: North Kazakhstan Vocational Teachers’ Training College, Petropavlovsk Railway Transport School, Atyrau Polytechnic School, Kazakhmys Polytechnic School, Shaktinsk Technological School, Bolashak/Karaganda Up-to-Date Education School, and

February 19, 2015. Nizhniy Tagil’s Sputnik, a hockey club sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Corporation, is now eligible to enter the Supreme Hockey League’s play off. ‘This was possible due to beating the league’s front-runner, Saryarkoy from Kazakhstan. Sputnik was 24th out of 26 teams last year, but this time its overall ranking is one of the best,’ the corporation’s press service says. Chairman of Sputnik’s board of trustees Alexei Zharich congratulated the team and their manager on the season’s victory and said he hoped they would fight hard in the play off. ‘Following the last season’s

February 19, 2015. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development added a new option to its range of e-banking services: customers can now view the schedule of interest payment or capitalization for their remotely controlled savings deposits (namely, Profitable, Advantageous, Manageable, and Paycheck), the bank’s press service reports. The schedule provides dates on which the interest is paid, the interest rate for the given deposit period, and the amount of interest paid. This new option means the bank’s customers can check how much profit they’ve made and when the next payment is due at

February 19, 2015. The turnover of goods at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport’s customs points declined by 20% this year compared with the beginning of 2014, the Customs’ head Sergey Abrosimov announced at a press conference. He added the international passenger traffic shrank even more drastically, by as much as 35%. ‘Nevertheless, we expect the passenger traffic figures to recover by the middle of the year, primarily thanks to travelers going on their vacations, as migrant workers have remained a considerable part of the overall international passenger statistics,’ he pointed out. As for

February 19, 2015. 13% of Yekaterinburg businesses are planning to offer their employees a pay raise this year, HeadHunter’s research team states. Under 5% of companies intend to reduce their workers’ pay, and 45% expect their staff salaries to remain unchanged. However, even those employers that do plan on pay raises are only prepared for this raise to be under 10%. Quite a few companies (36%) say they haven’t made up their minds yet and will have to play it by ear. Interestingly, middle-level managers are the ones at risk as far as a pay decrease is concerned: if a business does go through

February 19, 2015. The arrears of wages went up by 22.8%, or by 457m RUR in January 2015, Rossiyskaya Gazeta refers to Rosstat as stating. As of February 1, 2015, Russian employers owed salaries and wages to 71,000 workers. For one, the arrears rose by 14 times due to the fact that money was not delivered from the government budget funds in time. The overall amount of wage arrears came to less than 1% of the consolidated one month’s pay of a working citizen. 44% of this money is owed by employers in the processing sector, 15% by those in the construction industry, 11% by those in the