UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. The Forbes magazine recently carried its rating of Russia’s one hundred most reliable banks for the year 2018; SKB-Bank was among the banks included, the bank’s press service reports. The rating was based on the data supplied by international and national rating agencies and the banks’ financial performance indicators. Banks got selected along the following criteria: an assigned rating (and the overall number thereof), asset volume starting from RUR 10bn, and private individuals’ deposits amounting to over 3% of the bank’s liabilities. According to Forbes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) made over 1,300,000 kg of H beams suitable for making metal structures in 2017; these will be used for building the necessary infrastructure for Amur Gas Processing Plant, and the supply of beams onto the plant will continue this year as well. According to EVRAZ Holding’s press service, the plant made H beams in nineteen different types for Russia’s largest natural gas processing plant. Some of the beams are made from low-allowed Steel 345. EVRAZ NTMK’s product range currently comprises more than

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2018. Internet traffic doubled against the usual Saturday amount in downtown Yekaterinburg early in the morning on March 24, 2018, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘The city’s TV tower turned into the most coveted photo shooting spot and a filming location: shots of how the workers prepared to demolish the tower and how they had it pulled down, and videos of the end result filled all social networks and messengers,’ the press service says. Not only Yekaterinburg residents but also people from Sverdlovsk Region’s smaller towns such as Sukhoi Log, Berezovsky,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2018. Ural Airlines switched to summer schedule on March 25, 2018; this schedule will apply through October 27, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. This summer, Ural Airlines came up with convenient travel connections across Russia as well as in the CIS member states and the rest of the world. Most of the usual summer flights will be operated as usual, and more flights will be introduced for the most popular destinations. There will be plenty of flights to Simferopol operated from Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, Samara,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Customer Care Team won the second prize in Crystal Headset Contest as the Best Feedback & Complaints Team. Crystal Headset is an established contact center and customer care center contest. The judges’ panel had to assess nearly three hundred companies in 2017/2018, which proved a record-setting number in the history of the event. The contesting companies operate in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan; they all submitted their applications and essays for consideration,’ the bank’s

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 26, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) saved roughly RUR 1bn through a number of energy-saving projects last year, MMK Information & PR Department reports. ‘We took steps to improve our energy efficiency on all of the plant’s production sites. Just like in the previous years, the company’s efforts to save more power were multifold. For one, we encouraged the development and launch of energy-saving technologies and appliances. 807 energy-saving ideas got presented and processed and 148 projects got launched as a result in 2017 alone. This saved the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2018. A passenger transfer control center was set up in Sverdlovsk Region as part of World Cup 2018 preparations; Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s decree to this effect is now available on the official legal information portal. Under the terms of this decree, the new center will be in charge of monitoring passenger vehicles that will transfer spectators, football supporters, and FIFA customer groups from place to place. The center will be run by Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Transport Minister Dmitri Brusyanin, with Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Council Evgeny

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2018. Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport (a member of Regional Airports Group) switches to spring/summer flight schedule on March 25, the company press service reports. Flights to over a hundred destinations, including some fifty international ones, are currently operated from Yekaterinburg. These flights are offered by forty-six different air carriers. The new timetable is special in that more flights are now offered in popular directions both within Russia and internationally. There will be more domestic flights bound for the Black Sea resorts, with up to five

UrBC, Moscow March 26, 2018. The Bank of Russia’s Board of Directors brought the regulator’s refinancing rate down by 0.25%, to 7.25% a year, the bank’s website states. The decision was taken due to lowered inflation rate expectations. According to the bank’s forecast, the yearly inflation rate is expected to amount to 3%-4% by the end of 2018 and will fluctuate within 4% range in 2019. ‘Given these trends, the Bank of Russia will keep decreasing the key rate and will fully switch to neutral monetary policy in 2108,’ the website states. The Bank of Russia BOD’s next meeting has been scheduled

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2018. ChelPipe Group shareholder and Chair of the BOD Andrei Komarov took part in Speakers Nights in Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO on March 20. Around five hundred people came to event, the company press service reports. During his public lecture, Komarov talked about the origin of their White-Coated Metallurgy as a concept, about how the company philosophy affected their business performance indicators, about the challenges the business faced when introducing new industrial production standards, and about the incentives that can help encourage companies

