UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 17, 2017. The amount of Internet traffic processed at Sverdlovsk Region-based shopping malls doubled this year, while the number of smartphones used there went up by 20%, the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s press service reports. Smartphones are now a customer’s best shopping helper. According to Nielsen analysts, Russian shoppers tend to rely on their smartphones to collect product information: 53% visit more than one website to find the best price offer, and 52% resort to social network discussions to make a decision. Quite a few do a price match online

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. New homes will be put up for sale in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District’s Preobrazhensky Quarter in late April or early May 2017, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s Deputy Director Filipp Tretyakov says. ‘Ready-to-move-in homes have always been and remain our priority. This year, around 10% to 15% of new apartments were funded within the participatory share lending schemes; if this offer enjoys demand, the figure is likely to go up to 30%,’ he explains. Apartments on offer through participatory share lending contracts are now available in Preobrazhensky Quarter,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Ural Airlines are offering free tickets for domestic flights to the Great Patriotic War veterans on the eve of Victory Day, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting from April 17, 2017, fully funded economy class tickets are available to war veterans; people accompanying them on their flight can get theirs at a 90% discount. Flights will be operated from Moscow to Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Mineralnye Vody, Novisbirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi, Tomsk, Ulan Ude, Ufa, and Yekaterinburg on May

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. ChTPZ Group shareholder Andrei Komarov signed an agreement to finance a children’s musical school at Chelyabinsk Opera House this year, the company’s PR Department reports. On April 12, the agreement was signed in M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk Academic Opera & Ballet Theater during Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Boris Dubrovsky’s meeting with the theater’s board of trustees (where the Group’s shareholders Andrei Komarov and Alexander Fedorov are members). During the meeting, a presentation was made of Dream Kaleidoscope, a family musical featuring the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Ural Airlines are to operate a special flight to bring the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to the Urals, the air carrier’s press service says. A large delegation from Yekaterinburg Diocese is heading for the Holy Land to take part in the Holy Fire ceremony. Their trip was funded by Russian Copper Company,’ the press service says. The delegation comprises local parish goers, benefactors, and a quite a few teachers and heads of educational establishments. While in the Holy Land, they will go on guided tours of major Jerusalem pilgrimage destinations and will get to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 14, 2017. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems will direct 1.1bn RUR to repairing grids in the Greater Urals this year, the company press service reports. Most of the funds will be spent on repairing electric mains: 7,400 insulators are to get replaced, over 1,400 supporting beams will have to be repaired, and 432 km of ground wires are to be assembled. Also, it will be necessary to pull down around a thousand trees that might obstruct the mains and clear 5,700 hectares of main lines. Additionally, substations commutation equipment needs to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) successfully underwent an audit procedure to prove its compliance with the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management standards, the Group’s PR Department reports. The plant’s environmental management system was found both functional and suitable. TÜV Rheinland Cert GmbH auditors looked into how well the plant met the environmental protection regulations and industrial environmental safety standards for pipe manufacturers. That PNTZ now holds an environmental management compliance certificate means the plant

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Sverdlovsk Region’s Senior Federal Inspector Andrei Berezovsky made a tour of Russian Copper Company’s Uralgidromed’s production sites, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. The visit to the plant took place on April 11 as part of the inspector’s business trip to Polevskoy. Uralgidromed’s Director-General Nikolai Azarov told the visitor about the know-hows of hydro-metallurgical production process that the company relies on. A special discussion was held on environmental protection solutions the plant has been implementing. ‘Uralgidromed has been

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Russian Copper Company’s Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant’s (KMEZ) copper-smelting department made 38,900,000 kg of anodes in the first quarter of 2017, providing anodes and copper powder for all of the plant’s copper electrolysis departments, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. ‘This is the first time the plant’s copper-smelting department has produced so much in the course of one month,’ the press service says. KMEZ’s copper electrolysis department made 31,915,300 kg of copper cathodes in the first quarter of the year. Thanks to an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. Ural Airlines offered its service to 1,334,352 passengers in the first quarter of the year, which was 28% more than one year previously, the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline operated 10, 256 flights in the given period, including 6,380 domestic ones, 1,521 international ones, and 2,355 flights around the CIS member states. This was 18% more than in the first quarter of 2016. The company’s passenger turnover amounted to 3,056,765,000 passenger-kilometers, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 30%. 467,188 passengers flew with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 13, 2017. A Ural Federal District resident spent an average of 444 RUR per grocery shopping session last month, which was 1.6% less than in February 2017, Romir Holding’s research findings indicate. The country’s average came to 528 RUR in March 2017, which was 0.6% less than in February. The figure went down for nearly all kinds of shops except for supermarkets, where there actually was a 1.3% increase against February 2017. As for hypermarkets, the average receipt amount dropped by 1.3% last month. This amount also declined by 2.6% and 4.3% for discounters and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation recently got its all-purpose platform railcar 13-192-01 with a wooden floor and collapsible side panels certified by Federal Railway Transport Register for compliance with the Customs Union Regulations 001/2011. The certificate is valid for the next five years. According to the company press service, the railcar is meant for use in Russia, the CIS member states, the Baltic states, and everywhere throughout the 1,520-mm zone and is suitable for transportation of wheeled and caterpillar-tracked vehicles as well as long and bulky

