UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2017. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Ministry’s forecast, the large-scale local enterprises are expected to pay 7.8% (4.5bn RUR) more taxes this year than in 2016, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. The additional tax influx is expected to come from increased corporate tax, property tax, and income tax payments. Now Governor Evgeniy Kuivashev recently called for exploring the constituency’s revenue potential and for dealing with taxpayers on a case-by-case basis. ‘The Finance Ministry coordinated a number of meetings

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 25, 2017. Metallurg Magnitogorsk Charity Foundation will receive 159.9m RUR from its primary benefactor Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) in the third quarter of the year, MMK’s Information & PR Administration reports. The money will mostly get spent on organization of festive events, namely, Metallurgist’s Day and Town Day. 5,660 long-service employees from local industrial enterprises, people working in the city’s civil service sector, and public sector workers from the nearby Agapovsky and Kizilsky Districts are expected to attend. A show will take

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s private individuals’ deposit book increased by 3% in the first half of 2017 and thus amounted to 157bn RUR on July 1, the bank’s press service reports. The national private deposits market rose by 2.9% on the whole. According to the bank’s Debit Transactions Director Olga Aksenova, the banking market’s deposit volumes are growing more slowly this year than last year, since the interest rates the banks offer have gone down and so have people’s disposable incomes. ‘This is the third year in a row that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2017. The average asking price of used cars came to 499,000 RUR in Yekaterinburg in the first half of 2017, which is 10% less than one year earlier, avto.ru reports. ‘As for other parts of Russia, prices are at their highest in Moscow and Moscow Region and at their lowest in Chelyabinsk Region (819,000 RUR and 450,000 RUR, respectively), the website states. In Yekaterinburg, customers mostly look for sales ads on Lada, Toyota, and Nissan. In the country on the whole, the three best selling brands are Lada, Toyota, and Volkswagen. The used cars on Yekaterinburg

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) had 1,805 samples of fruit and vegetable produce tested in the second quarter of the year. 2.5% of samples failed to meet the existing sanitary and epidemiological standards (the share of faulty imported items came to 2.2% of the total amount tested), the division’s press service reports. 2,019 samples got tested for microbiological parameters as well, and 5.4% of them turned out faulty. The division intends to keep an eye on the situation.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) bought four new comfortable buses for employee home-to-work transfers, the holding’s Ural division reports. The new buses will be used on both the inner city and commuter routes. The vehicles are currently being tested and will start doing the transfers in the nearest future. ‘One of the company’s CSR programs is about ensuring employee transfer to work and back. NTMK gets its bus pool renovated and upgraded on a regular basis to make sure our workers can commute comfortably,’ says EVRAZ

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) has issued over 33,000 national Mir cards so far and intends to get another 25,000 cards issued by the end of the month, the bank’s press service reports. According to the bank’s Banking Services Sales Director Sergey Zinoviev, the bank is now issuing more Mir cards in order to meet its customers’ needs. ‘These are first and foremost the customers who use these card accounts as their salary ones, which is the case with everyone who works in the civil service sector. This means some 120,000 cards will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2017. Maxim Populov, who is currently on ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program, took part in the international Global Skills Challenge 2017 in Newcastle, Australia, the Group’s press service reports. The corporate program student competed in Industrial Mechanics & Assembly as part of the WorldSkills Russia team; he won the fourth prize. Representatives of seventeen different countries competed in twenty-one categories in this contest altogether. ‘This is the first time ChTPZ Group is competing in Industrial Mechanics &

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 24, 2017. The national DH and 4X mountain bike championship begins at Metallurg Magnitogorsk Ski Center in Banny, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Information & PR Administration reports. Contestants kept signing in for the last two days; also, an admissions council’s meeting and that of the teams’ representatives were held prior to the start of the championship. ‘Juniors in the 13-18 age group will do their qualification and final challenges in DH today and tomorrow. Women over 17 and men in the Elite group will also compete for the national DH

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2017. A new football pitch was built in Yekaterinburg’s Yugo-Zapadny District with support from Obschestvo Malysheva 73 Charity Foundation, the organization’s press service reports. Children and adults can now do No.1 Sport in a large pitch with man-made green lawn at 73 Amundsen St. ‘This football pitch is part of our Sports Victories Program that is coordinated by Obschestvo Malysheva 73 Charity Foundation, Dobrye Dela Foundation, and the Anton Shipulin Foundation. Boys and girls started kicking the ball in the pitch even before the official opening ceremony

