UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 30, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s member enterprises Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) and Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK) coordinated a professional skills contest among their young executives and managers, with over 240 employees taking part. According to the holding’s press service, the competition started at the beginning of summer. The contestants had to get interviewed by an experts’ panel, prove that they can process both verbal and numerical data efficiently, cope with production challenges, and do some teamwork. The two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 30, 2018. MasterCard owners who had their cards issued by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) can now enjoy the perks of Apple Pay, the bank’s press service reports. To start using Apple Pay, the cardholders need to add their credit/debit MasterCard to their Wallet App. Apple Pay is available on iPhone SE, iPhone 6, and all the later versions, as well as on Apple Watch. Apple Pay meets all the current financial security and privacy/confidentiality requirements. Whatever card type gets added to the Apple Pay system, no card number gets stored

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 30, 2018. Kuzbass’s largest energy facility, Zapadno-Sibirskaya Power Station was founded exactly fifty-five years ago this month. The station is in charge of providing power supply to EVRAZ Holding’s West Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works’ production site and heating supply to residents of Novokuznetsk’s Zavodskoy and Novoilyinsky Quarters, EVRAZ’s press service reports. The station has put out over 142bn kilowatt-hours worth of energy (five times more than the entire Kemerovo Region needs in a year) and more than 140m gigacalories of heat (enough to keep

UrBC, Moscow, August 29, 2018. MegaFon now offers flat-rate Internet access to customers who subscribed to the company’s popular payment plans, the mobile carrier’s press service reports. ‘The unlimited Internet access option is now available free of charge and can get signed up for through the customers’ online accounts. New customers won’t need to do even that, as the flat-rate access is already included in the payment plans,’ the press service says. The offer applies to five new payment plans introduced in June that also cover special offers on voice calls, TV/video viewing, and listening

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 29, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Group is holding its annual Metallurgical Family of The Year Contest again, the company press service reports. The contest is supported by MMK Group’s trade union and is open to trade union members’ families with two or more children. ‘The goal is to promote families and family values as a crucial part of a community’s socioeconomic development, help families feel more spiritual unity, and offer a proactive family recreation option. Additionally, we hope to encourage the younger generations’ aesthetic and spiritual

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 29, 2018. Russian Railways have to pay a 100,000-ruble fine for traffic safety violations in Yekaterinburg once again, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports. Rostechnadzor’s recent inspection of the company’s local facilities revealed quite a few cases of non-compliance related to shortage of the necessary tech equipment and an insufficient number of safety/entry checkpoints. It was also determined that even the individuals who failed to meet the traffic/transport safety access requirements were still allowed to enter Russian Railways’ restricted

UrBC, Moscow, August 29, 2018. The majority of Russians who contributed to a recent opinion survey (87%) said they would have to reconsider vacationing in Turkey if the country gave up on its all-inclusive meal and entertainment options, OneTwoTrip’s press service refers to the company’s survey findings as indicating. 67% of respondents explained they would have to start price-comparing Turkey with other countries for the best value for money offers. Another 20% said they would stop going to Turkey for their vacations altogether if the AI options were no longer available at hotels. Now the

UrBC, Moscow, August 29, 2018. Approximately every one in ten Russian loan-takers (12.5%) have to direct 50% or more of their monthly income to repay their loans as of January-June 2018, Izvestia reports. Three years previously (January-June 2015) their share was actually 15.14%. According to the Bank of Russia, the decrease in the number of heavily debt-burdened borrowers has to do with the fact that quite a few mortgage-takers have recently gone for the refinancing schemes available to them.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 28, 2018. A project to help children in and recently out of Yekaterinburg’s foster homes and live-in schools to learn to blog professionally is about to begin: this is part of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Children Believe in Miracles Charity Program, the bank’s press service reports. Experienced teachers, many of whom are successful bloggers themselves, will help the aspiring blog writers to improve their knowledge of the Internet. Experts from a local children’s programming school will offer a lecture and a workshop on blogging. Children in

UrBC, Moscow, August 28, 2018. Russian nationals will start getting assigned a personal credit rating after the latest amendments on the Credit History Act come into effect next year, Rossiyskaya Gazeta refers to acting Director-General of United Credit Bureau Nikolay Myasnikov as saying. According to Myasnikov, the rating will look like a score assigned on the basis of various credit history parameters such as past-due payments, loan burdens, the number of times someone’s credit history check has been applied for, and how long a person’s credit history is. ‘The lower the score, the higher

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 28, 2018. V.A. Sorokin Customs at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport detained a passenger traveling from Harbin to Yekaterinburg who chose the green channel despite having three large boxes with him, Koltsovo Customs’ press service reports. The unpacking of the boxes revealed large amounts of women’s shoes bundled inside. All of the shoes (210 units, 46 kg all in all) were the right-leg odd ones. The detained Chinese national explained he was flying to Moscow via Yekaterinburg in order to take part in a footwear exhibition (which is why he only took samples along).

