February 4, 2014. Court officers of Yekaterinburg made Pegas-Yekaterinburg pay a Tyumen resident over 400,000 RUR: her vacation had to be canceled due to the tour operator's fault, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia's Federal Service of Court Officers reports. It was detected in the course of the court hearing that the woman booked a tour to the United Arab Emirates for herself, her son, and her niece. The tour cost more than 200,000 RUR. However, the customer was unable to leave because Pegas-Yekaterinburg did not get the visas ready on time. The tour operator suggested the woman

February 4, 2014. The accumulated fees of insurance companies located in Sverdlovsk Region will come to 22.3bn RUR in 2013 (excluding the obligatory medical insurance payments). The local insurance market growth is to slow down to 10.7% a year compared with 30.7% a year earlier, SOGAZ Insurance Group's Analytic Research & Market Forecast Center reports. 'According to our forecasts, slower growth will become noticeable in nearly all the large market segments. For one, life insurance market is now growing 35.7% a year rather than 52.3% a year. What is more, a decline occurred in

February 4, 2014. The international company NAI Becar came up with a rating of largest projects on satellite towns in Russia. Academic District of Yekaterinburg came second, only preceded by Moscow's A101, RBC reports. Analysts also report that housing sales in Academic are now at their all-time high, which has to do with the fact that the district is nearly complete, is integrated into existing facilities, and has developed infrastructure. Among the top ten projects were the ones with the total housing area of 40m sq m and expected number of residents of 1.2m people. 'There are

February 4, 2014. The first fuel assembly has been charged into BN-800 reactor of Power Generating Unit 4 of Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station, the station's Information & PR Center reports. The start-up neutron source was installed in the reactor's active area the other day; it is meant for controlling the neutron current. Charging the first fuel assembly is one of the key stages, a certain psychological benchmark that signifies the start of the reactor's life,' says Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station's Deputy Chief Engineer Valeriy Shamansky. The launch of the

February 4, 2014. A thank-you letter from Nizhniy Novgorod Department of Sports, Culture, and Youth Policy was given to the Director-General of Burevestnik Scientific Research Institute Georgiy Zakamennykh for taking part in the local charity event called Everything Is in Your Hands. The slogan for the campaign ran, 'Don't Abandon Your Children', Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service reports. The charity thing included the institute employees collecting and transferring to the charity fund a lot of children's clothes and shoes, toys, books, and other necessary

February 3, 2014. Novouralsk-based AMUR Car Factory made 9m RUR in 2013 from selling its assets by auctions organized by the company itself, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Industry informed UrBC. In the course of the auctions, the factory sold Sberbank of Russia’s shares, two non-residential premises in Novouralsk (7 Promyshlennaya St) and a car parking lot in S. Dudin St. The money thus obtained was directed to paying off the arrears of wages. ‘Sverdlovsk Region authorities keep working on finding a new investor for AMUR Car Factory’s production site. They are negotiating with three leading

February 3, 2014. The arrears of wages at all the businesses and organizations operating in Sverdlovsk Regioncame to 3.6m RUR on January 1, 2014, Head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal State Statistics Service Elena Kutina said at a press conference. ‘It should be noted that this is actually 23.5% less than on December 1, 2013. Compare this with Chelyabinsk Region, where arrears of wages amount to 4.171m RUR; in Kurgan Region, the figure is 1.779m RUR, and Tyumen Region’s companies owe no wages to their employees,’ Kutina said. According to the data supplied by Sverdlovskstat,

February 3, 2014. Ural Airlines is announcing the launch of a new product called Moscow Subscription – a service meant for passengers who often go on business trips from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and back. Moscow Subscription is a multiple ticket with open-ended departure dates that is valid for several business class round trips, the airline’s press service reports. One can buy a subscription for two, four, or eight round trips, and the subscriber can also enjoy an up to 55% discount on the air fare. The first Yekaterinburg-Moscow flight on this subscription has a fixed departure date, while

February 3, 2014. In 2014, Yandex is planning to almost double its R&D office in Yekaterinburg in size, the company’s representative in Ural Federal District Pavel Kozlov announced at a press conference. He pointed out that Yekaterinburg has great cadre potential. He feels there are a lot of talented people here. ‘We are not expanding for reasons of profit. It would actually be more convenient for us to have all the people working in one city, Moscow. However, the other parts of Russia are very rich in gifted people who do not wish to leave their hometowns and their places of residence,’

February 3, 2014. An off-site meeting of Union of Carriage-Makers, a non-commercial partnership of railway vehicles users and manufacturers, took place on the premises of Bezhitsk Steel in Bryansk. According to the press officer of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, over 35 representatives of carriage- and spare parts-making organizations, operator companies, and scientific research institutes took part in the event. Russian Railways were represented by Deputy Head of the Traffic Safety Department Alexander Kosarev and First Deputy Head of Rolling Stock Administration

February 3, 2014. The Economic News Agency has once again come up with a political influence rating of Russian businesspeople and investors by order of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 31 experts ranked 90 candidates on the basis of their achievements in the last quarter of 2013. Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was given the 15th position in the rating of Russia’s Top 50 Most Influential Businesspeople & Investors (the Strong Influence group). This was actually two points better than in the fourth quarter of 2012. The newspaper reports MMK Chairman was given a

February 3, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the prestigious, independent Golden Miner Prize in the Company category. The company was awarded an honorary diploma for media communications development in 2013. The prize coordinators commented on MMK’s unprecedented media activity and the great quality of the materials they present, the enterprise reports. The Golden Miner Prize was set up by a major metallurgical newspaper Gornopromyshlennye Vedomosti with some support from Moscow State Mining University. The awarding ceremony took place at the university, during the plenary