November 20, 2013. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu thanked Uralvagonzavod Corporation for holding a tank biathlon tournament, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘In his letter, addressed to the corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko, the minister said: ‘I thank the team of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation for their participation in and coordination of the All-Army Tank Biathlon 2013 Tournament,’ the press release says. The final stage of the contest dedicated to field training of tank T 72B crews was held at the Taman division shooting range in Alabino,

November 19, 2013. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev asked the management of The Mid-Urals Development Corporation to look into ways of setting up an industrial park on the premises of Uralmashzavod’s former foundry production facility, UrBC reporter learned at Sverdlovsk Region Investment Committee meeting. The idea to set up the part was proposed by UMMC Director General Andrei Kozitsin. ‘Half of their plant stands empty, there is water and electricity supply, so why build something somewhere from scratch? There are no funds in the budget to cover for this,’ the head of UMMC

November 19, 2013. The recent Boeing 737 crash in Kazan that took lives of 50 people created an obstacle to Sverdlovsk Region and Boeing’s cooperation plans within the framework of the Titanium Valley Project, the latter’s Director-General Artemy Kyzlasov said at the Sverdlovsk Region Investment Committee meeting today. ‘It’s hard to say how our relationship is going to develop now,’ Kyzlasov said. The aircraft crashed in Kazan during landing yesterday, leaving 50 people – 44 passengers and 6 crew members – dead. The son of Tatarstan’s President Irek Minnikhanov and head of the local division

November 19, 2013. The infrastructure of Yekaterinburg is nearly ready for hosting the four games of the World Football Championship of 2018, Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in his interview to the Euro-Football magazine. The minister said he liked the way preparations of Central Stadium for the event were going; the stadium needs to be reconstructed so as to meet the FIFA requirements. ‘In terms of the rest of its infrastructure, the city is almost ready. I would really like such a big city with great traditions to host the Mundial,’ Mutko said. The minister denied all allegations

November 18, 2013. For the first time in their history, Ural Airlines transferred its 4,000,000th passenger of the year. The new record was set in November; a year ago, the company offered its services to its 3,000,000th passenger that month. This year, the lucky passenger was Yegor Konyukhovsky, who checked in for flight U6 261 from Moscow to Yekaterinburg. The special passenger was welcomed aboard with congratulations and compliemts from the airline. Upon arriving in Yekaterinburg, a premium class automobile was waiting to take Konyukhovsky to Koltsovo Airport’s cozy VIP terminal. Ural

November 18, 2013. Kommersant Publishers will host a multimedia business forum Promkadry dedicated to training cadre for the industrial sector at Digital October Center in Moscow on November 26. ChTPZ Group is one of the forum’s strategic partners and initiators, the company’s press service reports. The enterprise is well known for its vast experience in training highly skilled blue-collar workers. For the third year in a row, ChTPZ Group and Pervouralsk Metallurgical College have been working on a unique project called The Future of White Metallurgy. Over 600 students are studying at the

November 18, 2013. At the moment, UVZ Logistic (a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is operating more than 29,000 railway vehicles, including 21,000 items that are owned by the forwarder. According to the corporation’s press officer, this freight forwarder operates 20,000 all-purpose gondola cars and more than 2,000 innovative railway carriages with increased axial loading. There are also 8,000 tanks. One big advantage of the company’s fleet of vehicles is the fact that the items are new: all of UVZ Logistic’s carriages and tanks are under 3 years old. ‘The company is moving confidently

November 18, 2013. The investigative authorities are now deciding whether criminal proceedings should be instituted regarding the fact that heat supply was interrupted in the southern part of Polevskoy, the spokesperson for public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region reports. The heat and hot water supply stopped at 12:10 PM on November 14 as the supplier, ZAO GAZEX, stopped delivering natural gas to the boiling house of Novaya Energetika. As a result, 190 apartment buildings with a total of 15,000 residents, seven kindergartens, six schools, three hospitals, and an orphanage were

November 18, 2013. The net loss of Uralmashzavod amounted to 2,420,335,000 RUR in the third quarter of 2013, while a year earlier, the figure was 741,907,000 RUR, the company’s quarterly report says. In January-September 2013, the enterprise’s revenue dropped down to 5,175,847,000 RUR against 7,336,188,000 RUR a year earlier.

