UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s court officers have issued more than 32,000 warrants since the start of the year that impose a temporary ban on local debtors’ traveling abroad. Their accumulated debt currently comes to more than RUR 27bn, the local division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers reports. The warrants touched upon 3,496 non-payers of child support, whose consolidated debt amounts to over RUR 1.3bn. 3,000 warrants have to do with people with unpaid housing bills, who owe their suppliers some RUR 3m. As for fines, including traffic ones, 4,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2018. MegaFon.Target proved a particularly popular service with the state-run organizations in March, the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘Telecom analysts say March has been the ‘smartest’ month this year so far, with a record-setting number of ‘smart’ text messages sent to local users’ smartphones. State-run organizations and companies sent locals thirteen times more bespoke texts in the first spring month than one year earlier,’ the press service says. Sverdlovsk Philharmonic, multi-service community centers, city clinics and

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 19, 2018. A new 50-megawatt steam turbine will soon get installed at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Central Power Station, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The new equipment will increase the station’s output considerably and will make the entire plant’s power system more reliable and more technologically advanced. The steam turbine T 42/50 will get delivered by Ural Turbine Plant in April or early May. The contract was only signed after all the technical solutions had been worked on, and following a tender procedure. The new

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2018. Ural Airlines recently introduced E-Assistant (a chat bot) to help every passenger get ready for their flight, the air carrier’s press service says. The electronic assistant is an automated service that provides a customer with all the necessary information relating to booking flights and extra options. To use the bot, you have to look for ‘UralAirlines’ or ‘@uralairlines_bot’ on Telegram or join the airline’s VKontakte group and use the ‘Send A Message’ function. ‘Your personal assistant is always there for you: the chat bot is online 24/7 to answer your

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) used 5.2m m3 less water from Nizhniy Tagil Reservoir in 2017 compared with one year previously, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The plant’s other conservation measures include replacement of old water conduits, repairs of the plant’s water-cooling towers and pumping equipment, and filtering of intermediary ponds where water gets filtered from pollutants (with the pollutants transferred to special recycling wells). In addition to mechanical filtering of water, EVRAZ

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, April 18, 2018. ChelPipe Group and Ozersk Council signed a cooperation agreement that will touch upon culture, education, and social welfare projects. The agreement was signed during the M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk Opera House’s board of trustees’ meeting. According to the Group’s press service, the paper was signed by head of ChelPipe Group’s charity and social welfare projects Olga Stebunova and Deputy Mayor of Ozersk Oleg Lange; Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky, ChelPipe Group’s shareholder Andrei Komarov, and Mayor of Ozersk Evgeny Scherbakov also attended the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region home owners and tenants owed RUR 27.2bn in housing bills at the end of 2017. The amount of bad debt reached as much as RUR 1bn, Sverdlovksstat reports. As of 2016, the overall amount of unpaid housing bills stood at RUR 23.7bn, which means the debt figures rose by 14.8% in the course of one year. The current per capita debt amount comes to RUR 2,174.5, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 4%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index rose by 11.2% in January-March 2018 compared with one year previously, Sverdlovskstat reports. The IPI went up by as much as 13.5% in the processing sector and declined by 6.4% and 11.8% in the industry for production and distribution of electric power, natural gas, and steam and in the fossil production sector, respectively. As for March 2018, the constituency’s IPI rose by 16.7% against February 2018 and by 13.5% against March 2017.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s unemployment rate amounted to 5% in the first quarter of 2018, Sverdlovskstat reports. The statistical data got processed based on the International Labour Organization (ILO) standards. There were about 2,044,000 Sverdlovsk Region locals in the workforce in January-March 2018 and about 106,600 people out of jobs. One year previously, the unemployment rate was 6.1%.

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2018. MegaFon’s Internet traffic rose 14 times against the usual weekend amount during Yekaterinburg Arena opening and Ural-Spartak football game last Sunday night, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. ‘Not only locals and visitors from Moscow were eager to see the newly reconstructed stadium and the game itself: according to our traffic data, smartphone owners arrived from Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Surgut, Syktyvkar, Izhevsk, Nizhniy Tagil, Novouralsk, and Kamensk-Uralsky. They used their devices to broadcast the game online and send photos and videos at the speed

