UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 17, 2018. MegaFon’s complex solutions help ensure public safety in the Southern Urals. The carrier has recently launched its pilot cloud surveillance project in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, the company press service says. MegaFon’s engineers installed wireless semiautonomous video cameras in the town park. The cameras have a fully enabled face recognition option, even in the dark. As the pilot proved successful, the company intends to have its cameras installed in other parts of the country to help decrease crime rate and prevent acts of vandalism. Also, cameras

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers applying for a car loan got issued RUR 661,500 on average in the first quarter of 2018. This is 17.3% more than three years earlier, the National Credit History Bureau’s analysts state. According to the Bureau, the average car loan amount came to RUR 564,100 in Sverdlovsk Region in QI’15. In Russia on the whole, the average car loan amount rose by 21.4% in the course of three years, that is, from RUR 578,200 in the first quarter of 2015 up to RUR 702,000 in the first quarter of 2018. The average price of a new car went up by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers RUR 822,000 in delayed wages and salaries as of May 1, 2018, Sverdlovskstat reports. This is 1.8 times, or RUR 693,000 less than one month earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2018. 34 different Sverdlovsk Region towns (overall population: 14,000 people) had to face a power outage due to a storm outbreak on May 15, 2018. According to MRSK Urala’s press service, serious technological damage was done to their electric grid infrastructure because of a strong wind (up to 26 m/sec at certain points). ‘Power supply got interrupted at some of our industrial enterprises’ sites after the 110-kilowatt electric mains had been damaged,’ the press service says. Fifty-seven rescue teams (166 people all in all) and sixty-six special-purpose vehicles

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2018. VSMPO Avisma Corporation’s net profit (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) declined by 20%, down to RUR 4.069bn, in the first quarter of 2018 compared with one year earlier. ‘The drop in our net profit had to do with recent changes in our balance sheet items that we have to quote in foreign currency; the ruble exchange rate improving in the first quarter of 2018 against the first quarter of 2017 also proved a factor,’ the company press service says. As for the company’s revenues, these rose by 1% in QI’18 compared with QI’17 and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2018. The amount of refinancing loans issued by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) in the four months of 2018 increased fourfold against the start of the year and amounted to over RUR 527m. According to the bank’s press service, Perm, Tyumen, and Ufa were the top three cities in terms of the growing numbers of loans in January-April, while Yekaterinburg+Sverdlovsk Region, Saint Petersburg, and Ufa were the three cities in terms of the issued loan amounts. Additionally, the bank has received five times more refinancing applications in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2018. The corporate round of the blue-collar jobs championship WorldSkills/WorldSkills Hi Tech took off at ChelPipe Group’s Training Center, the company press service reports. Thirty-four workers from the Group’s pipe-making and oilfield services divisions are competing in the championship. These corporate rounds are the obligatory part of the selection procedure for the Group’s team to take part in the national-level WorldSkills Hi Tech competitions. Young workers aged 18 to 28 are going to compete in seven different categories on May 15-18, 2018. For the first

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2018. MegaFon set up the Urals’ largest mobile base station in Yekaterinburg Arena: the station’s capacity is comparable to that of nine regular units, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. As many as 13,000 people can enjoy reliable Internet connection at once; this is more than a third of a fully booked stadium’s audience. MegaFon’s stadium-based equipment weighs more than 3,500 kg all in all (the weight, roughly, of four football teams). The appliances are placed strategically across the arena’s entire perimeter as well as under spectator

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 16, 2018. Russia’s Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union is going to coordinate the local round of its trade union group organizers’ contest on the premises of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), the company’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The Union’s Best Trade Union Group Organizer Contest is threefold: first, a series of competitions was held directly within companies’ trade union organizations through May 1; next, the second round will be held within Russia’s Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union’s territorial divisions on May

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2018. Ural Airlines are now selling tickets for Moscow-Novosibirsk and Novosibirsk-Moscow flights at a reduced price. According to the air carrier’s press service, the special-price tickets can be had for RUR 5,000 (one way, all fees included, a hot meal, cabin luggage (up to 5 kg) and a piece of luggage (up to 23 kg) included). ‘Our Novosibirsk-Moscow flights get operated up to nine times a week. It will take you three hours and fifty-five minutes to get to your destination. The flight is a good travel option for both people flying to the capital on business and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2018. The solemn opening ceremony of MMK-Dzhoshkunoz-Alabuga Service Center took place in Tatarstan today. The center is a JV run by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and OOO Dzhoshkunoz-Alabuga, a steel stampings manufacturer working for the car industry,’ MMK press service reports. The service center is location in Alabuga, Russia’s largest industrial production-oriented Special Economic Zone. The solemn opening ceremony was attended by President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky, MMK Chair of the BOD Viktor

