September 3, 2013. VUZ-Bank (a member of Life Financial Group) offered new package plans to its corporates to make the enterprises’ settlement transactions even less costly. The bank’s press service reports that the package comprises the most popular cash and settlement transaction services. A customer can now save money and plan all expenses in advance. It’s cheaper to buy services in a package rather than pay for each one separately: a fixed monthly price means a whole range of different services and a 25% discount. These package offers contain a certain number of payment transactions (both

September 3, 2013. A railway carriage full of coal got derailed at Kunavino station of Kamensk, Sverdlovsk Region, the local division of the Emergencies Ministry reports. The information regarding a derailed carriage was delivered to the duty officer’s control board at 12:15 AM, and the emergency teams and an emergency train were sent to the scene of the accident at once. The derailing incident did not affect the timetable in any way. Passenger trains keep passing through Bogdanovitch Station in the normal mode.

September 3, 2013. Ural Airlines is launching a ticket sale on flights operated from Moscow to one of Germany’s oldest cities, Cologne. Throughout September, round trip tickets from Moscow to Cologne and back are available for ?130, including all the fees. The special price is offered on flights operated between October 1 and December 15, 2013, the airline’s press service reports. ‘If you travel to Cologne in November, you can actually witness a very interesting phenomenon: at 11:11 AM on November 11, the 5th season is officially announced in Cologne, just like in the rest of Germany. This is

September 3, 2013. A grand modernization project involving one of the city’s largest sports and concert hall – Arena Avtomobilist Ice Palace – took off in Yekaterinburg. The project is estimated to require 1.5bn RUR worth of investments. Delovoy Dom na Arkhiyereyskoy Management Company acts as the project’s primary investor, Arena Avtomobilist’s press service reports. The reconstruction jobs are expected to take 3 years to complete. The project is believed to pay off in twelve to fifteen years. ‘Most of the money will be directed to putting up an extension to the building of Uralets Hockey

September 2, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the leading suppliers of pipes and tubes for the oil and gas industry, got an official notification from Abu Dhabi Company for Offshore Oil Operations (ADCO) to the extent that TMK’s Volzhsky Pipe Plant is now the approved supplier of pipes with TMK PF premium joint threads for the company, TMK’s press service reports. ‘In 2012, TMK delivered its lining tubes with premium threads produced at Volzhsky and some accessories to ADCO for the first time. The shipment comprised lining tubes with the diameter of 7” (177.8mm) with TMK PF

September 2, 2013. The transport freight turnover of organizations and companies based in Sverdlovsk Region amounted to 123.1bn ton-kilometers in January-July 2013, which was 1% less than a year earlier (and 0.9% less than the average figure for the Russian Federation), the region’s Economic Ministry’s press service reports. It should be noted that a decrease in the freight turnover was noticeable for all kinds of transport except for the automobile and inland water one: the figures for the automobile-based freight turnover rose by 6.1% on January-July 2012, those for the inland water

September 2, 2013. Throughout the summer, the mobile carrier MegaFon improved the mobile connection quality as well as increased the speed of 3G Internet connection in 31 towns and cities of Sverdlovsk Region where 250,000 people are based altogether. According to the company’s press service, 85% of Sverdlovsk Region’s population are already located in MegaFon’s stable connection zone. The quality of connection was made better in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil, Sysert, Asbest, Kamens-Uralsky, Verkhnyaya Salda, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Pervouralsk, Aramil, Serov, Rezh, Novouralsk, Krasnoturyinsk,

September 2, 2013. The international rating agency Standard & Poor’s affirmed Sverdlovsk Region’s credit rating at BB+, Interfax reports. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The agency expects a certain drop in the financial indicators due to a slower increase in tax revenues and greater expenses occasioned by the federal authorities’ requirements. S&P believes, however, that these factors will only have a moderate impact on the rating. Stable Outlook reflects the agency’s opinion that the careful spending policy and the economic recovery after 2013 will probably be balanced off with an

September 2, 2013. SKB-Bank got more than 10,000 loan applications in one week, including applications from parents who are sending their children to school. The bank’s press officer reports that the beginning of the fall is typically one of the most expense-loaded periods of the year. ‘People are coming back from their vacations, getting new cars, furniture, and home appliances and sending their children to school. This is why late August and early September is the time when increasingly more people apply for a loan,’ the press officer explains. According to the Public Opinion Fund, 90% of