UrBC, Moscow, August 28, 2018. The Russian Government decided to go through with a gasoline and diesel fuel price increase (+RUR 3,700 and + RUR 2,700 per 1,000 liters, respectively) starting January 1, 2019, Interfax refers to Vice Premier Dmitri Kozak as stating. ‘The decision has been made. The excise duty payments will go back to the amounts originally proposed for July 1, 2018,’ Kozak is quoted as saying. The government official insists the increase in excise duty payments will not result in a drastic increase in gas prices. ‘No prices are expected to soar. In any case, our plan is to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 28, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state-run consumer rights watchdog) inspected 35,000 kg of dairy foods in the first six months of 2018, finding 2,600 kg (7.4%) faulty, the agency’s press service reports. The problems uncovered were the same as usual: failure to comply with the normative requirements, technical regulations on the foods’ quality, and adulteration issues. Sverdlovsk Region Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology looked into 8,975 dairy foods samples in the first half of 2018 to check for microbiological parameters; 522 samples

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 27, 2018. MMK Group-run and -sponsored Metallurg Charity Foundation coordinated a meeting to discuss the upcoming School Start Day in Magnitogorsk, MMK press service reports. The meeting was attended by heads of local children’s clubs and schools, Head of Magnitogorsk Social Welfare Department Irina Mikhailenko, Head of Magnitogorsk Education Department Natalya Safonova, members of Metallurg’s Board, and a number of sponsors. MMK allocated more than RUR 145 for its multi-aspect children’s support project in the seven months of 2018; School Start Day celebrations are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 27, 2018. Yekaterinburg-based travel company Fond Mira announced it was going into liquidation and was no longer offering international travel services. According to Rostourism’s press service, the company will now get written off the list of Tourpomoshch Association and will eventually get its personal liability fund money back. Starting August 24, a list of the company’s third-party liabilities will get made and extended. Fond Mira’s management claims, however, that all of its obligations will have been settled by then already. Still, an ad hoc support center and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 27, 2018. MMK Group’s member enterprise MMK-Ugol launched new filtering facilities at its Kostromovskaya Mine; incidentally, the mine started operating exactly ten years ago this month. Provisional Governor of Kemerovo Region Sergey Tsivilev and MMK’s Director-General Pavel Shilyayev both attended the opening ceremony, the company press service reports. The plant’s new filtering system will get introduced in several steps. First, the plant’s mafiuacturing water will now get filtered additionally at the speed of 405 m3/hour (rather than 300-400 m3/hour as was the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 27, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) and Nizhniy Novgorod Region’s Agriculture Ministry reached an agreement on preferential-terms lending for local agricultural businesses and farms. This means the UBRD is now among the authorized banks that joined the preferential-terms lending program (with backup/compensation from Nizhniy Novgorod Region’s budget funds), the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s Nizhniy Novgorod branch has already signed a 150-million-ruble lending agreement with Linda Group. The loan has been issued for a

UrBC, Moscow, August 27, 2018. Only one in three Russian travelers (33%) buys a guided tour from their tour operator when vacationing abroad, tutu.ru’s press service refers to the travel service’s recent survey findings as indicating. Every one in two respondents (49%) said they were their own guides, that is, they normally rented a car or used public transport to get to the famous landmarks. 18% of those surveyed tend to book their guided tours from a street booth. In their opinion, this is often less expensive than buying from a tour operator.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 24, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) came to RUR 5.621bn in the first half of 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by as much as 168%, the company press service reports. The company’s revenues amounted to RUR 94.941bn in the first half of the year, up 31% on a year earlier. The Group’s gross profits came to RUR 23.477bn (+36% on a year earlier). ChelPipe Group’s EBITDA increased to 17.1%. According to the company’s analysts, this was due to improved performance through larger output

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 24, 2018. EVRAZ Holding opened a Miners’ Dynasties Photo Exhibition in Mezhdurechensk in celebration of the upcoming Miner’s Day, the holding’s press service reports. There are twenty photographs in the exhibition altogether, featuring families of Kuzbass miners from Mezhdurechensk, Novokuznetsk, and Malinovka; the photos were taken by Pavel Markelov and Denis Rassokhin. The collection is now housed by the city’s Exhibition Hall. The people in the photographs are six labor dynasties: the Kutzes from Raspadskaya-Kokskovaya Mine, the Titovs and the