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) supplied its first batch of railway wheels to Slovakia, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press service reports. NTMK is to deliver some 1,000 freight railcar wheels to the repair company ZOS Trnava this year all in all. ‘ZOS Trnava is EVRAZ Holding’s new customer and one of Europe’s top five railcar repair companies alongside ÖBB TS Werk Knittelfeld (Austria), Kolowag (Bulgaria), FWN (Germany), and SZ-Vit (Slovenia), with all of which the holding does business already,’ the press service says. ‘Orders

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2018. ChelPipe Group had Yandex Data Factory (YDF) solutions for improved OCTG thermal treatment tested at one of its member enterprises, the Group’s press service reports. The tests are carried out at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s Finishing Center; it has been shown that the new solutions can ensure a 3.5% increase in the thermal treatment department’s overall productivity. Yandex experts designed a mathematical model for automatic assignment of the most suitable thermal treatment mode for a particular pipe type. YDF-Hardening Optimizer, an ad hoc piece of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 15, 2018. The average asking price currently comes to RUR 68,146 per m2 on Yekaterinburg’s existing home market, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 2.1%, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The market supply went up by 0.2% in the last month. However, the market is still not recovering, let alone growing. ‘There are some 9,000 apartments and nearly 1,700 rooms in communal apartments on offer in Ural Real Estate Chamber’s database at the moment. Additionally, there are around 730 apartments on offer in satellite towns of Aramil, Berezovsky, Verkhnyaya

UrBC, Moscow, May 15, 2018. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev says the paperwork has been signed relating to the construction of a high-speed railway link connecting Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg; it will take slightly over an hour to get from one city to another, TASS reports. ‘The paper is on the construction of a high-speed railway connecting Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, this is the government’s decree,’ Medvedev said during a meeting with acting Vice Premier. According to the Prime Minister, this is an important, large-scale infrastructure project expected to boost the development

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Visa cardholders keep making contactless payments increasingly more often - with the help of their smartphones. The number of NFC transactions (through Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay) has increased by nine times since the day of the initial launch, the bank’s press service reports. According to Visa, Russia is one of the world’s top three countries in terms of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay users. This has to do with both extensive infrastructure (over 80% of POS terminals can process NFC

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 14, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the 16th IT Leader National Prize in Ferrous Metallurgy, the plant’s press service reports. The prize was awarded for MMK Group’s large-scale software infrastructure upgrade project uniting over sixty different companies. The IT Leader Award was set up in 2002 in order to draw the professional community’s attention to changes in the new digital era and the most successful IT projects in the country. This year’s emphasis was on Managing The Digital Future, which signifies the industry’s turn to digitalization and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2018. Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic rose by 22% in the first four months of the year, up to 2,286,900 people, the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline operated 16,800 flights in January-March 2018, including 9,300 domestic ones, 3,900 flights to and from the NIS member states, and 3,600 international flights. This was 18% more than one year previously. As for the month of April alone, 638,000 people flew with Ural Airlines last month (up 19% on a year earlier). The airline operated 4,700 flights altogether, including 2,600 domestic ones and 1,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2018. RUR 114.3bn worth of taxes got transferred from Sverdlovsk Region to Russia’s consolidated budget in January-April 2018; this exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 9.4%, Russia’s Federal Tax Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division reports. RUR 37.7bn got directed to the federal budget (up 8.2%, or RUR 2.3bn, on a year earlier). Most of the payments (79.5%) stemmed from VAT payments charged on goods and services produced or rendered within the Russian Federation. The VAT payments amounted to RUR 30bn all in all, which was 4.3%, or RUR 1.2bn, more than in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 14, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the federal consumer rights watchdog) inspected 277 hotel websites and 279 locations by May 7, 2018 to determine that in eleven cases, hotels were trying to overcharge their potential guests during the World Cup days, the division’s press service reports. The checks are part of an action plan to prevent any violation of the Russian Government’s Decree On State Regulation of Hotel Accommodation Services in FIFA World Football Championship 2018 and FIFA Cup 2017 Hosting Federal Constituencies. As a result, four