UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 11, 2018. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob signed two provisions relating to long-term contracts for the construction of large transportation facilities in Yekaterinburg, the city website states. The first provision covers a long-term, municipality’s budget-funded contract for the construction of a highway junction at the intersection of Serafima Deryabina St and Obyezdnaya Rd. The preparatory jobs need to be completed this year already, the road itself needs to get commissioned by late 2021. The second provision has to do with a contract for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 11, 2018. KoloBOCCEk, a unique charity project for motion impaired children supported by the telecommunications provider MegaFon, is now available in the Urals. More than seven hundred children from special-needs kindergartens will be learning to play bocce and finding out more about this world with the help of the game, MegaFon’s press service reports. The workshops and sports competitions for motion impaired preschoolers will take place in September 2018-June 2019. Sverdlovsk Region-based part of the project gets coordinated by the Anton Shipulin Foundation,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 11, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is starting its local round of inter-plant experience-sharing workshop for managers and repair technicians in the metallurgical sector, MMK’s press service reports. This Magnitogorsk stage of the workshop is meant to round up the series of workshops for metallurgical enterprises’ employees involved in equipment maintenance and repair. The seminar participants went to Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works and NLMK-Ural in Revda earlier. This particular workshop gathered together more students than ever:

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 11, 2018. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers direct Yekaterinburg-Munich-Yekaterinburg flights in winter; the flight is already on the airline’s winter schedule. The flights will be operated every Saturday from December 29, 2018 till March 30, 2019; the flight is five hours and ten minutes long. Prices start from RUR 12,266 (one way). ‘The snow-covered mountain tops, the sparkling bits of ice, the blue skies, the aromatic mulled wine, the gingerbreads, and the Christmas markets’ wonders… The snowy Bavaria has something to offer to the entire family,

UrBC, Moscow, September 10, 2018. Only around 130 to 150 banks currently operating in Russia will be able to meet all the basic license criteria, Prime refers to the Bank of Russia’s Deputy Chair Vassily Pozdyshev as predicting. According to Pozdyshev, thirty banks have been issued their licenses already. A number of others intend to increase their capital in order to be eligible to apply for a universal license. According to the Bank of Russia, there are 476 banks registered in Russia as of August 1, 2018.

UrBC, Moscow, September 10, 2018. Russian banks do have some liquid assets at their disposal, but they won’t be able to use these funds to issue loans to businesses. Only very few companies can be seen as dependable borrowers, it is believed. Besides, the Central Bank is taking steps to prevent banks from issuing too many loans to private borrowers, BBC refers to the Russian Banks XXI International Banking Forum’s attendees as stating. ‘There are RUR 3.3 trillion in surplus liquidity money in the banking sector at the moment,’ President of the Russian Banks Association Georgiy Luntovsky is

UrBC, Moscow, September 10, 2018. The Russian Government suggested limiting the maximum share of foreign nationals employed in the Russian building industry to 80% of the overall number of workers, Kommersant refers to Russia’s Vice Premier Tatiana Golikova as stating; Golikova is reported as saying that the limitations wouldn’t apply to Moscow, Khabarovsk Territory, and Amur Region. ‘I’d like to point to this proposal to reduce the number of foreign workers employed in the building industry, where migrants coming to Russia mostly work. The idea is to limit the share of foreign nationals in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 10, 2018. Yekaterinburg’s District Oktyabrsky Court dismissed a criminal case against a Moscow Region native who was charged with disorderly conduct on board a plane, Ural Public Prosecution Authorities for Transportation’s press service reports. The incident occurred on board a plane going from Yekaterinburg to Beijing in March 2018. ‘The young woman kept consuming strong drinks she’d smuggled on board, had an argument with the flight attendants, tried lighting a cigarette, and attempted to open the emergency exit fixtures during the flight, which endangered

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 10, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps reconstructing its hot-roll Mill 2500 at Sheet Rolling Department 4, the company press service reports. The reconstruction will make it possible for the plant to expand its product range as well as to improve its produce quality. The mill’s overall capacity will also rise from 4,000,000,000 kg to 5,000,000,000 kg of rolled goods a year. Currently under modernization are the roughing trains and the wind-up station. The foundation and the off-site launching pad for the roughing trains’ housing sections have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 7, 2018. Miners started working on new Long-Face 4-10-31 (estimated coal reserves: 3,500,000,000 kg of coal) at EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine, the holding’s press service reports. A number of assembly/dismantling jobs as well as plenty of mining and stoping work had to be done prior to starting on the long-face proper. The company’s stoping teams went through more than 12 km of mining Sections 28 and 30. The new long-face block is over 3.5 km long. The block is now fitted with highly productive BUCYRUS unit and JOY combined vehicle. The unit makes it possible

