October 24, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court imposed a 50,000-ruble fine on McDonald’s outlet located at 8V Vosmoye Marta St in Yekaterinburg, the court’s press office informed UrBC. ‘The claim against the fast food chain was laid by Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog). The court is now processing two more claims against McDonald’s, both involving the outlet at 106 Chelyuskintsev St. The court hearings will be held on November 5 and 10,’ the press office says. Now Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg complied with Rospotrebnadzor’s

October 24, 2014. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) is presenting its produce at the 15th international exhibition called Customs Service 2014 at Expocenter in Moscow on October 22-23. The plant’s exhibits make part of Yekaterinburg Customs’ stand, ChTPZ Group’s press service says. The exhibition features samples of general-purpose hot-worked tubes of varying diameters as well as tubes for making couplings. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant exports its products to over twenty different countries. Its foreign partners keep buying hot- and cold-worked tubes, boiler tubes,

October 24, 2014. A worker was killed at Magnetitovaya Mine as a result of rock fall, Sverdlovsk Region Main Administration for the Ministry of Emergencies’ press service reports. The administration was informed of the rock fall at 9:40 AM (Moscow time) today. One person was killed because of this accident. According to the press service, a nine-people team from the federal firefighting service of Nizhniy Tagil, rescue men, and an ambulance crew arrived to work at the scene. Magnetitogaya iron ore mine used to be owned by Evraz Group; the mine belongs to NPRO Ural now.

October 24, 2014. Cheese prices rose by 20% to 46% in Ural Federal Distirct, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. Yet the official doesn’t believe the rest of the food prices will follow suit. ‘There aren’t any grounds for food prices to increase; an ad hoc committee is now active in every federal constituency that monitors prices of staple foods and commodities. I can confidently say that bread prices are looking good now. We did see an increase in cheese prices of 20% to

October 23, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Trade Union Federation’s Labor Rights Inspection carried out a scheduled inspection of Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation). According to the corporation’s press service, the inspectors looked into whether the company’s social-labor relations comply with the Labor Code requirements. ‘The inspectors visited the production departments, the HR Department, the law office, the Labor Protection & Safety Regulations Department, and the Director-General’s office. They were interested in the keeping of employees’

October 23, 2014. Prices on Yekaterinburg existing homes market declined by 0.2% in the last two months, while real estate prices actually rose by 4.1% against the beginning of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s Analytical Center reports. As of October 20, the median price of a square meter of a home available for purchase in Yekaterinburg reached 75,740 RUR. The number of apartments in the Chamber’s database has gone up by 36% since early April: this comes to over 2,600 extra apartments. As a result, the existing homes market supply reached its six-year high: there are currently 10,000

October 23, 2014. The amount of wages owed by Sverdlovsk Region-based employers to their workers rose by nearly 4.7 times in January-September 2014 compared with January-September 2013, head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal State Statistics Service Elena Kutina announced at a press conference. ‘This is the greatest figure among all of Ural Federal District’s constituencies. As for Russia on the whole, the increase in the arrears of wages came to 20.1% I’d like to stress that the median monthly pay in Sverdlovsk Region currently comes to 29,039 RUR, which is 7.6% more than at the

October 23, 2014. The number of vacancies available in Yekaterinburg declined by 6% in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the third quarter of 2013, HeadHunter Urals’ press service reports. ‘It should be noted that in other parts of the Urals, in Chelyabinsk and Perm, for example, the number of job openings actually went up by 25%and 31%, respectively. As for the number of CVs submitted by applicants, this increased by 28% in Q3’14 compared with a year earlier,’ the press service says. In the third quarter of the year, the demand for new workforce was the strongest in sales (27% of all

October 23, 2014. Russia is now No.1 on the list of countries most frequently suffering from hacking attacks through Trojans connected to m-banking services. According to the company’s experts, 91% of such hacking attempts are targeted against Russia-based users. In fact, the number of instances where mobile banking Trojans were involved rose by 14 times over the last twelve months. Besides, 64% of hacking attempts to do with SMS Trojans hit Russian users as well; what these Trojans do is send short fee-charging messages to premium numbers without the phone owner’s knowledge.