Sintering plant conveyor operator from EVRAZ Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Plant (KGOK) Yulia Ostankova won the first prize in the company skills contest/beauty pageant EVRAZ 2018, outstripping nine other finalists, all of whom are employed with EVRAZ Holding Ural’s member enterprises. This is the sixth time this women-only contest has been held. This year’s theme goes along the lines of A Place to Work, A Place to Live. The finalists created video clips featuring their favorite spots in Nizhniy Tagil and Kachkanar. During the preparatory stages of the contest, they coordinated a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2018. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev had all the applications for the concept of EXPO Park in Yekaterinburg processed by now, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. Agence d'Architecture A. Bechu & Associés won in Best Urban Development Concept category. The architects suggested creating poly-functional infrastructure within the prospective EXPO Park. The second prize in this category went to the Yekaterinburg-based architecture group In.Form, and the third prize went to the Moscow-based design office Arena. Ural

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2018. A new stage begins in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy, as builders started working on a unique new quarter in Ryabinin St-Akademik Sakharov St-Wilhelm de Gennin St-Timofeyev-Resovsky St, KORTROS Group’s RSG-Akademicheskoye reports. According to RSG-Akademicheskoye’s Director-General Viktor Krivoshein, the new ‘embankment quarter’ will represent a totally new level or urban and architectural solutions. At the heart of the new block will be a pedestrian area on the River Patrushikha. The embankment is meant to connect the new section with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2018. The price of diesel fuel went up from RUR 41,300 to RUR 47,800 per 1,000 liters in the course of one year, acting Agriculture & Food Minister of Sverdlovsk Region Vladimir Grebnev said at Sverdlovsk Region Government committee meeting today. ‘According to Gazpromneft Regional Sales, the price of diesel fuel reached RUR 47,800 per 1,000 liters on March 15. I’d like to stress that exactly one year earlier, the price was RUR 41,300 per 1,000 liters,’ the official said. Acting Minister is worried such a considerable price increase (+15.7%) will result in

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 22, 2018. ChelPipe Group had its pipes with premium threaded joints rebranded recently: the produce will now get branded as ЧТПЗ Прайм on the Russian market and as ChelPipe Prime on the international ones, the company press service reports. ‘ChelPipe Prime stands for the company’s unique approach to production process and its philosophy of transformation known as White-Coated Metallurgy. The rebranding is part of the Group’s strategy for development and promotion of new product types,’ says the Group’s Director-General Boris Kovalenkov. ‘Given the expected increase in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Three administrative offense lawsuits have been instigated in Sverdlovsk Region following hotels overcharging their prospective customers on the World Football Championship 2018 days, local division of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor reports. The Russian Government actually issued a special Decree on Government Regulation of Hotel Accommodation Prices in Russian Federation Constituencies Hosting FIFA World Football Championship 2018 and FIFA Confederation Cup 2017. Rospotrebnadzor also determined that certain businesses provided accommodation

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. The average asking price currently comes to RUR 68,040 per m2 on Yekaterinburg existing homes market; this is 0.4% more than four weeks previously and 1% more than one year earlier, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s Analytical Department reports. Prices have been going up a little in all locations. For one, housing prices rose by as much as 4.1% in downtown Yekaterinburg in the course of four weeks, with asking price currently at RUR 98,333 per m2. As for existing homes in Yekaterinburg’s second and third most expensive locations just outside the centrally

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Yekaterinburg Underground confirmed that the city’s defunct TV tower would get pulled down in the near future. ‘As the blasting/special-purpose jobs operator AO RVS is going to be pulling down the radio and TV tower at 15 Stepan Razin St, and in accordance with Yekaterinburg Council’s Decree 514 as of March 19, 2018 (On Traffic Shutdown in Stepan Razin St and Dekabristov St and Cancellation of Underground Trains from Ploschad 1905 to Botanicheskaaya Stations), no trains will be operated from Ploschad 1905 to Botanicheskaaya in both directions between 9 AM

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region Government came up with a list of local roads and highways that will undergo repairs this year, the plan is to draw up the project documentation for the needed construction and reconstruction jobs and overhauls, the Mid-Urals Information Policy Department reports. There are now eighty road sections on this list, with some of them transferred over from last year. The list covers the sections that need fixing particularly urgently because they are responsible for connecting the more remote villages and settlements to the rest of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 21, 2018. EVRAZ Holding acted as a sponsor for the International Big Helmet Judo Championship in Yekaterinburg on March 17-18, 2018. Thirty-five countries competed in the event this year, with best sports players from Russia, Japan, France, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, and Kazakhstan fighting for the first prize. ‘Supporting sports in the territories where the holding runs its business is EVRAZ’s top charity/CRS priority. The company has been investing in a self-defense and judo classes in Kachkanar for over a decade now; we also sponsor our Uralochka NTMK volleyball