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2018. ChelPipe Group recently launched a shot-blasting machine to clean its steel pipes from the inside; this required over RUR 22m in investments, the Group’s press service reports. The project is part of the plant’s production upgrades program for its ChelPipe Prime premium threaded joints, currently manufactured at the company’s Finishing Center. The shot-blasting machine is meant for cleaning the pipes from excess cinder that is a by-product of the thermal treatment of pipes made from 13Cr steel (diameter: 60 mm to 178 mm; length: 7 m to 12 m). These pipes

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, April 17, 2018. A group of Yekaterinburg delegates came to Magnitogorsk to take a tour of sites and facilities supported by MMK Group’s Metallurg Charity Foundation, the plant’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The delegation was chaired by Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Minister for Social Policy Sergey Zolotov and directors of Nizhniy Tagil-based centers. The goal was to look into Metallurg’s practices of involving non-profit organizations in the social welfare sector. The visitors learned about the performance of the foundation’s partner organizations:

UrBC,Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Qarshi, Uzbekistan, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flight will be operated every Tuesday and Wednesday (Moscow-Qarshi) and every Tuesday and Thursday (Qarshi-Moscow) starting from May 2, 2018. ‘This new scheduled flight will give our passengers a great opportunity to plan their vacations or business trips. Once in Moscow, you can use our convenient connecting flights to other Russian cities as well to international destinations. All of our flights are operated on

UrBC,Moscow, April 17, 2018. UC RUSAL, recently sanctioned by the U.S., lost 28.43% of its share value at Hong Kong Exchange. According to Kommersant, the price dropped down to HKD 1.46 per share by 9:55 AM Moscow time. This is the all-time low since the day the shares were first listed at Hong Kong Exchange back in 2010. The share price first went down to HKD 1.63 by 6:05 AM Moscow time (-20.1%). Up till now, the lowest price points were HKD 2.09 on June 12, 2016, HKD 2.13 on January 17, 2016, and HKD 2.19 on November 17, 2013. The United States imposed sanctions on a number of Russian

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 16, 2018. ChelPipe Group is going to take part in the International Neftegaz 2018 Exhibition with its White Well Project (currently unique to the national oil and gas market). According to the company press service, White Well stands for a multi-faceted approach to oil production, with careful, custom-picked selection, production, and supply of submersible equipment and after-sale services. ‘White Well mainly focuses on complicated, salinization-affected and residue-stained types of wells. The synergy that results from the combined potential of the Group’s assets,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 16, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) funded the electronic equipment needed at Nizhniy Tagil Live-In School 1 as part of the Good Deed Relay Race, EVRAZ Holding’s PR Department reports. Workers from the plant’s Senior Power Engineer’s Department gave the school a multi-functional appliance that works as a scanner/printer/photocopier and two 100+ cm TV screens. They also repaired the metalwork and turning equipment in the arts and crafts classroom and replaced the sockets and power circuits there. Following the school

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 16, 2018. MegaFon’s engineers set up the base station Vyzhivshiy (The Revenant) in Sabetta, a settlement in Yamal Peninsula, MegaFon Ural’s press service says. The station, located on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, was named after the Leonardo DiCaprio film (where the main character survives in extreme weather conditions). Even now, when most people are enjoying the spring warmth, it still feels like 22 degrees centigrade below zero in Sabetta. ‘Sabetta is situation far up in the North. This is an extremely cold and windy place, with mountains of snow. The location

UrBC, Moscow, April 16, 2018. In case the counter-sanctions bill gets adopted in response to the United States’ anti-Russia policies, Russia will stop supplying titanium needed for making Boeing planes to America, RIA Novosti refers to Council of the Federation’s Chair of Budget Committee Sergey Ryabukhin as stating. The State Duma is currently considering a draft bill on reacting to the U.S.’ actions; among the proposals are a ban/a limitation on the U.S. parties taking goods and equipment made from rare metals out of the country. Titanium, which is needed in Boeing’s production cycle, is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 16, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based businesses and organizations owed their employees 14.3% more in unpaid wages and salaries on April 1, 2018 compared with one month earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. ‘According to data provided by companies outside the small-business sector, their consolidated arrears of wages amounted to RUR 1.5m, which was RUR 189,000 more than on March 1, 2018,’ the agency says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2018. 1,648,872 people flew with Ural Airlines in the first quarter of 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year previously by 24%, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘The company operated 12,126 flights between January 1 and March 31, 2018, including 6,752 domestic flights, 817 flights to and from the CIS member states, and 2,577 international flights. This was 18% more than in January-March 2017,’ the press service says. 609,133 people flew with the air carrier in March 2018 (up 30% on a year earlier). The airline operated 4,435 flights last month,