UrBC, Omsk, October 16, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) hosted a Transmash OBORONPROF conference to elect chairs of the company’s trade union, the corporation’s press service reports. Viktor Kurochkin was re-elected Chair for the next five years. Kurochkin said in his report on the trade union’s performance in 2010-2015 that the organization managed to ensure cooperation with the plant’s management in many aspects. As a result, Omsktransmash won the first prize in the 11th Best Social Partnership Enterprise in 2014. A number of committees were set up

UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2015. The share of Russian citizens’ past-due loan payments rose by 1.5 times in the last year, National Bureau of Credit History’s data as of October 1 indicate. The share of overdue payments rose most in the consumer loan segment in September: the increase came to nearly 1.7 times, from 9.8% to 16.5%, Banki.ru reports. In the credit card and car loan segment, the rise was around 1.4 times (from 12.8% to 18.4% and from 5.9% to 8.4%, respectively). The share of past-due payments on mortgages went up from 2.7$ in September 2014 to 4.1% in September 2015, the Bureau

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. Ural Customs Administration instituted 71 criminal lawsuits in the nine months of 2015, which was 8% less than a year earlier, their press service reports. 21 cases have to do with customs duty evasion (overall damage 93.5m RUR). 14 criminal suits are related to smuggling of strategic goods and resources such as timber, precious and semiprecious stones (overall damage over 137.7m RUR). 8 suits involve charges of illegal foreign currency transactions; damage is estimated at 168.9m RUR for illegal transfer of money onto non-residents’ accounts and at 753m

UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region proved No.5 on Russia’s premium and luxury car market this year, Avtostat reports. Nearly a half (47.4%) of the more expensive cars get registered in Moscow and Moscow Region, around 11% get registered in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region. As for the Russian provinces, 4.2% get registered in Krasnodar Territory, 2.7% in Tatarstan, 2.4% in Sverdlovsk Region, 2.1% in Rostov Region, 1.9% in Tyumen Region (including Yamalo-Nenetsky and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Regions), 1.8% in Samara Region, 1.7% in Chelyabinsk Region, and 1.5% in Nizhniy

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. Yekaterinburg-based processing enterprises produced and shipped to customers 184.3bn RUR worth of goods and services in the eight months of 2015, the city council reports. This figure is 30% better than that for a year earlier. Given the local production dynamics over the course of one year, a number of industrial branches can be said to be doing very well,’ the city council says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2015. The amount of shipments processed by UVZ-Logistic (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) rose by 16% in the third quarter of the year compared with the previous quarter and amounted to 10.22m tons. According to the corporation’s press service, coal shipments amounted to 7m tons, which was 35% more than in the previous quarter. The overall cargo turnover went up by 16.8% and came to 32.14bn ton-kilometer, which exceeded the figures for the second quarter of 2015 by 22.6%. The increase was possible due to more shipments at West-Siberian

UrBC, Moscow, October 14, 2015. The overall amount of past-due car loan payments went up by 22% since the start of the year and came to 64.1bn RUR, Sequoia Credit Consolidation reports. The figure mainly increased because of a dramatic rise in interest rates (up to 30% a year in January-March). The rates are now back to 17%-19% a year, yet new car loans are still hardly affordable. Experts don’t think any substantial decrease in interest rates very likely, as Russia’s macroeconomic situation remains unstable. In the United States, in the meantime, interest rates remain under 4% (and under

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Letting one’s Yekaterinburg apartment turned 0.4% less profitable than one year ago, N1.ru and E1.Nedvizhimost report. The most profitable places to let are one-bedroom apartments in Vokzalny District, where one can expect an 8% ROI. Studio apartments in the remote areas of Komperssorny and Elizavet are in the second place, and apartments in Shartash Market, Elmash, and Vtuzgorodok are in the third place. Two-bedroom apartments in VIZ, Uralmash, Parkovy, Krasnolesye, Shirokaya Rechka, UNC, Zarechny, and Khimmash have a ROI of under 5% a year. ‘Rental

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s government debt rose by 4.077bn RUR in the third quarter of the year and amounted to 48.224bn RUR against 44.146bn RUR in the previous quarter, Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Ministry reports. The overall amount of budget loans issued to the constituency came to 11.079bn RUR on October 1, the overall amount of loans taken out from banks came to 34.154bn RUR. Sverdlovsk Region also received 1.34bm RUR and 1.65bn RUR worth of state and local government guarantees, respectively.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Only 42% of Yekaterinburg-based survey respondents get paid officially. 38% of those surveyed said an officially declared salary was not their main priority in the choice of employer; they would be willing to get paid under the table in the future, E1. Rabota and Zarplata.ru refer to the findings of their survey (involving 2,643 people) as indicating. 38% of respondents admitted they were getting some portion of their salary paid under the table, while 20% of those surveyed said their entire salary was not getting officially declared. 53% of those

