September 9, 2013. MegaFon announces the start of doing business with the creative agency Leo Burnett Moscow. The mobile carrier’s press service reports that under the terms of the contract, Leo Burnett Moscow is to develop creative components for the company’s PR on the mass market. The first project is a new advertizing campaign with endorsement by Ivan Urgant; the campaign is centered around MegaFon’s extra-speedy mobile Internet connection. The telecommunications provider’s Strategic Marketing Director Anastassia Orkina says MegaFon is a daring and ambitious brand. ‘We have plenty of

September 9, 2013. Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) helped the schools it patronizes to get ready for the new school year, the company’s press service reports. The company’s departments and restructured divisions support six schools in the northern part of Polevskoy and three village schools. Every summer, the plant workers help the schools do some remodeling. This year, 3,000 kg of cement, 3,500 kg of sand, 5,000 kg of paint, 6,000 kg of enamel coating, and 2,400 sq m of linoleum were allocated to the schools. The plant worker also inspected and renovated

September 9, 2013. A traditional professional skills contest called Sinara’s Young Talents was held at Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK), the company’s press service reports. ‘The contestants presented their performances reflective of their personal gifts and creative abilities on the stage of the local Palace of Culture. They showed both vocal and choreographic talents as well as original acts in the stand-up comedy and acrobatic styles,’ the press release says. The first prizes went to metal classifier from the OCTG T-4 Department Anna Kamarut and pipe

September 6, 2013. The consumer goods and services prices went up by 0.2% in Sverdlovsk Region and by 4.5% since the beginning of the year, Sverdlovskstat’s website states. Non-food items rose by 0.8% on average last month and by 3.1% compared with the start of the year, services became 0.2% more expensive in August and by 8% more expensive than in January; the price of alcohol rose by 0.9% (12.2% compared with January); other food items actually became 0.8% less expensive on average in August, but, compared with the start of the year, their price actually increased by 2.2%.

September 6, 2013. Ural Federal University (UFU) was given the 15th position in the rating of Russian colleges n 2013. According to Expert RA Rating Agency, UFU is now four points higher on the scale than last year. UFU is mainly outstripped by Moscow-based colleges, yet there are also some colleges based in other Russian cities among the top 14 ahead of it. For one, these are Tomsk National Research State University (14th position), Novosibirsk National Research State University (8th place), and National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (7th place). M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State

September 6, 2013. Ural Diesel Engine Plant (UDMZ, a member of Sinara Transport Machines) successfully completed the development and engineering jobs and acceptance tests for the experimental make of the 12DM-21L diesel that is meant to be used as a power unit for the TG16M main line locomotive on Sakhalin Railways (rail gage 1,067 mm), Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. Sinara Group and Russian Railways signed a contract for the delivery of the TG16M locos in May 2012. Under the contract, Sinara Transport Machines promised to make and ship 40 TG16M main line locos to Russian Railways by 2016.

September 6, 2013. SKB-Bank got on the list of Russia’s top 20 banks in terms of the number of ATMs it operates, RBC Rating’s data indicate. The number of SKB-Bank’s own ATMs now comes to 630. Throughout last year, SKB-Bank invested in both installing new cash machines and replacing the older makes with the newer models. RBC Rating analysts also compared Russian banks in terms of the number of their own POS terminals. SKB-Bank added 38 new terminals to its network last year, so now the bank’s customers can use 250 terminals all over the country. These achievements made it possible for

September 6, 2013. ChTPZ Group’s Organizational Development Director Tatiana Kozhevnikova is going to become a speaker at the international car-making and car parts production forum AutoEvolution 2013 in Russia; the forum is coordinated by Vedomosti, with some support from the Industry & Trade Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry. The event will be held in Kaluga on September 5-7, the spokesperson for ChTPZ reports. Kozhevnikova is going to give a speech at the session dedicated to cadre training and retraining and creating an educational infrastructure in the production

September 4, 2013. Yekaterinburg’s industrial production index grew by 12.8% in January-July 2013 compared to a year earlier. The city council’s press service reports that Yekaterinburg still delivers increasingly more local goods, work, and services to consumers in the processing industries. The growth rate actually even rose by 18.8% in January-July 2013 against January-July 2012. As a result of this positive development trend, the volume of locally produced goods delivered to consumers went up. In July 2013 alone, 17.7bn RUR worth of goods was delivered to consumers. The figures were the

September 4, 2013. The number of apartments available for sale on Yekaterinburg existing homes market decreased by 6% compared with the beginning of the summer. At the moment, according to the Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s database, some 8,750 apartments are now put up for sale by various estate agents. According to the Chamber’s Analytics Department, the average price of a square meter of housing in Yekaterinburg came to 71,191 RUR on September 2, 2013. In July and August, the market kept up a slightly pronounced positive trend: the figure went up by 0.6% in the last four weeks and by 1.5%

