UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 31, 2016. Officers from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) inspected 53,000 kg of meat products in the first nine months of 2016 and found 15% of the products faulty, the agency’s press service reports. 17.5% of these are all kinds of salami and sausages already past their sell-by date. Besides, twenty-six samples of canned meat got tested, of which seventeen failed to meet consumer standards due to excessive tissue, cartilage, sinew, bone, and vegetable gum content. Also, seven poultry samples got tested for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 31, 2016. The tax checks and audits carried out by Sverdlovsk Region’s tax officers in the three quarters of the year resulted in 6.721bn RUR in extra payments to Russia’s budget; this exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 3.7%, Russia’s Federal Tax Service’s local press service reports. ‘948,000 tax declarations got checked, with extra 1.360bn RUR in payments as well, which is 144m RUR, or 12% more than in the nine months of 2015,’ the press service says. Tax inspectors also carried out 715 on-site audits of companies and 89 inspections of private

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 28, 2016. 25,372 new automobiles were sold in Yekaterinburg in January through September 2016, which was 22% less than one year earlier, Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg reports. September was, in fact, this year’s peak sales month, when 3,497 new cars got purchased from dealers; this only falls short of last September’s figures by a mere 5% (the smallest monthly decrease since December 2014, when the drop amounted to 3%). Also, as many as five automobile brands among the top ten bestsellers sold better in the three quarters of the year than previously, whereas the sales

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 28, 2016. Ural Airlines recently resumed their Samara-Dubai flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Starting from October 29, weekly flights will be operated from Samara’s Kurumoch Airport to the emirate famous for its luxurious hotels, enormous shopping malls, and incredible entertainment,’ the press service says. Tickets are already available for booking and purchase, with prices starting from 17,073 RUR (round trip, luggage and other fees excluded). You can book on the airline website, using UralAirlines mobile app, over the phone (+7-800-77-00-262)

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 28, 2016. SKB-Bank proved one of the top three lenders among Russian banks based outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the bank’s press service reports. The rating was compiled by Kommersant analysts on the basis of the banks’ consumer loan data as of October 1, 2016. With Moscow- and Saint Petersburg-based banks accounted for, SKB-Bank was No.23 in the national rating. SKB-Bank’s private individual loan book amounts to over 64.5bn RUR at the moment, with interest rates starting from 15.9% a year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 28, 2016. Provided inflation rate expectations carry on diminishing, Russia’s Central Bank is likely to keep bringing the key rate down next year, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Holistic Risk Management Director Dmitri Zavyelov says. ‘The national inflation rate went down by 0.4% in September 2016 and thus amounted to 6.4%. The Central Bank’s analytical report states that people’s inflation expectations have been going down. For one, the share of those expecting the inflation to get worse dropped from 21% down to 18%, while the share of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 28, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) Board of Directors adopted a bond-issuing procedure for 001P Series bonds (50bn RUR or their foreign currency equivalent altogether), ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. The bonds are to be in coruscation for fifteen years at the most. The plant’s Deputy DG for Finance & Economy Valeriy Borissov says ‘the Russian bond market has been doing good so far and looks like a promising source of funding for the country’s businesses.’ ‘The funds obtained through the upcoming bond issues will get directed to improving

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 27, 2016. People living in the Urals believe their future depends on the success of nuclear industry enterprises in the area, so they tend to trust ‘the peaceful atom’ more, Assistant Professor at Ural Federal University Ural Power Institute’s Department of Nuclear Plants and Renewable Energy Sources Vladimir Welkin told UrBC. According to Levada Center’s survey findings for August-September 2016, 75.3% of Russians feel positive about the nuclear energy. The approval is traditionally strong in the north-west of the country, where a lot of nuclear power facilities

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 27, 2016. Ural Airlines are now offering more Rostov-on-Don-Yerevan flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. Starting November 7, daily flights to Yerevan will be operated at a convenient time. Flight U6 2631 (Rostov-on-Don-Yerevan) departs at 1:10 PM and arrives in Yerevan at 3:45 PM. Flight U6 2632 (Yerevan-Rostov-on-Don) departs at 4:35 PM and arrives in Rostov-on-Don at 5:15 PM. Tickets can be booked on the airline website, using Uralairlines mobile app, over the phone, or at any booking office. ‘Winter in Armenia is a great time for ski lovers. You

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 27, 2016. Sinara Group’s Sinara Development, the general contractor for the reconstruction of Yekaterinburg Central Stadium in time for the World Cup 2018, keeps working on the four visitor entrances at the stadium, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. ‘Visitors can get inside via the four separate entrances on four sides of the stadium. The two primary in-flows are expected to come through the northern and southern entrances. All four entrance points will have turnstiles, metal detectors, personal search rooms, and portable storage lockers that will be placed there

