November 19, 2014. Europe Cup in hairstyling, makeup, and manicure that was held at Yekaterinburg EXPO International Exhibition Center (2 Expo Boulevard) for the last two days is now over in Yekaterinburg. Contestants from twenty-two Old World countries and other parts of the world arrived to compete in the championship. Over 2,000 visitors from abroad came to the Urals’ capital, including 265 members of competing teams. The contestants said they had been unable to see the city’s landmarks because of a tight schedule, but they intended to spend some time sightseeing when Yekaterinburg hosts

November 18, 2014. Yekaterinburg Central Stadium will close for reconstruction after a football match between the local Ural and Kazan’s Rubin on November 22, the Ural club’s website states. The start of the reconstruction has already been postponed a number of times. First, the stadium was supposed to have closed on September 1. Then, after the FIFA reconsidered its spectator capacity requirements, the date was shifted to September 27. However, Ural Club kept on having home games at the stadium even past this date. As the result of the upcoming reconstruction, Central Stadium will be able to

November 18, 2014. Yekaterinburg came seventh in the rating of Russian cities with the highest living standards, the findings of a research by the Sociology Department of the Financial University under the Russian Federation Government indicate. Tyumen, Moscow, Kazan, Krasnodar, Saint Petersburg, and Chelyabinsk were also among the top seven, while Volgograd, Kurgan, Ulyanovsk, Omsk, Astrakhan, and Togliatti turned out to be cities with poor living standards. The research involved cities with population over 500,000 people, plus two cities with smaller population were added to verify the

November 18, 2014. Since the sale of SEATs on the Russian markets has been halted, the brand’s official dealer in Yekaterinburg Avto Plus SEAT will keep on operating as an after-sales service center, the company’s Marketing Manager Alexander Goldberg told UrBC. ‘Starting from January 1, no new SEATs will be available for purchase in Russia, yet we as dealers keep up with our business as usual: we’ll offer our customers warranty and post-warranty services for the cars they bought earlier. We intend to meet all of our warranty obligations in full. A servicing agreement for 2015 will be signed

November 18, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is now one of Russian companies that supports gifted students applying for colleges abroad: school-leavers who managed to enter a foreign college and plan to get a degree in a popular vocational field can now sign an employment contract with the corporation that will entitle them to some 1.5m RUR from the Russian Government for every year spent studying. This decision was made by the Russian Industry & Trade Ministry, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service says. The company plans to go ahead with these contracts next school year. Students

November 18, 2014. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov met with shareholder and BOD Chairman of ChTPZ Group Alexander Fedorov in Kazan today, the Group’s press service reports. The meeting was also attended by Tatarstan Vice Premier and Industry Minister Ravil Zaripov, Counselor to President of Tatarstan for Economic Issues Irat Khairullin, Tatarstan’s First Deputy Minister for Education & Science Andrei Pominov, ChTPZ Deputy DG Maxim Ignatiev, and Executive Director of OAO Alnas Sergey Sachenko. The officials talked about the ways to develop Almetyevsk-based plant Alnas, the asset

November 18, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the Best Internet Project 2014 Contest that was held among Russia and the CIS-based metallurgical companies and metal traders. The contest was coordinated by the Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt magazine, with support of the Russian Union of Metal Goods Suppliers. The awarding ceremony took place during Metal Expo 2014 International Industrial Exhibition in Moscow. The contest coordinators commented on MMK web portal’s impressive information richness, ease of navigation, and its efficient online services for customers and suppliers.

November 17, 2014. ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to deliver six B10M bulldozers to geophysicists working in Irkutsk Region, the corporation’s press service says. These vehicles with mechanical gear and an engine made at Yaroslavl Motor Plant are fitted with the protection needed for operation within woods. In addition to a steel frame above the cabin that protects the tractor and the driver against falling trees when the vehicle is moving, there are also protective grids on the windows and additional protection on the undercarriage. The bulldozers

November 17, 2014. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) signed a cooperation agreement with the authorities of Saint Petersburg, a city which has the status of an independent federal constituency, TMK’s PR Directorate reports. The paper was signed by Governor of Saint Petersburg Georgiy Poltavchenko and TMK BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyanski. The two parties agreed to share their experience in the field of mastering and launch of advanced technologies and materials for making pipes that will be used by heat suppliers and utilities and housing services departments. Saint Petersburg authorities will

November 17, 2014. On November 13, Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) BOD Member Alexander Filatov made a presentation on ‘White Metallurgy’ as the philosophy of transformation during the Winning the Hearts Conference. The conference was dedicated to management of employee motivation and took place at the Skolkovo School of Management in Moscow on November 13-14, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. ‘Existing research findings indicate that, in addition to managerial assets and investments in upgrades, a clear culture, philosophy, and shared values are key to a company’s success. True,