November 15, 2013. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers a trip from Moscow to Beijing with convenient stopovers in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. Such transit flights are operated through Yekaterinburg on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Wednesdays and through Chelyabinsk on Thursdays. As for the Beijing-Moscow flights, the ones with a stopover in Yekaterinburg are offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and stopovers in Chelyabinsk are available on Fridays, the company’s press service says. A one-way ticket with a stopover in either city costs from ?299. All of Ural Airlines’ flights

November 15, 2013. Yekaterinburg home prices keep rising slightly within the 0.1% to 0.2% a week range. Apartments have grown 3% more expensive since the beginning of the year. According to Ural Chamber of Real Estate, the median price of a square meter of an apartment for sale in Yekaterinburg was 72,201 RUR as of November 11, 2013. Since the start of the year, the number of places for sale has risen by 29%, and the number of rooms in communal apartments offered for sale has gone up by 45%. Over the last three months, the supply in the Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s database has remained

November 15, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (Uraltrac, a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) won a tender for the delivery of two B11 bulldozers to the Sochi division of UES Federal Company, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. The machines have a great mission: to provide uninterrupted power supply for the Sochi Olympics. The bulldozers will become a part of the ‘Olympic Reserve’ of the fleet of vehicles that will be used for the electric mains maintenance in February 2014. The bulldozers will be shipped to their customers this month. UES are preparing their

November 15, 2013. MegaFon’s consolidated profit rose by 8.3% in the first nine months of 2013 compared with a year earlier and amounted to 217.4bn RUR, the telecommunications provider’s financial report says. OIBDA went up by 19.1% since the beginning of the year as well and reached over 102bn RUR; the OIBDA profitability increased by 46.9% against 42.7% in 2012. MegaFon’s net profit rose by 60.8% compared with a year earlier and came to 41.5bn RUR. CAPEX was 23.2bn RUR. The company’s free cash flow was 90bn RUR as of September 30, 2013. In Q3’13, MegaFon’s consolidated profit was 9% more

November 15, 2013. The customs officers of Ural Customs Administration conducted an inspection of over 27,000 documents that proved compliance with all the customs bans and limits and detected 211,420 pirated items, the Administration’s press service reports. The documentary checks revealed 54 documents were invalid; nine of those were presented in the process of declaring footwear, clothing, and furniture at the customs. Measures were taken in all these cases: the declaring party was informed of having produced invalid documentation, and, where necessary, inquiries were sent to the executive

November 14, 2013. Walkbase, an optimization platform for brick-and-mortar shops that got some investments from Projector Venture, a fund run by Yekaterinburg IT entrepreneur Leonid Volkov, attracted another ?3m worth of investments. The money was supplied by SBT Venture Capital and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, former CEO Nokia, Walkbase’s press release says. Walkbase was developed in Finland as a real-world navigation analysis platform that could be used by shopping malls and exhibition centers, for example. ‘The idea behind Walkbase is to give these traditional shops the same opportunities that

November 14, 2013. Ural Airlines offered their services to 3,782 passengers between January 1 and October 31, 2013, which was 26% more than a year earlier. 28,712 flights have been operated since the beginning of the year, including 10,637 international flights, 11,737 domestic flights, and 6,338 flights around the CIS, the airline’s press service reports. The airline’s passenger turnover rose by 23% in the ten months of 2013 against the ten months of 2012 and amounted to 10,028,223,000 passenger-kilometers. In October 2013, Ural Airlines operated 2,973 flights, including 980 international

November 14, 2013. This week, three of Koltso Urala’s branches are celebrating their birthdays: Krasnobrodsky and Novokuznetsky near Kemerovo, and a branch in Surgut. Their ‘consolidated age’ is now ten, the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s branch in the north of Surgut welcomed its first customers on November 12, 2010. For three years, its employees have been working hand in hand with the local residents and get thank-you letters and win professional skills contests all the time. The branch Director Larissa Bogdanova says the secret of their success lies in their team spirit and

November 14, 2013. MegaFon is registering an increase in the mobile Internet traffic at nighttime – the figure rose by 35% over the last month, the company’s press service reports. ‘In October, MegaFon customers downloaded 180,000 gigabytes more data than in September. In many ways, this has to do with the fact that our customers started using the Internet XL option 25% more often. Now this option offers you 25 gigabytes of data during the day and unlimited access during the night,’ says MegaFon Ural’s Mass Market Business Development Director Sergey Alferov. It is the Internet XL option that

November 14, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation plans to take part in the construction of a railway carriage-making plant in Vietnam, the corporation’s press service reports. On November 12, a memorandum on cooperation was signed by Vietnam-Russia Joint Bank and Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation in Hanoi, Vietnam. The ceremony was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang. The memorandum mainly dwells upon cooperation in the implementation of Uralvagonzavod’s joint projects in Vietnam and upon the

November 13, 2013. A new international mail exchange terminal was opened at Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg today. The terminal is located in the freight department. The volume of mail delivered to Koltsovo is expected to go up to 12,000kg a day as soon as December 2013, the Russian Post reports. ‘The new terminal will mean speedier delivery to the addressee (2-3 times faster) as well as more orders and therefore increased economic efficiency for the Russian Post. The creation of this terminal will also become an important part of the relationship developing between Sverdlovsk Region and