UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 12, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) renewed its Payment CardIndustry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 3.2 for this year to prove its compliance with the world’s highest security standards, the bank’s press service reports. Now PCI DSS is the payment card security standard that accounts for information security requirements set forth by all the leading international payment systems. The standard was devised by the Payment CardIndustry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) that has Visa, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, and Discovery

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 12, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) expanded the range of products available from its rail and beam department with 22P channel bar. Over 200kg of these bars were delivered to construction sites in Moscow Region in December, the company press service reports. The hot-rolled 22P channel bar is used for making bridges and building wider flights of stairs at warehouses. The product meets GOST 8240-97 standards and can be made from carbon or low-alloyed steels. 22P channel bar is the fourth bar variety NTMK has mastered so

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 12, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine is about to start working on new Seam 6-6a (in-place reserves: over 127m tons of valuable GZh coal), EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press office reports. The jobs are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2017 when Long-face 4-6-33 has been launched. The new seam will provide the mine with things to do through 2030; this will require some 90m RUR worth of investments. ‘Getting Seam 6-6a ready is currently Raspadskaya’s top priority project, as this will keep us afloat in the long run. Our geological surveys indicate the seam

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 12, 2016. Ural Vagon Corporation’s head plant is currently working to restore Exhibit 781 — the first Soviet tank fire support armored fighting vehicle designed at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant in the mid-eighties - for the company’s Tankprom museum, the corporation’s press service reports. Once the restoration jobs have been completed, the machine will become part of the museum’s permanent exhibition (to be opened in Nizhniy Tagil in 2020). The vehicle, based on T72 tank, arrived in Nizhniy Tagil in badly damaged condition and with some parts missing. This has to do

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) landed a contract to deliver its PK 55 loader to Peru. The agreement was signed with Vostok-Sur Export-Import, the plant’s official supplier in this part of Latin America, the company press service reports. ‘Once the vehicle has been assembled at the plant, it will have to be prepared for a long voyage; the machine will get delivered to customer by sea, on a ship traveling across the Atlantic. Once the loader is on site, our dealer will coordinate a large-scale presentation on Chelyabinsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2016. Ural Airlines now offer their customers a new flight from Chelyabinsk to Mineralnye Vody with a stopover in Sochi, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Chelyabinsk locals now have a unique opportunity to fly to Mineralnye Vody with Ural Airlines. Starting February 10, 2017, our passengers can enjoy the benefits of a conveniently scheduled flight that will be operated from Chelyabinsk at 8:30 AM every Friday,’ the press service says. Tickets are available at reduced prices (all fees included): those for Chelyabinsk-Mineralnye Vody flight start from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2016. The Auction House of the Russian Federation (RAD) got its e-trading platform certified for holding government purchase auctions in accordance with Federal Act 44 FZ (On Buying Goods and Services for State and Municipalities’ Needs). The Russian Government’s Decree 2933-r to this effect was signed on December 31, 2016, the organization’s website states. Under the terms proposed by Russia’s Economic Development Ministry, 44 FZ auctions can be held on electronic platforms that have previously been selected for selling public property in accordance with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2016. 1.029m m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Yekaterinburg last year, the city council’s press service reports. The better part of new homes got put up in Leninsky and Chkalovsky Districts (283,000 m2 and 264,000 m2, respectively). Additionally, 992,000 m2 worth of commercial estate got built as well.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2016. Three new hotels (more than 200 rooms all in all) opened in Yekaterinburg last year, the city council’s press service reports. Two three-star hotels, the Tenet (fit for 102 guests) and the Arbat (fit for 30 guests), opened at the intersection of Lenin Ave and Khokhryakov St and at 9A Vainer St, respectively. The TESSA Hotel, also a three-star one and fit for 30 guests, opened at 28A Akademicheskaya St. There are currently 116 hotels in various star categories operating in Yekaterinburg at the moment; their overall capacity comes to room for over 10,500

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2017. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant was given the Russian Federation Defense Ministry Award for complying perfectly with the state defense procurement requirements for 2016, the company press service reports. The honorary certificate, signed by Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov, states the award was assigned to the plant for its ‘great efforts to support and improve Russia’s defense capacity and to meet the State Defense Procurement Requirements for the year 2016.’ Ural Vagon Zavod did meet all the requirements ahead of schedule last year,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2017. Sinara Group’s Sinara Development completed the tenth apartment building in its Novy Svet District in Volgograd, the company press service reports. The developer was issued a commissioning permit for the building at 15 Timiryazev St on December 23, 2016. The owners are currently being handed over the keys to their new homes. ‘Both current and future locals celebrated the commissioning of this sixteen-story apartment building together with Father Frost and his granddaughter Snegurochka and had a great time with neighbors and friends. There was a special