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Personnel Training Center can now boast a new lab/seminar room for automated metal treatment with an innovative set of equipment and software. According to the corporation’s press service, the equipment was supplied within the framework of the company educational establishment infrastructure development program. Ural Vagon Zavod and Ural Federal University were among the program’s eleven finalists, with UFU investing 30m RUR in the corporate department’s development. ‘The new lab is a perfect platform for both theoretical and practical

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, October 13, 2015. MMK Trading House (a member enterprise of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works) came up with a performance report for the three quarters of the year. The company delivered 100,000,000 kg of goods to its customers in the third quarter of 2015, with the overall resulting revenues at 10bn RUR. This was 8% better than the target figure. As for the three-quarter period, the company sold 140,000,000 kg of goods more than a year earlier, with revenues up 7.5bn RUR on January-September 2014, the company reports. The company's Moscow

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2015. The cost of new homes in Sverdlovsk Region went down by 2.3% in the third quarter of the year compared with the second quarter; existing home prices went down by 4.9%, Sverdlovskstat reports. Apartments in the medium price range grew 0.2% less expensive, while the price of better quality homes was down by 3.4% and that of premium class ones by 3.7%. The average price of a new home now comes to 59,775 RUR per m2. As for the existing home market, all types of dwellings grew less expensive: those of lower quality by 12%, those of average quality by 6.8%,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region State Labor Inspectorate carried out 3,025 scheduled inspections of companies in the nine months of 2015 to detect over 9,000 instances of labor law violation, their press service reports. 3,230 legal entities and officials had to face administrative liability as a result and pay a total of 75m RUR in fines (59m RUR in administrative fines have been paid so far). 6,500 complaints were placed with the inspectorate by private individuals; this exceeds the figures for a year earlier (5,124 complaints) by 25%. Most of these have to do with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2015. Vityaz Machine-building Company and Armored Vehicle Repair Plant 81 (both member enterprises of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) reported to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on meeting the procurement order of the third quarter of 2015, the corporation’s press service reports. Plant 81, for example, keeps working on repairing its armored carriers BTR 80 and upgrading them to BTR 82AM. A new set of carriers received the MoD’s approval and is ready to be shipped. This year’s target figures have already been met by 78%. The upgrades given to the carriers

UrBC, Omsk, October 13, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) presented its produce at VTTA Omsk 2015, an international exhibition dedicated to hi technologies and equipment for the Arctic, Siberia, and the Far East, the corporation’s press service reports. Omsktransmash Chief Designer Igor Shumakov made a presentation on the plant’s most promising vehicles on the opening day of the exhibition. The audience included Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Siberian Federal District Nikolai Rogozhkin, Governor of Omsk Region Viktor

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 13, 2015. The powers station at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant turns eighty this year, so the company intends to celebrate in a number of solemn ceremonies, the plant’s press service reports. In fact, the entire year 2016 will be dedicated to the eighty years since the plant’s launch. Ural Vagon Zavod’s power station is a strategically important facility which supplies electric power not only to the production site but also to Nizhniy Tagil’s Dzerzhinsky District, a home to more than 120,000 people. The station keeps launching advanced technologies and

UrBC, Moscow, October 12, 2015. 53% of Russians do not have enough savings to be able to afford a large purchase (the sum in question is their month’s pay), the National Financial Research Agency (NAFI) reports. Both people living in rural parts of the country and those from bigger cities agree on the scale of their financial flexibility. Younger people in the 18-19 age group find it the most difficult to find the money they need, while those in the 30-39 age group find it the easiest, with 41% of them having no trouble finding the required amount. Buying a house or an apartment or investing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2015. Koltsovo Airport Customs officers confiscated a nineteenth-century violin worth €200,000 from a Czech musician, Ural Customs Administration reports. The musician arrived in Yekaterinburg at the invitation of Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic. ‘Koltsovo Customs officers found a black case with a violin and a bow in the man’s luggage; the violin is believed to be a valuable piece,’ the Administration says. It turned out the musician had not declared the instrument in his customs declaration. The customs officers had to subject the violin to an expert

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2015. The number of psychiatrists’ patients kept rising in Sverdlovsk Region between January and September 2015 because of the area’s deteriorating economy, Dean of Sosnovy Bor Sverdlovsk Region Neurosis Clinic Mikhail Pertzel says. ‘People complain about their interpersonal communication problems as usual, but increasingly more men are coming in who feel they are failing as breadwinners and family security providers. This points to economic problems,’ he says. Pertzel believes the number of neurosis cases will keep rising in the area. Doctors also report on