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 7, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant cut their energy spending by RUR 70m in the first half of the year within the framework of the Group’s energy efficiency program. According to the Group’s press service, launching a new power substation (Novotrubnaya) proved the major driving force behind a dramatic drop in energy spending. The station needed RUR 220m in investments to get put up. Novotrubnaya now ensures uninterrupted power supply to the electric steel-smelting shop Iron Ozone 32 and cuts

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 7, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based farms and agribusinesses have to pay RUR 11,000 more per every 1,000 liters of diesel fuel this September compared with September 2017, Sverdlovsk Region’s Minister for Agriculture Dmitri Degtyarev said at a recent Sverdlovsk Region Government’s meeting. According to Degtyarev, diesel fuel got sold to Sverdlovsk Region’s farmers for RUR 39,000 per 1,000 liters last year. Now the price rose to around RUR 50,000 per 1,000 liters. Gasoline prices went up as well. Farmers and agribusiness bought gas for RUR 41,700 per 1,000 liters

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 7, 2018. Ural Airlines will resume operating its Samara-Moscow-Samara flights (U6 95/U6 96) starting October 29, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. Samara-Moscow flights will be operated every Monday (departure time: 7 AM), Moscow-Samara ones every Tuesday (departure time: 10:30 PM). The duration of the flight is estimated at 1 hour and 40 minutes. Tickets are already on offer, with prices starting from RUR 2,375. ‘Moscow has a lot to offer, from the golden-domed churches to Anglican cathedrals to skyscrapers to Stalin era’s towers. Festival and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 7, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) recently hosted an experience-sharing workshop for repair technicians. More than fifty representatives of seventeen different Russian companies (including Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, Novolipetsk Integrated Metallurgical Works, Mechel, Severstal, and Vyksunsky Metallurgical Works) took part in the event, EVRAZ’s press service reports. This was a two-day workshop that covered a guided tour of five production departments (including Blast Furnace 7), a discussion of equipment

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, September 6, 2018. A solemn welcome ceremony for new students on ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program took place in Chelyabinsk at the start of the school year. According to the Group’s press service, this is the second year in a row this public-private partnership project has been implemented in the Southern Urals; the training program gets coordinated by Chelyabinsk Region Government, ChelPipe Group, and A.V. Yakovlev Chelyabinsk State Industrial/Humanities School. 150 school-leavers got enrolled this year. This second class of new

UrBC, Moscow, September 6, 2018. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to increase the amount of funding allocated to foreign currency purchases within the time frame of September 7-October 4, 2018 to RUR 426.9bn. This means around RUR 21.3bn will get spent on foreign currency daily, the ministry states. As the Bank of Russia is no longer intervening in the current market situation, the Federal Treasury will be buying foreign currency from the Bank of Russia throughout the end of September without the latter buying comparable amounts of foreign currency on the internal forex market in its turn.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, September 6, 2018. ChelPipe Group now welcomes students on the company’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program to its new AutoClub. The club can accept up to a hundred young people who want to master car maintenance and repairs. The project required RUR 15.5m in investments, the Group’s press service reports. The 756-square-meter training facility comprises a practice area and a study room. The new practice site is fitted with top-notch equipment for learning to do tire fitting, welding, metalwork and body repair, turning, electronic equipment

UrBC, Pervouralsk, September 6, 2018. Activists from Gorod Pervykh, an environmental NGO created at ChelPipe Group’s initative, cleaned up the woods near Bodrost ski piste in Pervouralsk, the Group’s press service reports. First, the activists cleaned up the tourist routes themselves; next, special-purpose vehicles provided by ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant were used to handle the large unauthorized waste dumps. ‘The cleanup got organized after a complaint placed by a local who knows the place well since his childhood. We are happy to see people beginning to care about

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 6, 2018. Ural Airlines will now be operating their Kazan-Moscow flights all the year round, including the wintertime, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from RUR 2,313 (one way) if you fly Promo and from RUR 3,313 if you fly Economy class. The Moscow-Kazan flights will be operated every Tuesday and Sunday on October 9-29, 2018 (departure time: 5:20 PM) and every Sunday on November 4, 2018-March 24, 2019 (departure time: 8:40 PM). Kazan-Moscow flights will be operated every Wednesday and Monday on October 10-29, 2018 (departure time: 7:30 AM)

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 5, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering their customers reduced-price tickets for Black Sea-bound flights. The special offer applies to the following flights: Yekaterinburg-Anaya, Yekaterinburg-Gelendzhik, Yekaterinburg-Sochi, Yekaterinburg-Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg-Mineralnye Vody, Chelyabinsk-Anapa. Prices start from RUR 4,000.