UrBC, Moscow, August 15, 2018. The U.S. Congress’s bill on sanctions against Russia is now available on its website. To strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to combat international cybercrime, and to impose additional sanctions with respect to the Russian Federation, and for other purposes (short title: Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2018), TASS reports. The bill was introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO); Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD); and Sen. Cynthia

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 15, 2018. MMK Kurort Management Company presented its performance report for the year 2018 so far and voiced its plans to upgrade Abzakovo and Bannoye Resorts (located, respectively, in Beloretsky and Abzelilovsky in Bashkortostan), MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The management company underwent some organizational changes this year, so that Abzakovo Resort made part of MMK Kurort. This means the company now manages both locations, Abzakovo and Bannoye. MMK Kurort is now integrating all the divisions to create a single sales and marketing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 15, 2018. 77% of MegaFon’s Sverdlovsk Region-based customers are now using 4G devices, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 45%, the company press service reports. MegaFon’s engineers have recently completed their 4G construction project, with twenty-three new LTE stations installed in Sverdlovsk Region all in all. The mobile Internet connection is now even faster in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil, Berezovsky, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Pervouralsk, Sredneuralsk, Sysert, and Aramil. MegaFon’s 4G network’s extended coverage means the data transfer speed is now

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 15, 2018. Maxim Koryakin, who is currently a student on ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program, won silver in the 6th WorldSkills Russia blue-collar job championship in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Koryakin competed (as member of Sverdlovsk Region’s team) in Reverse Engineering, the Group’s press service reports. The corporate program students Artem Ulyanov and Mikhail Sokhrannov also made it to Sverdlovsk Region’s team in the contest. They were, respectively, among the championship’s top ten and top five finalists. The national

UrBC, Moscow, August 14, 2018. International tour operators warn that staying in Turkey will cost Russian customers 5% more in the next season after the ruble grew weaker against the U.S. dollar and the euro again, Russia’s Association of Tour Operators reports. As the market players explain, the simultaneous weakening of the Turkish lira isn’t going to offset the tour prices, as all the agents involved use dollars in their cash settlements. It is estimated that a trip to Turkey might grow 5%+ more expensive by the time next season hits. The USD/RUR exchange rate exceeded 1/68 for the first

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 14, 2018. MMK Group’s vehicle department Avtotransportnoye Upravleniye issued a performance report in celebration of a special day: the department was set up on August 13, 1969. The company is now one of the Southern Urals’ leading vehicle and transportation businesses with over a thousand rolling stock and automobile/truck units at its disposal. The department also maintains a large production facilities network, MMK’s press service reports. Avtotransportnoye Upravleniye contributes greatly to the area’s socioeconomic development and handles both MMK’s cargo (the

UrBC, Mezhdurechensk, August 14, 2018. EVRAZ Holding set up an all-purpose sports playground on the premises of School 23 as part of its CSR program, the company press service reports. The sports playground is suitable for playing basketball, volleyball, and mini-football. The holding directed around RUR 4m to the project. This is the fourth sports facility in Mezhdurechensk. In 2017, a multifunctional sports center and a workout site got set up on the premises of School 26, and a gazebo with fitness appliances inside was introduced next to Kristall Sports Center as well. ‘EVRAZ has been

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 14, 2018. Ural Airlines are launching extra flights from Saint Petersburg to Kaliningrad starting August 10, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Yet another Saint Petersburg-Kaliningrad flight will be made available soon. U6 54/54 will be operated every Friday between August 10 and September 7 as well as on August 15, 19, and 22 and September 5. This means there will be up to two flights to Kaliningrad daily,’ the press service says. Special prices (as little as RUR 3,000 for a one-way ticket) apply for certain eligible passenger categories.

UrBC, Moscow, August 14, 2018. The RUR/USD exchange rate fluctuated by RUR 0.94 at Moscow Exchange today and came to RUR 68.66 per USD 1; this was the first time since April 18, 2016 that the exchange rate exceeded the 68/1 ratio, the exchange states. The RUR/EUR exchange rate fluctuated by RUR 0.9 and came to RUR 78.15 per EUR 1. The last time one euro cost more than RUR 78 was on April 11, 2018.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 13, 2018. Students on ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program made it to the final rounds of the 6th WorldSkills Russia Championship in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the company press service reports. The students are now part of Sverdlovsk Region’s team and will compete in Reverse Engineering, Industrial Automation, and Wiring. ‘Since ChelPipe Group joined the WorldSkills Russia movement six years ago, our corporate training program’s students and alumni have won seventy-five medals in dozens of different categories (including very hi tech