September 4, 2013. SKB-Bank came up with the results of the second round of its special offer called ‘Milan, Diamonds, and a Fur Coat for a Purchase!’ The bank’s press service reports that Elena Kutyukhina, SKB-Bank’s customer from the branch in Yugorsk, won a certificate entitling her to a flight from Moscow to Milan and back and a five-day stay in one the hotels located in the Italian shopping capital. The new special offer involves all of Zapaska cardholders automatically and was launched in February. There are three rounds to the offer, with a winner determined at every stage: the prize

September 4, 2013. Operation Illegal Migrant carried out in Sverdlovsk Region on August 12-28 resulted in revealing 1,849 instances of migration legislation violations, head of Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s District Police Officers Department Stanislav Kolesnik announced at a press conference today. ‘In the course of the operation, police officers and representatives of other law-enforcement agencies inspected 2,926 employers and 8,696 foreign subjects and detected 795 violations of migration regime, 407 cases of illegal use of foreign labor, and 647 other

September 4, 2013. Bank Koltso Urala’s experts believe that Russia’s 64th position in the rating of the world economies’ competitiveness has to do with an improvement in the country’s macroeconomic indicators. A competitiveness rating of the world’s economies in 2013-2014 was published at the World Economic Forum in Davos; Russia moved three points up on last year, outstripping Sri Lanka, Rwanda, and Montenegro. The first three places in the rating are still given to Switzerland (the rating leader of five years), Singapore, and France; these are followed by Germany and the USA (which went up

September 5, 2013. Under the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin’s decree, BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and President of MMK Management Company Viktor Rashnikov was awarded the 2nd degree Order For Merit to the Fatherland. Head of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works was given this high-profile award in recognition of his many years’ conscientious performance and great contribution to the development of the metallurgical industry, MMK reports. The large-scale modernization program implemented at MMK over the last decade resulted in the metallurgical

September 4, 2013. ChTPZ Group’s company medical unit called The Entire Medicine celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The company’s press service reports the unit, set up at the initiative of ChTPZ Group shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov in Chelyabinsk and then in Pervouralsk as well, are now reputed, reliable, modern, and comfortable medical establishments available to large audiences. ‘This is definitely thanks to the highly skilled team of like-minded work partners: doctors, nurses, and all those who take daily care to maintain and improve the health of every patient.

September 4, 2013. 6 new hotels will be launched in Yekaterinburg by 2018, acting deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Consumer Market & Services Issues Vladimir Bolikov said during the Open Studio TV program. According to Bolikov, to make sure Yekaterinburg can nicely host the World Cup 2018 games, 7,760 hotel rooms will be needed (6,000 of which will be for the fans). ‘After these new hotels have been launched, we can feel safe about welcoming all our guests in Yekaterinburg,’ he said. There are currently 109 hotels operating in Yekaterinburg, and, as Bolikov explains, their ‘commercial

September 4, 2013. 468.5m RUR was allocated from local and federal budgets to get Yekaterinburg schools ready for new school year. The spokesperson for the city council says about 123,000 schoolchildren, including 13,000 first-graders, went to 167 schools this year. ‘Every year, the municipal authorities build at least one new school and restore two existing ones. This year, four schools were opened in the city: a new one No. 19 in Leninsky District, two renovated schools 88 and 155 in Kirovsky and Zheleznodorozhny Districts, respectively, and School 184 that moved from an old building to a

September 4, 2013. The first verdict of ‘guilty’ was pronounced upon the accused involved in a criminal case relating to illegal registration of immigrants in the so-called ‘indiarubber apartment’. The verdict was pronounced in Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court of Yekaterinburg. The press officer of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Internal Affairs Ministry reports the police officers determined that a 57-year-old Yekaterinburg resident, originally from Kyrgyzstan, helped his compatriots – 52 Kyrgyz citizens, 2 citizens of Uzbekistan, and 2 Azerbaijan subjects – get a local registration in

September 4, 2013. According to Sverdlovsk Region Agriculture Ministry, there are only 1.4 cafes/restaurants per 1,000 residents in Yekaterinburg, and the rate at which such places open in the city has been going down for the last four years despite the stably high demand. What is more, while the number of restaurants with a medium-range check is on the increase, the upmarket restaurants are now converting into clubs and gradually closing down. At the same time, experts say the Italian, Japanese, and Uzbek cuisine restaurants that are all located close to one another tend to prevail on the

September 3, 2013. A laser technologies center might be built in Sverdlovsk Region. The representatives of APG Gropp talked to the local Industry & Science Minister Vladislav Pinayev about the possibility of setting up such a center on the premises of Regional Metal Sheet-Working Center, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. According to the Director-General of Ire-Poluys (a member of APG Gropp) Nikolai Yevtikiyev, the center’s primary function will consist in introducing laser technologies to the local enterprises’ production chain. ‘We are