November 17, 2014. Starting today, an agreement comes into effect that allows Russian citizens to visit Mongolia without a visa provided they hold a valid passport. This information is available from the Mongolian Consulate in Yekaterinburg’s official website. The agreement was signed as early as September 3. ‘Under this agreement, Russian and Mongolian subjects who hold diplomatic, business, or travelling passports can enter, leave, fly through, or stay within the other state’s territory for up to thirty days without a visa; their total duration of stay must not exceed ninety days within

November 14, 2014. The annual round of amateur Olympics came to a close at Uralvagonzavod Corporation. This year, the games were dedicated to the Sochi Olympics and proved the most participated-in competitions in the company’s history. 21,000 workers of Uralvagonzavod, the head plant, and of member enterprises in Chelyabinsk, Kamensk Uralsky, Yekaterinburg, and Volchansk took part in twenty-nine different sports competitions. The corporation’s press service says people of all ages and qualifications joined in the contests. 43% of contestants were in the 18 to 35 age group, 32% were between 35

November 14, 2014. Ural division of Rosstandard detected in the course of this year’s inspections that some 30% of fuel sold on the local markets did not meet the technical requirements of the Customs Union, the division’s head Svetlana Mikheyeva said at a press conference. Mikheyeva explained the non-compliance had to do with the quality of diesel fuel, while the quality of gasoline caused no complaints in the given period. ‘Just like in the previous years, diesel fuel contained more than the permissible amount of sulfur in some instances; besides, the filling stations fail to provide their

November 14, 2014. Kamenskoye, an agricultural enterprise within Sinara Group, finished up its harvesting campaign. This year, 7,000 hectares were allocated for grains, potatoes and beets got 45 and 2 hectares, respectively. Since the enterprise’s core business is dairy farming, most of the harvest will be used to feed the animals, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. Nearly 21,000,000 kg of grains and crops were gathered, with average yield at 3,000 kg per hectare. This is 20% better than last year, when the average yield stood at 2,690 kg per hectare, and much better than Sverdlovsk Region’s

November 14, 2014. 1.4bn RUR will be allocated from the local budget to the development of multi-purpose center network in Sverdlovsk Region in 2015. 27 new centers with 147 ‘one-stop-shops’ are expected to open next year. According to Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department, the multi-purpose centers will open in Achit, Alapayevsk, Bogdanovitch, Bysert, Degtyarsk, Ivdel, Kamyshlov, Karpinsk, Kriulino, Malyshev, Natalyinsk, Pelym, Sosva, Shalya, Sredneuralsk, Staroutkinsk, Svobodny, Tabory, Talitsa, Tugulym, Turinskaya Sloboda, Verkhneye Dubrovo, Verkhnyaya Tura,

November 14, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s own funds expanded to 21.225bn RUR (as of November 11, 2014), which is an increase of 21.7% on the start of the year, the bank’s press service reports. ‘A funds increase is an advantage for the UBRD’s further development, a sign of stability and a proof of the chosen business model’s reliability. We went for the right strategy that allows us to achieve impressive performance results in all respects, regardless of the economic upturns. This is why our customers all over Russia trust us: around a million people have chosen

November 13, 2014. A business development site was set up at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Volchansky subsidiary; the task of this site is to look for popular products that will then be produced by the company with help from all the staff members, the corporation’s press service reports. This kind of scouting will both result in more profit and become an important stage in the company development. Presentations on how new, competitive products could be developed are made there every day. These presentations can be attended by an employee from any of the subsidiary’s departments. Scores of

November 13, 2014. ChTPZ Group is taking part in the 20th International Industrial Exhibition Metal Expo at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow on November 11-14; the company’s stand, 1D14, can be found at Pavilion 75, the Group’s press service informs. This year, the main function of the stand is to introduce the company’s customers and partners and other market players with a new standard in metallurgical production, the so-called White Metallurgy; it is also important to represent the Group’s mission and values. ‘The philosophy behind the concept of White Metallurgy results

November 13, 2014. The local budget subsidies to Sverdlovsk Region’s agricultural businesses will remain the same next year as this year, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. For that matter, over 3bn RUR were directed to support the local agricultural sector in 2014. ‘The money will be allocated for the same purposes as this year: interest rates on loans, subsidies per hectare of cultivated land, milk production grants, and so on. We hope more money will be allocated to reimburse farmers on their seed grain expenses, which is crucial, since this year’s

November 13, 2014. Over a thousand migrants were deported by Sverdlovsk Region authorities to their home countries in January-October 2014; more than 6m RUR were spent on funding their tickets, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Service of Court Officers reports. 1,030 court rulings regarding the need to place foreign subjects and apatrides in special establishments were placed with the Service’s division in ten months of the year. 934 foreigners were sent back home. Among those who left were 372 citizens of Tajikistan, 336 citizens of Uzbekistan, and 165 citizens of Kyrgyzstan. In