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 13, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) launched a new ball-rolling mill this month. The mill is meant for making seven different types of balls (diameter: 60 mm to 120 mm; hardness grade: 5) that up till now only used to get manufactured abroad, the company press service reports. EVRAZ NTMK and EVRAZ KGOK Managing Director Alexei Kushnarev and provisional Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Vladislav Pinayev both attended the solemn launching ceremony. ‘The mill will be used for making a completely new product type that has never been

UrBC, Moscow, August 13, 2018. Ural Airlines are launching a new flight from Kaliningrad to Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport and back this month. Flight U6 637/638 will be available every Friday on August 10-September 7, 2018. Departure times 4:40 PM (Zhukovsky Airport) and 6:40 PM (Khrabrovo Airport, Kaliningrad), the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Zhukovsky International Airport is located just outside Moscow; the place got opened in the spring of 2016. The airport is suitable for any type of aircraft and keeps adding ever more destinations to its service network; its passenger

UrBC, Pervouralsk, August 13, 2018. The NGO Gorod Pervykh activists and workers of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) cooperated to restore F.A. Danilov Well next to Europe-Asia Obelisk in Pervouralsk, PNTZ press service reports. Thanks to the volunteers’ and PNTZ employees’ joint efforts, there is now one more recreational area with a drinkable water source in Pervouralsk. ‘Gorod Pervykh keeps growing almost by the hour: what started out as a few one-time environmental events now comes to look like a city-wide movement. I am positive we can build a strong team of like-minded activists and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 13, 2018. Ural Airlines are currently offering up to 50% off their regular prices; the offer holds on August 11-19, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The special prices apply to the following flights: Novosibirsk-Moscow-Novosibirsk; Tomsk-Moscow-Tomsk; Chita-Moscow-Chita; Irkutsk-Moscow-Irkutsk; Barnaul-Moscow- Barnaul; Omsk-Moscow-Omsk; Yekaterinburg-Chita-Yekaterinburg; Saint Petersburg-Chita-Saint Petersburg. All flights will be operated between October 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. The special offer also applies to international flights, as long as

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 10, 2018. MMK Group’s MMK Trading House completed first-stage upgrades of its sandwich panels-making facility in Shchelkovo, Moscow Region, MMK Information & PR Department reports. The goal is to boost labor productivity, increase high quality produce output, and reduce the product’s prime cost. Working together with the Italian company MAGMA, the company employees launched a new gluing unit in early August. The new unit improves gluing quality and thus allows the manufacturer meet the highest global standards. MMK Trading House’s site in Shchelkovo, Moscow

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2018. MegaFon’s engineers sped up the company’s indoor base stations Liner and Nebo at two terminals of Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport, the company press service reports. The data transfer speed can now reach 300 Mb/sec at any given location within the airport. This means downloading a movie that you can watch on board will take under a minute. Every day, MegaFon processes the amount of Internet traffic at Koltsovo Airport that is enough to upload two million photographs onto social networks. The company’s two base stations streamline the international and

UrBC, Moscow, August 10, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the International Accounting Standards) rose to $1.145bn in the first half of 2018, which is 13.3 times more than one year previously, the company reports. The holding’s EBITDA amounted to $1.906bn, which exceeded the figures for the first half of 2017 ($1.152bn) by 65.5%. ‘Our EBITDA’s margin rose from 22.2% to 30% due to increasing vanadium, coal, and steel prices and due to our cost-cutting program,’ the company says. In fact, the company’s cost-cutting/efficiency-enhancing program resulted in $117m in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2018. Rospotrebnadzor’s inspectors went on an unscheduled check of a Subway outlet at 6 Gotvald St (Bldg 3) in Yekaterinburg and fined the owner RUR 56,500 as a result. According to Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor’s press service, a local complained to them about having health problems after eating the food from the said fast food outlet. The complaints resulted in an emergency inspection which uncovered numerous sanitary problems and failure to comply with existing tech regulations. For one, the cafe owner only had the papers for the meat

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2018. Russia’s Central Bank placed a claim against TagilBank, Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court’s files indicate. It is unclear at the moment what the claim consists in. Deposit Insurance Agency features as a third party in the case. AO TabilBank was set up in Nizhniy Tagil on November 25, 1991. On July 20, 2018, the Bank of Russia had the bank’s license annulled. According to the bank’s latest report, TagilBank came 409th in the national bank rating as of July 1, 2018. Sberbank is currently in charge of repaying TagilBank’s customers their deposit insurance.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 9, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) saved RUR 269m in the first half of the year due to implementing workers’ improvement proposals, MMK Information & PR Department reports. 73% of all submitted proposals (1,857 altogether) got approved and implemented. More than a half of these (52%) had to do with job and industrial safety issues, 15% dwelt on resource savings, 7% focused on energy efficiency, and 26% were related to other issues. The plant’s management sees improvement proposals and inventors’ projects as the basis of its personnel development