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2017. Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexei Orlov chaired a meeting on complaints Sverdlovsk Region-based workers recently placed with Russian President Vladimir Putin; the complaints all have to do with employers failing to pay the workers’ wages in time, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. The meeting participants dwelled on the wage arrears at Elmash (UETM), as the company workers complained to Vladimir Putin about the delays. The plant’s CFO Natalya Bogdanova said the company did struggle with certain wage arrears, but

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) reduced its minimum mortgage rate down to 10% a year, the bank’s press service reports. As a matter of fact, most Russian bank in the national top thirty segment have been making their mortgages more affordable since the start of the year. The UBRD is keeping up with the market trend and has brought its interest rate down twice this year so far: by 1.2% in April and by 0.8% in July. The bank entered the mortgage lending market on March 1. Mortgages are available for customers willing to buy a place

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2017. Ural Airlines are launching a new flight from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, the air carrier’s press service says. This is, as it happens, the seventh destination now available through the airline from Zhukovsky International Airport. The direct flight to Tbilisi will be operated twice a week, every Monday and Saturday. It takes two hours and thirty-five minutes to get there. Prices start from €64 (one way, all fees included, a 10 kg piece of luggage and 5 kg of cabin luggage included); the price offer holds through July 31,

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 20, 2017. ChTPZ Group is going to supply some 400,000 kg of steel pipes and pipeline bends to Georgian Gas Transportation Company, the Group’s press service reports. The shipment will comprise a number of welded large-diameter pipes, weldless hot- and cold-deformed pipes, and over 60 kinds of bends. The produce has been made at the Group’s SOT, ETERNO (ChTPZ Group and Rosnano’s joint venture), Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant, and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant. This is the first time the Group will deliver some pipeline bends to Georgia. These will be used for pipeline

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2017. The overall beef and poultry production industry’s output declined by 4% in Sverdlovsk Region in the first half of the year compared with one year earlier and thus amounted to 116,300,000 kg in live weight terms, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, milk production has been on the rise, with the output of 349,800,000 kg, up by 5.3% on one year earlier. Egg production rose by 1.7% and reached 736,2m On the whole, all local farms tend to have fewer head of cattle and less poultry at the moment. The cattle stock dropped 1.5% in June 2017 against one year

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2017. Russian Copper Company’s Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant celebrated its 260th anniversary on Metallurgist’s Day, the company press service reports. ‘The festivities began with a special program for the plant’s long-service employees. Around a hundred former workers were invited to a special reception at the company club. The plant’s Deputy DG Vladimir Semin and Chair of the Long-Service Employees’ Council Valeriy Klepcha congratulated their guests on the special date and talked about how the plant is operating these days. The former employees also went on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2017. EVRAZ came with a performance report on the results achieved at Innoprom 2017 International Industrial Exhibition on July 10-13 in Yekaterinburg, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. ‘EVRAZ, which turns 25 this year, signed four agreements with companies based in Japan, Belarus, and Russia. Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov paid a visit to the company stand. EVRAZ Vice President and head of EVRAZ Holding Ural Maxim Andriasov presented the company produce, including our new high-speed railway wheels, to the minister,’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2017. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and ATOL are now offering their cashless payment services in all the parts of the country where the bank runs its outlets. Businesses all over the country can also benefit from the special welcome bonuses the bank offers to companies switching to its acquiring services, the bank’s press service reports. The UBRD will only charge its partner companies 1.6% of the card transaction amount, which is much less than the market’s average. Setting up a POS terminal takes under three days, and the bank’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2017. MegaFon subscribers spent more than 5,500 hours on their phones during the four days of the Innoprom 2017 International Industrial Exhibition, which was twice as long as one year earlier, MegaFon’s press service reports. According to the telecommunications provider’s analysts, the second day of the exhibition proved the most popular one: visitors to Yekaterinburg EXPO site spent more time calling others and surfing the Internet from their smartphones on July 11 than on any other day, with call duration up by 38% and Internet traffic up by 91% compared with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Ministry and Sverdlovsk Region Property Fund had over 440 unauthorized billboards, 651 light-box advertisements, and 136 street banners removed in the first half of the year, the ministry’s press service reports. ‘In addition to steps taken to handle the offenses (that is, dismantling of unauthorized advertising fixtures), the ministry also sent some 750 reports and orders to stop violating the existing advertising legislation to billboard and light-box owners and to owners of the buildings where the