UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 24, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) directed more than RUB 58 million to environmental programs in 2000-2018, MMK’s Information & PR Department refers to the company’s environmental report as indicating. RUB 9 million got allocated for the purpose last year alone. The plant carried its environmental report in order to provide all interested parties with detailed information on the company’s environmental safety efforts. The report dwells on MMK’s environmental policy principles, results of its green projects implemented in 2000-2018, and the key

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 24, 2019. Yekaterinburg is now the Greater Urals’ first city to get MegaFon’s NarrowBand Internet of things within the existing network segment, the telecom company’s press service reports. ‘Our NB-IoT package is fully ready for millions of meters, sensors, and other devices active within the metropolis. This is a machine- rather than human-oriented network, so this is a great solution for production process improvements. The NB-IoT allows both private companies and state-run organizations to cut down on costs with the help of smart devices; the narrow-band network

UrBC, Moscow, April 24, 2019. The Russian Accounts Chamber uncovered 9,235 instances of budget funds getting misused in 2018; this was 1.5 times more often than in the year 2017. All the instances in question amounted to RUB 772.7 billion worth of mismanaged funds (nearly twice as little as one year previously), the chamber’s report states. The chamber’s checks and investigations resulted in forty criminal lawsuits, seventy-eight cases of ongoing operational-investigative activities, and RUB 7.5 billion getting transferred back to the national budget. Last year, most of the problems had to do

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 24, 2019. 115 forged Russian ruble bills were identified within Sverdlovsk Region’s banking system in the first quarter of 2019 (total ruble amount: RUB 485,000). According to the Central Bank of Russia’s Ural division, most of the bills (91 units) are 5,000-ruble ones. 1,000-ruble bills are the second most popular choice with forgers. Also, two fake 500-ruble bills, one 50-ruble bill, two 2,000-ruble bills, and four foreign currency banknotes (U.S. dollars) got identified as well.

UrBC, Moscow, April 24, 2019. Russia’s Accounts Chamber suggested that it should become obligatory for the Russian banks to join in the Central Bank of Russia’s financial data transfer system, the Chamber’s annual report for the year 2018 states. The change is meant to prevent any halted transactions inside the national finance market and to reduce the negative impact that limited (or nonexistent) access to the international banking system might have on the Russian banking sector and the national economy, the report states. The financial data transfer system got set up in 2014 as the national

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 23, 2019. EVRAZ Holding is going to help Kachkanar Council organize the hot water supply for the local end users in the summer, which is expected to ensure reliable supply even in the remotest parts of the town and improve the locals’ living standards, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. Kachkanar Heat & Power Station will switch to a new circulation scheme for its hot water supply system for ten days at the end of this heating season. Once these ten days are over, the hot water samples will get tested to check the water quality and gauge

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 23, 2019. Degtyarsk Council and SKB-Bank signed a socioeconomic cooperation agreement so that the bank could now support the town council’s programs and projects, the bank’s press service reports. SKB-Bank will also be issuing loans and offering banking service packages to local customers. The bank already holds a socioeconomic cooperation agreement with Sverdlovsk Region Government and a number of local towns, including Nevyansk, Krasnoufimsk, Asbest, and Verkhnyaya Salda.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 23, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s member enterprise Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) hosted United Russia’s 1st Environmental Forum this week. The plant’s Vysota 239 Department served as a venue for the session on air emissions in industrial locations as the core of the environment vs. the economy conflicts. The talks given dwelled on air quality and on the Russian President’s Executive Order On National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation through to 2024, the company’s press service reports. ChelPipe’s Managing Director Evgeny Gubanov talked

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 23, 2019. The amount of beef and eggs produced in Sverdlovsk Region in January and February 2019 declined by 6% (from 41,500,000 kg down to 39,000,000 kg) and by 0.7% (from 251.9 million units down to 250.2 million units), respectively, against one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. According to Sverdlovskstat, the amount of milk produced in the area rose by 1%, from 110,400,000 kg up to 11,500,000 kg. Local agribusinesses produced 6.6% less meat (with output dropping from 36,200,000 kg down to 33,800,000 kg), while their egg output decreased by 0.6% (from 249.1

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 23, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry suggested this week that all precious metals, precious stones, and jewelry pieces made from them should get stamped starting from 2020; the draft bill to this effect is now available online at regulation.gov.ru. Prime reports. Under the terms of the proposal, the State Integrated Information System for Precious Metals/Precious Stones Surveillance will have to get introduced as well. A number of executive bodies apportioned by the Russian Government, Russia’s Central Bank, certain other banks, businesses, and sole traders dealing