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 27, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine started working on a new long-face 4-10-29 with surveyed potential of more than 2.7 tons of GZh coal, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s press office reports. ‘The preparations were made in full compliance with all the industrial and job safety requirements; some 10,000 meters of mine space got cleared, with all the excessive gas removed and the necessary ventilation installed. The coal will get extracted with the help of the most advanced equipment. Ventilation, degassing, dust-catching and fire-fighting devices are to ensure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 27, 2016. The management of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant negotiated with the First Secretary of Embassy of India in Moscow’s Technical (Defense) Wing Surendra Dhapodkar, the company press service reports. The two parties spoke about their possible partnership and supplying Chelyabinsk-made engine parts to India. In fact, the plant has been working with various Indian partners for over fifteen years now. Under the terms of an interstate agreement signed in 2001, the plant’s licensed engines are made in Avadi, India. ‘The Indian official

UrBC, Moscow, October 26, 2016. Russia’s GDP shrank by 0.7% in the nine months of the year and by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2016; the figure is expected to come to 0.6% by the end of the year, RIA Novosti refers to Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Velev as stating. ‘The country’s GDP declined by 0.5% in three months and by 0.7% in nine months since January. Our forecast is a 0.6% decrease by the end of the year,’ he said. According to Rosstat, Russia’s GDP went down by 0.9% in the first half of 2016, by 0.6% in the second quarter, and by 1.2% in the first quarter of the year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2016. 104 road accidents involving pedestrians were registered in Sverdlovsk Region in September and October 2016, with twenty-five people killed. This is 56% more than one year earlier (sixteen people were killed last year). According to Federal Authority for Road Traffic Safety Sverdlovsk Region division, eighty-one people also got wounded. Every one in two pedestrians involved turned out to be under the influence of an intoxicant. ‘Every year, this is the early fall period when there is still no snow yet it rains a lot and gets dark early that the number of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2016. SKB-Bank Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board Margarita Burbik is going to pay a visit to Kyrgyzstan as a member of Sverdlovsk Region’s business mission, the bank’s press service reports. The delegates are to travel to Kyrgyzstan on October 24-28 in order to network with representatives of Kyrgyz business community and promote Sverdlovsk Region’s hi tech produce on the local markets. ‘SKB-Bank is Sverdlovsk Region Government’s authorized dealer and, as such, is willing to provide the two countries’ business parties with the financial infrastructure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2016. Russian Copper Company’s member enterprises made 132,694,000 kg of copper cathodes in the nine months of 2016 (compared with 103,726,000 kg one year earlier), the company press service reports. ‘This noticeable output increase may prove this year’s primary production achievement. Copper cathodes are among the company’s best-selling products alongside copper concentrate, copper wire rods, zinc concentrate, and high karat gold and silver; they are made at Kyshtym Copper Electrolysis Plant, Novgorod Metallurgical Plant, and Uralgidromed,’ the press service

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2016. Workers of ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant are going to represent their employer at the 3d blue-collar job championship WorldSkills Hi Tech, the Group’s press service reports. The championship will be held in Yekaterinburg on October 30-November 3. The Group’s seven choicest workers are to prove their professional skills in six different categories. Silver winner of the 4th WorldSkills Russia Championship Nikolai Vinogradov will compete in Industrial Automation. First prize winner of the 4th WorldSkills

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 25, 2016. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the annual Competitive Purchases Leader Contest, the key professional competition for Russian customers and supplies, as Leader of Purchasing Innovations. ‘The company’s logistics and supply schemes are fully automated and rely on an ORACLE-based corporate IT system. We started using ORACLE in 2004 and launched our own ORACLE-based trading platform in 2007. So far, the platform has been used for over 20,000 purchasing transactions involving supplies or services worth more than 80bn RUR

UrBC, Moscow, October 25, 2016. 51% of urban-living Russians consider themselves middle class, according to Sberbank CIB’s this year’s survey of respondents living in cities with population of 100,000 or more, Kommersant reports. The number dropped by about 7.4m in the last two years, as actually about 60% of those surveyed said they were middle class in September 2014; on the national scale, the decrease stands at 14m. ‘A Russian’s average ‘middle-class’ income came to 37,000 RUR a month in September 2016 against 31,000 RUR two years previously. These days, you can only feel ‘middle-class’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) inspected 834 tobacco-selling outlets in the nine months of this year and identified cases of non-compliance with the law in 306 instances (36.7% of all inspected outlets), the agency’s press service reports. Rospotrebnadzor officers inspected 5,853 cigarette packs and found 501 packs defective, which comes to 8.6% of the entire amount. Mostly, the problem was that the packs lacked the necessary accompanying documentation. Inspections targeted at checking businesses’