UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2016. The All-Russian NOSTROY Conference for the members of the National Builders’ Union is scheduled for the second half of March; this time, there are eight points on the agenda for the directors of self-regulatory organizations to work on, including election of NOSTROY President and membership fee-related decisions. So far, only one well-known businessperson on the Forbes Russia list, head of LSR Group (one of the largest developers in Moscow Region and Saint Petersburg) Andrei Molchanov decided to run for the union’s president. There is little time left

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2016. The canteen at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant reopened after an overhaul and remodeling, the company press service says. The reconstruction involved all of the food-making departments (the hot- and cold-meal shops, the meat shop, and the vegetable and pastry ones) as well as the storage rooms and washrooms. The food court was also renovated. All the sinks and cookers were replaced, new, modern equipment was installed, and a new service counter was added. The food court now has panoramic windows and fits as many as eighty people at a time. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2016. SKB-Bank came eighth in the rating of Russia’s best banks in 2015 created by Sravni.ru, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The web portal’s analysts wanted to come up with something like an Oscar Award for the Russian banks. Their rating of the best home banks as of last year was an attempt to do so,’ the press service says. The rating is based on data from the banks’ annual reports available on the Central Bank’s website. Positive changes in the banks’ performance indicators such as net asset volume and that of their loan books, the amount of money

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 2, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon now provides its data storage and backup services to UMMC Telecom, the operator’s press service reports. UMMC decided to rent 3,000 gigabytes of MegaFon’s virtual servers. According to MegaFon representatives, the rental cloud allows for great savings on infrastructure maintenance, with no need for the clients to buy their own equipment. Renting cloud space proves much more economically expedient. ‘What we offer our partners is more than communications services, we offer a set of services integrated into business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2016. Eight employees of Omsk Transport Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) received the Russian Federation Defense Ministry Awards, the company press service reports. The plant’s Director-General Igor Lobov was given the For Strengthening Military Cooperation Medal for his great personal contribution to strengthening military cooperation and helping the Russian Armed Forces achieve its goals. Head of the Serial Production Department Alexei Khoroshaylo and engineer/technician Alexander Lizunov received the For Labour Valor

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2016. Burevestnik Central Scientific Research Institute (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) took part in the annual job fair at R.E. Alekseyev Nizhniy Novgorod State Technical University (NGTU), the company press service reports. The city’s other leading industrial enterprises, plants, and the local branch of Sberbank also presented their job opportunities at the fair. ‘This is the second time Burevestnik has taken part in such a job fair. We sent our HR Department and Engineering Service specialists to represent the company there, so that NGTU

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2016. Russian Copper Company invested some 13.37bn RUR in upgrades and retooling of its Karabashmed in 2004-2015, with 90% of the money directed to environmental protection and reclamation projects, the company press service reports. ‘Karabash is a town the company management has been paying special attention to, as the city’s environmental condition was for many years the locals’ most serious concern. Today, the most up-to-date and efficient gas filtering, emission-trapping facilities have been installed at Karabashmed, which improved the quality of local air

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 1, 2016. Power Generating Unit 4 with BN 800 reactor at Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station produced 555 megawatts for the Urals’ electric supply system, the station’s PR Department reports. The unit was first brought to 67% of its projected capacity on February 25, 2016. This signified yet another step on the way from the launch to 50% of capacity to the full projected capacity within the unit’s pilot production stage. The power generating unit is working in trial mode for the time being, with the purpose of testing the equipment and checking all of its performance

UrBC, Moscow, March 1, 2016. Russians’ actual wages and salaries might drop by 3% to 4% this year, Banki.ru refers to Labor Minister Maxim Topilin as saying. The minister said earlier that these had already decreased by 9.5% by the end of 2015. ‘No serious increase in unemployment rate is to be expected. I believe we’ll stay within the 6% to 6.3% range this year, which I see as acceptable, that is, not critical,’ Topilin said. He also said the Labor Ministry was working on a draft bill to increase the dole by 70%, yet the criteria for those eligible to receive it should grow stricter. ‘The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 29, 2016. Ural Electrochemical Plant (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s TVEL, Novouralsk) proved No.1 Environmentally Responsible Enterprise in the local Green Owl Contest, the company press service reports. The winners were chosen by Novouralsk City Council, with the figurine of a green owl (which stands for unaffected environment) presented to the company’s Deputy Technical Director for Nuclear, Radiation, & Production Safety & Environmental Protection Evgeniy Skorynin by the city mayor Vladimir Mashkov in the course of a solemn ceremony. The Green Owl

