April 18, 2013. ZAO Astais is going to present its fortified multi-purpose KAMAZ-based truck meant for passenger transportation at the 9th International Arms, Military Vehicles, and Ammunition Exhibition Russia Arms EXPO 2013 (RAE 2013); the event is coordinated by Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, the corporation’s press service reports. This new vehicle, designed in Naberezhniye Chelny, is fitted with a life support and an anti-killing agent systems that meets Class A Protection requirements (GOST 50963-96), which guarantees that soldiers inside will be safe from a

April 18, 2013. This year, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation will keep on developing its social partnership with the schools from Nizhniy Tagil’s Dzerzhinsky District. By the end of May, all of the district’s 20 schools will receive financial aid from the corporation’s head plant, the corporation’s press officer reports. Just like last year, Uralvagonzavod allocated 400,000 RUR to each of the schools, to be spent on current repairs and renovating the schools for the new school year. Besides, every school will be given an additional 100,000 RUR to finance the participation

April 18, 2013. Ural Airlines is offering the Great Patriotic War veterans its usual May gift this month: the veterans are entitled to a free trip from hero-cities Moscow and Saint Petersburg and back, and people who accompany them get a 90% discount on the basic economy class fare, the airline’s press service reports. ‘This is not the first time Ural Airlines is launching this special offer. A chance to see one’s close friends and wartime comrades is the best gift one can get on Victory Day,’ the company’s press release says. Free tickets are available for the following flights:

April 18, 2013. About 90% of those who applied for their Work and Travel USA visa to the Consulate (the interviews are held every Thursday starting March 14) were refused a visa. This amounts to 1,700 out of 2,000 applicants. Russian citizens thus lost over $1.5. The consulate does not offer any sound reasons for refusing the applicants, Association of Russian Tour Operators reports. According to the tour operators’ estimates, the number of Russian college students’ rejected applications was also great last year: 35% to 40% of all the applications were actually turned down. However, this year

April 18, 2013. Ural Diesel Engine Plant (UDMZ, a member of Sinara Transport Machines Holding) and Austria-based engineering company AVL completed their project on the upgrades of 8DM-21L diesel engine for locomotives. Prior to signing the documents to close the contract, AVL experts did some final measurements of the diesel’s technical specifications, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The Austrian party’s project manager Gert Koren said the engine fully met the target indicators set out in the 8DM-21L diesel engine upgrade contract. What is more, the plant did not have to stretch the engine

April 17, 2013. Perm Territory Arbitration Court ruled that a claim by UBT-Uralvagonzavod regarding an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders at Motovilikhinskiye Zavody should be sustained. The plaintiff is now responsible for preparing and holding the EGM, UBT-Uralvagonzavod’s press officer reports. The court also ruled that Motovilikhinskiye Zavody’s bookrunner Registrator Intraco CJSC should act as the counting board. It is reported that on April 16, 2013, an appeal placed by Motovilikhinskiye Zavody was considered in court. As a result, the court did not change its prior ruling

April 17, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is now the primary partner of ARMADA Paracycling Team Russia Project on setting up Russia’s first Paralympics cycling team, the corporation’s press service reports. The project is unique in that its raison d’être is making paracycling and Paralympics more popular and appealing in Russia as well as developing this sport, the corporation’s press release states. The project aims not so much to promote a healthier lifestyle to people with disabilities as to change the society’s stereotypes about people with disabilities.

April 17, 2013. A professional skills contest dubbed Turner of the Year 2013; the contest is aimed at enhancing the prestige of blue-collar jobs and was coordinated among the lathe operators of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation), the corporation’s press service reports. The contest was organized by the Personnel Training Center from Chelyabinsk Mechanics & Technology Vocational School. 12 people from the Engineer Vehicles Production Department, the Foundry & Castings Department, the Diesel Engine Department, the Engineer Equipment Department, and from

April 17, 2013. Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for March 2013. The company offered its services to 729,999 passengers in January-March 2013 and operated 6,399 flights, including 1,857 international flights, 2,988 domestic flights, and 1,554 flights around the CIS. Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic rose by 25% in the three months of 2013 compared with the first quarter of 2012. The passenger turnover came to 1,967,339,000 passenger-kilometers in Jnauary-March 2013, the airline’s press service reports. In March 2013, Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic increased by 24% against a

April 17, 2013. Over a million private individuals have taken loans from the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development: as of March 1, 2013, the bank issued 1,013,226 loans. This means that since the UBRD started dealing in retail lending in 2004, 115bn RUR worth of loans has been issued to private individuals, the bank’s press service reports. The UBRD’s retail loan book increased by 80% last year and amounted to 36.5bn RUR on January 1, 2013. The demand for express loans has gone up as well: in March, the bank’s POS offices issued 1bn RUR worth of loans, which is a record-setting