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) got its new technology for making coking coal with the help of an upgraded dry-quenching plant patented, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. The patent, titled ‘Ways of Improving Metallurgical Coke Quality’, states that NTMK now holds exclusive rights to the technology and enjoys the legal protection of this right through April 8, 2035. The patent was issued by Russia’s Federal Intellectual Property Service. ‘The new technology allows for less wasted coke during the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. The 1st All-Russian Research-to-Practice Dual Education Conference will be held at Moscow International Education Show on April 12-14, 2017. The event is coordinated by ChTPZ Group in cooperation with the International Corporate Education Association (MAKO) and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). According to the Group’s press service, the conference will gather together companies that have been successfully implementing their dual education projects, government bodies and NGOs representatives, and vocational school teachers. Leading experts in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. Russian Copper Company directs considerable funds to working conditions and industrial safety improvements at its member enterprises every year. 759m RUR were allocated for the purpose in 2013-2016, the company press service reports. The better part of the money (42%) gets invested in working conditions improvements, 35% are used to provide uniforms and personal protection for the workers, 13% get directed to nutritional supplements, and 6%, 3%, and 3% get spent on physicals, personnel training, and disinfectants, respectively. Russian Copper Company set

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2017. Rusatom Healthcare’s Nuclear Medicine Technologies Snezhinsk recently opened a new atomedics center in Chelyabinsk and is ready to welcome patients in need of a positron emission tomography scan, Rusatom’s Communications Department says. Rusatom Healthcare is Rosatom’s daughter enterprise set up specifically with the goal of integrating businesses and technologies to do with nuclear medicine in Russia; the company relies on its own materials and equipment. Their cyclotron/radiochemical unit is Rosatom’s first integrated atomedics project that comprises the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s tank T-34-85 got rescued by an Estonian military vehicle collector, the company press service reports. The armored vehicle was made at Ural Tank Plant 183 (as Ural Vagon Zavod was known at the time) in Nizhniy Tagil and sent to the front immediately. ‘The collector contacted Ural Vagon Zavod’s Exhibition Center and informed them that he was in the possession of a T-34-85 made at the plant’s assembly line. The tank was mounted on a pedestal in Myaksa to celebrate the 40th anniversary of assault river crossing of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant’s Senior Engineer Sergey Linev was awarded the title of Russia’s Professional Engineer, the plant’s press service reports. The award was part of the 17th All-Russian Engineer of The Year Contest. ‘Engineer of The Year, coordinated by the Russian Scientific & Engineering Organizations Union, the International Scientific & Engineering Organizations Union, A.M. Prokhorov Academy of Engineering Sciences, and Interregional Public Fund for Scientific & Technological Progress, is one of the most prestigious

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2017. On April 3, 2017, STM Holding’s STM-Service’s twenty-six loco repair depots started their inspection of Russian Railways’ locos as they do every spring. According to Sinara Group’s press service, the goal is to make sure the technical safety regulations are met and to ensure good fire safety, technical, and exterior condition of the company’s fleet of locos and its unfailing performance in the summer. The inspection and maintenance will involve 5,650 electric locomotives and 1,700 diesel locos. A special work team comprising members of constituency and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2017. Public hearings were held in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District regarding investments in Quarters 3 and 4, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The public hearings were initiated by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev and attended by Mayor of Yekaterinburg Evgeny Roizman, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly deputies Valentin Lappo, Elena Treskova, and Mikhail Klimenko, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Civic Chamber Vladimir Vinnitsky, Deputy Head of Yekaterinburg Duma Viktor Testov, honorary Yekaterinburg resident and honored