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 29, 2016. Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company) reports on the first benchmark in their development of Mikheyevsky copper-porphyry ore deposit: the mine is now one hundred meters deep, Russian Copper Company’s press service reports. Mikheyevsky was set up in 2013 to become the largest ore mining and processing enterprise to be built from scratch in the post-Soviet zone. The company currently extracts copper ore from 107 meters under the ground. By the time the deposit has been fully exhausted, the mine

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 29, 2016. ChTPZ Group’s students and alumni of the corporate Future of White Metallurgy Education Program are going to represent their company at the 4th Sverdlovsk Region tour of WorldSkills Russia Championship, the company press service reports. The tour will be held in thirteen different locations in Sverdlovsk Region on February 29-March 4, 2016. The Group’s Training Center (and a certified WorldSkills center) in Pervouralsk is going to be one of these sites. The young professionals are going to demonstrate their skills in Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 29, 2016. Kirov-based LEPSE (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) coordinated a trade union conference, the company press service reports. 582 out of 644 elected delegates were present at the conference to hear the trade union’s five-year report presented by Chair Tamara Maltseva. ‘Our three-year Collective Agreement is one of the most important projects where the company management and the trade union work together as partners. The crucial thing is that the management team does not consider the problems the trade union voices superfluous. We

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 29, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted a workshop on newly adopted labor legislation and professional standards of personnel management for the company’s HR managers, the company press service reports. The workshop at the plant’s Personnel Training Center was attended by personnel managers from Plant 9, Uralcryomash, Electromachine, Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant, Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, and other member enterprises. A civil and labor law expert from 21st Century Ural Cadre Training Institute was invited

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2016. Head of Yekaterinburg City Council Alexander Yakob took part in the joint annual meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Defense Industries Union and Russia’s Machine-Builders Union’s Sverdlovsk Region division, the city council’s press service reports. Heads of leading industrial enterprises, scientific research institutes, and design offices working for the defense industry, machine-building sector, and nuclear arms and energy sector were also invited to this meeting, as were representatives of research/production organizations, engineering and infrastructure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2016. Russian Copper Company’s charity foundation supports local projects and helps children with serious health problems directly, the company press service reports. For one, the foundation keeps directing money to Nelly Ustinova’s Hearing Workshop, a clinic for hearing impaired children and adults. Three hearing aids (total cost 147,500 RUR) were purchased for the clinic’s very young patients in February. The company also supports Sverdlovsk Region Children’s TB Dispensary, which has 60 hospital beds for children in the 0-7 age group and just as many for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2016. SKB-Bank’s consumer loan offer (dubbed For This & That) proved one of the top five most affordable loans in the country and was given the 4th position in the rating of cheapest cash loans Russian banks are offering at the moment, the bank’s press service refers to Sravni.ru as stating. The web portal’s analysts looked into the following: the loan amount (150,000 RUR) and the repayment period (1 year); secured loans were not among those considered. ‘It is only rarely that a loan offer remains popular with customers for a few years in a row, but For

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2016. MZS219, a pile-screwing unit made at Omsk Transport Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) will be used in Lensk, Yakutia, for bored pile testing, the company press service reports. The unit is meant as mechanized help in the construction of pile-supported anchor foundations of buildings and other structures that need to be put up in thawed, frozen, and unstable rocky soils. The testing will be done on the foundation of a house that will become a home for one of the pipeline walkers at Chayanda-Lensk section of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2016. Russian Copper Company’s representatives took part in the All-Russian Industrial Environment Congress in Yekaterinburg, the company press service reports. The company’s Environment, Labor Protection & Industrial Safety Director Natalia Gonchar made a report on protective measures taken at Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise and on the green aspects of the emerging Tominsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise. ‘We invited quite a few experts from colleges and research labs when Tominsky was designed, so that we could get our

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation opened one of its UVZSHOPs at the domestic flights terminal in Balandino Airport, Chelyabinsk, the company press service reports. ‘The opening of a new shop in Chelyabinsk is no ordinary event. This is the second time our shop has been introduced at an airport (the outlet at Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg has been around for eighteen months now). We are moving to the Urals’ south, presenting our entire product range there. Prices are the same as in all other UVZSHOPs (there are five altogether – two in Nizhniy Tagil, two