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2017. Sinara Group and Siemens’s joint venture Ural Locomotives coordinated a solemn ceremony on December 29 to look into its output goals for and performance in the year 2016, Sinara Group’s press service reports. This year, the plant made thirty Lastochka ES2G Series electric trains, eighty-nine Sinara 2ES6 Series freight locos, and fifteen Granit 2ES10 Series locos in full accordance with the company’s output plan for the year. Ural Locomotives’ best-performing workers received awards from the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region, Sverdlovsk Region Industry &

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2017. UBRD Capital Designated Activity Company made coupon payments on the seventh out of eleven coupons for its subordinated Eurobonds. The payment amounted to $4.08m altogether. The Eurobonds are backed up by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development, with the special-purpose Ireland-based company UBRD Capital Designated Activity Company as the issuer and BCP Securities, BNP Paribas, and Sberbank CIB as lead managers. The bonds are now listed at and available through the Irish Stock Exchange. The money thus obtained got directed to the UBRD’s own

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2017. MegaFon’s subscribers made 12.5m phone calls and sent 18.5 texts between 6PM on December 31 and 6AM on January 1; according to the carrier’s press service, these more conventional ways to connect with others proved more popular with the Urals-based subscribers than messenger applications (some 4m messages were sent through these). ‘On this New Year’s Eve, locals spent longer on the phone with their best wishes and season’s greetings: a phone call was four minutes long on average, which is twice as long as one year previously,’ the company press service

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 30, 2016. Ural Airlines offered its services to 6.4m passengers this year, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 18%, the air carrier’s press office reports. ‘Interestingly, the Russian air carriers’ overall passenger traffic actually declined by 5% against last year,’ the press service says. In addition to an increase in passenger traffic, the number of flights Ural Airlines operated this year also went up by 10%, while the air carrier’s fleet of vehicles got complemented by three new aircraft. ‘We also introduced new flight destinations and expanded

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 30, 2016. Yekaterinburg is currently Russia’s fifth most expensive housing rental market, according to the website Mir Kvartir. At the moment, renting a studio apartment in Yekaterinburg costs 15,848 RUR a month (down 4.4% on the previous quarter); a one-bedroom home can get rented for 21,130 RUR a month (up 7.6% on the previous quarter), and a two-bedroom one for 34,982 RUR a month (up 3.1%). The average rental prices rose by 7.8% altogether in the course of the last twelve months. Moscow is predictably the priciest rental location, where a month’s rent for a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 30, 2016. EVRAZ Holding is going to present over 24,000 children in Nizhniy Tagil and Kachkanar with New Year’s gifts, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. Toys and sweets are meant for the children of the company employees as well as those living in foster homes and children with disabilities. ‘Our employees’ children will also be able to enjoy a number of theater shows during the New Year’s break. A fairly tale called Two Princesses and A Firebird and a New Year’s quest Morozko will be staged at Culture Palaces in Nizhniy Tagil, and a number of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 30, 2016. Every one in six MegaFon subscribers owns a 4G mobile device, the telecommunications provider’s press service states. The 1,000,000th gadget registered with MegaFon network happened to be a smartphone; these actually make up 82% of all 4G devices within the company network. The company’s 4G Internet traffic rose by 78% in the second half of the year and now comes to over 2m Gb a month, which is comparable to downloading some 300,000,000 songs. November proved a peak LTE traffic month for MegaFon, in many ways due to extremely cold weather: smartphone

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 30, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation rounds the year up with impressive production and financial performance results, the company press service reports. Year’s revenues come to 141.9bn RUR, which is 30% better than one year earlier and 11% better than the all-time high of the year 2012. This was possible due to increased export of military goods and restoration of the company’s railcar-making branch. The company’s military goods exports and railcar output rose by 2.2 times and 2.4 times, respectively, against last year. Not only does the plant sell more goods

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 29, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) made more profit in commissions the bank charged small and medium enterprises in the third quarter of the year compared with one year earlier, the bank’s press service reports. The figure rose by 66% in the course of one year and came to 296.4m RUR. This was mainly brought about by the increase in the amount of settlement and cash payment services offered to businesses. The number of customers who applied for banking services with the UBRD went up by 11.8% in QIII’16 compared with QIII’15.