UrBC, Moscow, April 22, 2019. Russians’ factual incomes dropped by 2% in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the first quarter of 2018, Rosstat’s recent data indicate. The people’s factual take-home pay (with all the inflation adjustments in place) dropped by 2.3% in the first quarter of 2019 compared with one year previously, Rosstat states. A Russian’s monthly salary comes to RUB 45,000 on average (up 5.2% on March 2018). Since the consumer price index fluctuated by exactly the same percentage, the factual take-home pay thus remained at the same level as last March. According to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 22, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and SETTERS developed and launched a special advertising campaign. The campaign, dedicated to promoting the bank’s new 120-day-grace-period credit card offer, got launched on the URBD’s Instagram account on April 15. the bank’s press service reports. The creative concept for the campaign steps away from advertising the benefits of the credit card directly and focuses on Instagram communication that relies on the values the bank’s target audience supports. The resulting product is the space that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 22, 2019. The housing developer RSG-Akademicheskoye is going to support Sverdlovsk Region’s private investors whose housing cooperatives failed to put up their homes for them. There are more than three hundred people on their list at the moment, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. RSG-Akademicheskoye will be supplied with a land allotment for a major construction project in exchange for providing housing or other kind of support for the local victims of unscrupulous housing developers. ‘RSG-Akademicheskoye now has 24,000 m2 worth of ready

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 22, 2019. Officers from Yekaterinburg Customs and Yekaterinburg division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry detected a set of supposedly undeclared electronic appliances in a large international online shop for the second time in a fortnight, Ural Customs’ press service reports. 763 phones and vacuum cleaners of dubious origin already got confiscated as recently April 4. The shop kept on with the business as usual. This time, 239 photography appliances got confiscated. It has been determined preliminarily that the camera flashes and lens-cleaning robots had

UrBC, Moscow, April 22, 2019. Russian car drivers might soon be required by law to register as ‘amateurs’ (i.e. those who only have their vehicles for personal use) and ‘professionals’ (i.e. those who make a living out of it). The amendments to the Road Safety Act have recently been developed by the Transport Ministry and are now available online at regulation.gov.ru. The ministry’s legislative proposal has to do with the fact that ‘amateurs’ have to process a lot of irrelevant information at their driving schools that does not actually address road safety issues. The current Education Act,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company’s sanitary/environmental lab now uses the atomic absorption spectrometer KVANT.Z to test water samples. According to the company’s press service, the new appliance makes it possible to determine the amount of unwanted particles in natural, shaft, and waste water with high precision; KVANT.Z also controls the maximum permissible discharge. The unit cost RUB 3.5 million to buy. The lab got audited successfully by RusAccreditation and proved its expertise and quality management system’s validity in February. Now the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) recently complemented its HR Consulting package with a new service: testing a company’s job candidates and existing employees online. According to the bank’s press service, the UBRD’s business customers looking to hire new people may now have their job candidates tested online in order to avoid subjectivity in the process and get a comprehensive evaluation of the candidates’ potential and personality traits. The tests can also get used to assess the employees already on the team. The online test

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2019. Yekaterinburg Duma deputies went to an off-site meeting at District Akademicheskiy’s children’s clinic this week. The goal of the meeting was to decide on the strategy of the social infrastructure development in Yekaterinburg’s eight administrative district, Yekaterinburg Council’s website states. Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Social Policy Dmitri Baranov went over the social infrastructure facilities already operating in Akademicheskiy: kindergartens, schools, and clinics. He pointed out that additional facilities in the education, culture, and sports

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) won three international СХ World Awards; the awarding ceremony took place in Moscow on April 17, the bank’s press service reports. For one, the bank’s Quality Management System Project won as Best Customer Experience in B2C Sector/Finance: the UBRD managed to develop and introduce unified customer service standards across all of its communication channels, optimize its internal processes, and enforce a customer-oriented approach at every stage of product development — and all of this on quite a

UrBC, Moscow, April 19, 2019. The Russian State Duma adopted the so-called ‘mortgage break’ bill in the third and final reading this week, the Duma’s press service reports. ‘An amendment has been made to the legislation that allows to skip the notary authorization on mortgage contracts involving housing registered in the name of multiple owners. The amendment was necessary since, before it got adopted, the mortgage payers had to pay for the notary services both when a mortgage contract got signed and every single time their mortgage loan got restructured (the ‘mortgage break’ restructuring