April 16, 2013. Intelcom Scientific & Production Center is going to present its newest developments in the field of automatic identification of goods produced by aerospace and machine-building enterprises at the 9th International Arms, Vehicles, and Ammunition Exhibition Russia Arms EXPO 2013 (RAE 2013), Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. The developments in question are a technology for labeling the goods directly with a 2D Data Matrix bar code and icDPM, a special software set. The technology allows a company to label the product as its own,

April 16, 2013. The construction of new mechanical assembly shops is now in progress at Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil. The departments will be making new-generation special vehicles, the corporation’s press service says. This project is being completed within the framework of the federally run program on Russia’s defense industry development in 2013-2020. The facility will cost 1.1bn RUR to build. Under the terms of this federally run program, this is a PPP where a portion of the money is supplied by the government and some part is

April 16, 2013. In order to prevent the local roads from being damaged during the period of unfavorable weather conditions, a temporary ban on driving heavy-haul vehicles on Sverdlovsk Region roads between April 20 and May 20 has been imposed by the authorities, the region’s government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. Under Sverdlovsk Region Government’s decree On a Temporary Ban on Vehicles on Sverdlovsk Region Roads in 2013, the ban is imposed on heavy-haul vehicles every year and reduces the workload on the highway axis considerably, that is, from 11.5 tons down to 8

April 16, 2013. International hotel chains are expected to break into Yekaterinburg market soon: according to the findings of a research conducted by Ural-Hermes Consultant Company, the city is growing increasingly appealing for international investors from the hotel industry. A number of international chains will probably set up their hotels here by 2020. In fact, such chains as the four- and five-star Kempinski, Hilton, Radisson, and Sheraton have already announced their plans to build their hotels in Yekaterinburg in 2013-2020. At the moment, such international chains as Rezidor (Park

April 16, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry closed its tender last month, on March 11, 2013. Put to auction were three lots that would give the winning bidders an opportunity to open and administer deposit accounts where the regional budget’s money would be kept, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s press officer reports. The UBRD actually won as many as two lots, for 1.5bn RUR and 2bn RUR. These government contracts are valid for 12 months, with the first, 2bn-RUR tranche moved into the bank’s accounts on April 1, 2013. ‘The UBRD has once again won in an auction

April 15, 2013. An arts exhibition with works by the local art studio members was opened at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant’s Palace of Culture to celebrate the plant’s 80th anniversary, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The exhibition is two-fold and comprises the retro-graphic works by the studio artists that picture the images of the last century’s tractor-makers and 19 children’s drawings portraying the plant’s daily life; these were created specifically for the anniversary exhibition. The works have been created by the boys and girls aged 6 to 14. The studio teachers Irina

April 15, 2013. A clearly set preparation strategy that would cover both the technical and the socio-psychological issues is needed for the successful organization of EXPO 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Deputy Mayor for National & International Events Coordination Sergey Tushin said at the meeting of the Russian Federation Union of Municipal Representative Bodies’ Coordination Committee. ‘The strategy needs to be elaborated by all of Sverdlovsk Region’s municipalities, which will attract important international events into the area. In fact, this is already happening. There is a certain logic for

April 15, 2013. Three of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s member enterprises (UKBTM, Uralcryomash, Uralvagonzavod), and two of its daughter companies (UBT-Ekologiya and UBT Service) located in Nizhniy Tagil decided officially to sponsor the kindergartens located in the city’s Dzerzhinsky district. Every kindergarten there is now sponsored by one or several subdivisions of the said enterprises. The first meeting where kindergarten directors and sponsor representatives got together was dedicated to cooperation and tasks for 2103, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Taking care of

April 15, 2013. Expert Rating Agency’s analysts came up with the rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of the loan book on sole traders in 2012. The rating featured 30 banks, with average loan book growth at 40% a year, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. Nevertheless, the banks that have proved very successful with lending to sole traders, enjoyed a much faster portfolio growth. As for SKB-Bank, their sole traders loan book rose by 71.7% last year and came to 15.17bn RUR, which secured the bank the 4th position in the national rating: it was only outstripped by Sberbank, Rosselkhozbank,

April 15, 2013. The final tour of Sverdlovsk Region standup comedy student contest known as the Club of the Funny and the Inventive took place at Yekaterinburg Youth Palace on April 10. Timber-Harvesting Lumberjacks from Ural State Forest Engineering University took the first prize, the second prize went to Voices from Ural Federal University, and The Swing from Mining University came third. VUZ-Bank, which sponsored the event, saw to it that all those present had not only a good but also a useful time. The bank offered some discounts and jobs to the students, VUZ-Bank’s press service