October 22, 2014. The 13th International Steel-Smelters Congress was held at Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company), the company’s press service reports. The forum was organized by Association of Steel-Smelters, an interregional NGO, and Pipe Metallurgical Company. STZ, one of the leading steel-smelting businesses, was chosen as the congress site for a reason. STZ workers carried out a full-scale reconstruction of the plant’s steel-smelting facilities and did a lot of scientific research. They were thus able to share their experience with the fellow

October 22, 2014. Consumer prices of goods and services in Sverdlovsk Region went up by 6.1% in September 2014 compared with December 2013. In contrast to this, the difference between prices in September 2013 and December 2012 was around 5.4%, Sverdlovskstat’s official data state. The overall increase in food item prices, including the price of alcohol produce, was more noticeable than that of a year earlier (8.9% against 4%). Food items, when looked at without the alcohol produce, became 8.7% more expensive, with most groceries affected. Milk and dairy products prices rose by 10.9% to 22.2%,

October 22, 2014. ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) celebrated the 30th anniversary of the day the plant’s millionth tractor left the assembly line, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. ‘A special event dedicated to the anniversary was organized at the company museum. The evening was hosted by the museum workers and members of the plant’s Home Climate Club that unites some fifty families of the tank-making plant’s workers,’ the press service says. A long-service machine-builder and ChTZ Honored Worker, holder of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Nikolai

October 22, 2014. According to Rosstat, the official unemployment rate in Sverdlovsk Region stood at 6.1% in the second week of September. 69% of the local population (2,268,700 people) are economically active and 64.8% (2,130,000 people) are currently employed. 138,700 people are unemployed at the moment.

October 22, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and Klyuchevsk Ferrous Alloys Works (a member enterprise of MidUralGroup) signed a $5m loan contract, which means the total amount of funds available through credit lines now reaches $20m. The money will be directed to financing of the company’s working capital, the bank’s press service reports. The UBRD has been doing business with the MidUralGroup member enterprises since 2010. The group relies on the bank’s credit lines, leasing options, and guarantees to the accounts of fiscal authorities, the Federal Customs

October 21, 2014. Czech Airlines might reduce the number of Prague-Yekaterinburg flights planned for this winter, Kommersant refers to the airline’s press service as saying. Fewer flights will be operated to Samara, Saint Petersburg, Rostov, and Ufa as well, while Perm-Prague flights will be cancelled even before the New Year recess. According to the Czech media, low demand for Europe-bound flights is behind the air carrier’s decision. Koltsovo Airport’s press service reports no information regarding a reduction in the number of Czech Airlines’ flights has been provided yet.

October 21, 2014. Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC) is planning to get one third of its $5bn debt refinanced in 2015, Prime refers to the company’s Director-General Andrei Kozitsin as saying. Kozitsin explained the company’s primary creditors are Sberbank, Gazprombank, and VTB. ‘We have no intention of borrowing through public offerings. Our debts to the three banks amount to around $5bn, including $1bn owed by Kuzbassrazrezugol. We keep working on our refinancing schemes and the long- and short- term money options. Next year, slightly less than a third of the sum total will be

October 21, 2014. The all-pervading snow and cold temperatures in Sverdlovsk Region are making harvesting very difficult to complete, Sverdlovsk Region Food & Agriculture Ministry reports. ‘The fields are full of snow, and our vehicles can’t operate there. We do hope the snow melts and we’ll be able to gather some of the remaining crops and vegetables off the frozen ground,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Food & Agriculture Minister Mikhail Kopytov. According to Kopytov, things look the glummest in terms of crop harvesting: 15% of the total yield, or 55,000 hectares, are still out there in

October 21, 2014. Some offenses were detected in 89.8% of cases cash-register equipment was used in Sverdlovsk Region in the three quarters of 2014. A year earlier, the figure stood at 78.8%, Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Tax Service says. As of October 1, 2014, 84,778 till equipment units have been registered with Sverdlovsk Region’s fiscal bodies. In the nine months of 2014, the local fiscal authorities coordinated 2,827 inspections (15.2%, or 373 inspections more than a year earlier), including 2,220 checks of how the equipment is applied, 455 checks of completeness of the

October 21, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is complying with its obligations to bondholders in accordance with all the statutory documentation, the bank’s press service reports. The bank proceeded with the third coupon payments on its BO 05 bonds: investors were paid a total of 117.18m RUR (58.59 RUR per share). There 2m BO 05 bonds (total face value 2bn RUR) currently in circulation. The third and fourth coupon rate was set at 11.75% a year (58.59 RUR per 1,000-ruble bond); the next coupon payment on BO 05 bonds is scheduled for April, upon which a buy-out offer

October 20, 2014. ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) shipped its DET 250 bulldozer to one of Kazakhstan’s energy sector enterprises, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. ‘This is actually the third DET that has been delivered to this neighboring country this year. Diesel electric tractors get bought not only by Kazakh energy sector companies but also by ore mining and processing enterprises. Shipments have been handled with the help of Spets Avto from Shimkent. The same dealer actually shipped four B10M bulldozers with elastic couplings to