UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 4, 2020. The local round of Open Innovations Startup Tour will take place at Ural Hi Tech Park in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region, on March 16-17, the event coordinators report. The application process has by now closed, but anyone can still come to the contest and talk to experts; admission is free, you’ll only need to sign up for the event. During the Startup Tour, experts from Skolkovo Foundation and other leading development institutes will share their experience of liaising with tech entrepreneurs outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Government officials,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 4, 2020. The housing developer Brusnika expanded its own home trade-in program to satellite towns near Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, and Surgut, the company’s press service reports. ‘Last year’s economic recession and increased government regulation in the housing construction sector (the launch of project financing and escrow accounts) made Russia’s construction market shrink a bit, which resulted in rising housing prices. According to DOM.RF, 28% of all the apartment buildings currently under construction or recently commissioned in Russia (2,790 buildings,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 4, 2020. EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center’s Leading Expert Larisa Tolmacheva won the company’s beauty pageant Krasa EVRAZa 2020, the company’s press service reports. Larisa Tolmacheva proved the best among the the ten finalists from EVRAZ Holding Ural’s member enterprises. Leading Expert at EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant’s Project Management Directorate Natalya Napolskikh also won as Miss Internet. ‘For their final round of the contest, the women created video presentations of their personal achievements and prepared creative

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 4, 2020. Ural Airlines will be operating direct flights from Samara to holiday destinations in Russia and abroad this summer: passengers flying from Samara will be able to get to Tivat, Baku, Yerevan, Dushanbe, Khujand, Anapa, Simferopol, and Sochi at affordable prices. ‘Samara-Tivat flights are new on the summer program. You can fly to Montenegro every Saturday starting May 30. Prices start from RUB 16,286/€231 (one way) and from RUB 33,770/€479 (there and back). Samara-Baku flights are also new on the international program. The flights will get operated on Mondays

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 3, 2020. MMK Group’s member enterprise MMK-InformService completed its project, a unified management system for the IT processes running within the Group, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘The Naumen Service Desk-based ITSM solution ensures timely, good quality processing of user queries within MMK Group’s member enterprises,’ the company says. MMK-InformService had all the basis IT processes within the company automated (including incident management, service requests, and configuration item management). Now the work involving interconnected service

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 3, 2020. President of Chelyabinsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs and Chair of the Board of Directors at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov chaired the union board meeting on Friday, February 28, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. MMK Abzakovo Ski Resort served as the venue for the event. Officials from Chelyabinsk Region Government’s economic bloc, Russian State Duma and Legislative Assembly deputies, a Federation Council senator, Chelyabinsk Region’s Business Rights Commissioner, local mayors, and members of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 3, 2020. The share of overdue loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers reached 3.96% of all the local loans as of January 1, 2020, RIA Novosti’s research findings indicate. This makes Sverdlovsk Region No. 36 in the overall rating of Russian Federation constituencies [the lower the share of NPLs, the higher the rating score - Ed.]. In 2019, the share of overdue loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers dropped by 0.9%, whilst the overall loan debt increased by 16.2% in the course of one year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 3, 2020. Foundry Department at EVRAZ West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK) has produced 4,000,000,000 kg worth of cast work since the launch date, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. ‘The plant’s metallurgists cast a 20,000-kg steel cinder pot and a special anniversary plate in the course of a solemn ceremony. The plate will get installed on the company’s office building in memory of the historic event,’ the company says. The plant’s Foundry Department makes spare parts for EVRAZ and for the holding’s ore-mining member

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 3, 2020. Andrei Komarov got reelected as Chair of the Board of Directors at ChelPipe Group; he also got elected Chair of the company’s Corporate Governance Committee; the decision to this effect was taken during the BOD’s latest meeting unanimously. ‘The new Board of Directors now includes Chair of the BOD at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) Alexander Fedorov, Director-General at Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) Boris Kovalenkov, ChelPipe Director for Economic Issues & Strategy Dina Mikryukova, and three independent directors: professor of business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2020. Rosenergoatom/Rosatom Corporation’s Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant in Zarechny is getting its BN 600 Reactor halted for scheduled preventive maintenance, Rosenergoatom’s press service reports. ‘On March 2, 2020, Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s Power-Generating Unit 3 with its BN 600 Reactor will get disconnected for fuel recharging, scheduled maintenance, and preventive repair,’ the press service says. ‘The fast-fission reactors get halted for scheduled preventive maintenance twice a year, during which time experts replace about 25% of fuel rod

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2020. The current panic on the global finance markets might result in the U.S. dollar reaching the price of RUB 70/USD 1 on the Russian market next week, experts say. It is said the end of the week came with storms in the ruble’s safe haven: the spread of the coronavirus brought with it an increase in the ruble bonds’ profitability, a drop in the price of shares, and even more doubts as to what (if anything) could be done given the current state of affairs. ‘The only thing that can be predicted at the moment is that as soon as the markets reach their all-time low

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2020. The inventions patented and launched at EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) over the last five years resulted in RUB 300m worth of savings, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. ‘The metallurgical workers’ inventions aim to improve produce quality, reduce the company’s environmental impact, cut down on energy spending, and increase the equipment’s working life,’ the company says. The number of improvement proposals and invention projects submitted by the plant’s workers rose by 1.5 times in the last few

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2020. OOO FORES’s Sukhoi Log branch installed the model of the plant at Kindergarten 43, the company’s press service reports. ‘The pre-schoolers can now learn about the plant’s production cycle from the miniature plant installed by FORES workers in a separate room, rather than from mere pictures and stories. The model (scale: 1:30) got installed at the kindergarten last fall. FORES employees thought it would be a good idea to build a miniature plant there after the children went on a guided tour of Sukhoi Log branch. The children were quite impressed with their

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2020. The number of people in the military who used their government subsidies to take out a mortgage for a place in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy doubled last year against the year 2018, the developer RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘RSG-Akademicheskoye believes the wide range of homes to choose from is among the key factors making the military mortgage program such a success. All the apartment buildings in Blizky and Preobrazhensky Quarters with homes for sale have been backed up by Rosvoyenipoteka, which means apartments there can be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2020. Senior Roll Designer at EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK) Andrei Dobryanski won the 20th All-Russian Engineer of The Year 2019 Contest in Ferrous Metallurgy, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. During the solemn ceremony at the Russian Union of Scientific and Engineering Associations in Moscow, Dobryanski received the contest medal and honorary badge. His name has also been placed on Russia’s Professional Engineers Register. ‘Andrei Dobryanski contributed greatly to the large-scale reconstruction

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 28, 2020. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is hosting RPA Connect 4.0 Conference on its premises today, February 27, the company’s Information & PR Department reports. The event gets coordinated by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works and MMK Group’s MMK-InformService; UiPath, Gartner, Deloitte, GazInformService, and Dbrain act as the partners for the event. ‘During the conference, Russian and international IT and business digitization leaders will share their best robotic process automation practices in production and industry; they will give talks on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2020. Ural Airlines will start operating a new, nonstop Yakutsk-Yekaterinburg flight on May 19, 2020. Passengers flying from Yakutsk will be able to get directly to Yekaterinburg and from then to Saint Petersburg and back, the air carrier’s press service says. The flights will be available throughout the summer and then through October 21, 2020. Flight U6 256 Yakutsk-Yekaterinburg-Saint Petersburg will get operated every Wednesday; flight U6 255 Saint Petersburg-Yekaterinburg-Yakutsk will get operated every Tuesday. Prices start from RUB 14,865 (one way) for

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 28, 2020. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the 11th International Metal & Steel 2020 Exhibition, the company’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘The exhibition is held on February 27-29. Egypt is one of the key countries in the Middle East and a priority export market for MMK. In 2019, the plant supplied over 100,000,000 kg of metal goods to he Arab Republic of Egypt, meaning it was our third largest market abroad. MMK supplied 765,000,000 kg of metal produce to customers in the Middle East last year all in all, which

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 28, 2020. Ural Airlines will now act as Spartak Moscow Football Club’s official air carrier; it was announced in the course of a special press conference at Otkrytiye Arena Stadium on February 27 that the agreement to this affect had been signed. According to the air carrier’s press service, the two parties signed an agreement that will be valid for the next 3.5 years (through the summer of 2023). Ural Airlines’ logo and colors will now get featured in the club’s advertising spaces during the Russian Premier League home games. The airline will also be able to use

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2020. The number of consumer loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers dropped by 12.3% in January 2020 compared with one year earlier, the National Credit History Bureau’s research findings indicate. According to the Bureau, 42,000 consumer loans got issued last month, compared with 47,928 loans issued in January 2019. In Russia on the whole, 1.27 million consumer loans got issued in January 2020, which was 13.4% less than in January 2019.