UrBC, Moscow, August 12, 2015. Damage to the Russian industry caused by foreign sanctions could reach $20bn, Banki.ru refers to interim Russian Industry & Trade Minister Gleb Nikitin as stating. ‘Damage might reach $20bn due to domestic market refinancing growing more expensive and due to lack of foreign loan refinancing,’ he said. Nikitin said foreign sanctions were mainly targeted against the Russian O&G and defense industries, and it is precisely these industries that are doing somewhat better, despite the economic crisis. ‘These sectors meet all their obligations in full,’ he said.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 12, 2015. Yekaterinburg Council is going to launch one new and several reconstructed kindergartens on the eve of City Day. The city council reports a kindergarten fit for 200 children in Rutminsky St will get fully repaired by the end of this week. A kindergarten for 150 children at 10 Yasnaya St will open on August 11. Another one, fit for 300 children, will start operating at 8A Metallurgi St on Thursday, August 13, and yet another one, fit for 90 children, will get launched at 50B Uralskiye Rabochiye St on Friday, August 14. The city council intends to launch

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 12, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region grew less attractive for people living in other Russian Federation constituencies: 16,300 people came here between January and June 2015 while 19,200 people moved somewhere else in the country, Sverdlovskstat reports. This means depopulation was 2,900 people, compared with population increase of 875 people in 2014. Sverdlovsk Region’s overall population shrank by 463 people due to migration (a year earlier, the population grew 1,565 people larger). The number of international migrants rose by 2,437 people (compared with 690 people in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 12, 2015.Yekaterinburg existing homes market supply dropped by 34% in the second quarter of the year compared with a year earlier, Ural Real Estate Chamber refers to Rosreyestr as stating. Prices, however, have been only slightly going down; in fact, asking prices did not fluctuate by more than 0.2% within a week over the last two months. The overall decrease reached 3.7% compared with the start of the year, so, as of August 10, 2015, the average asking price came to 73,411 RUR per m2. The market supply kept surging dramatically between February and June yet slowed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. The second Uralvagonzavod Cup Hockey Championship will begin at V.K. Sotnikov Ice Sports Palace in Nizhniy Tagil on August 12, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. During the four-day championship, Sputnik (Nizhniy Tagil), Bars (Kazan), Yermak (Angarsk), and Chelmet (Chelyabinsk) will meet to compete for the cup. The teams will play against one another, with the final game taking place on August 16. All those willing to do so can come and watch the hockey matches free of charge. The games schedule is available on Sputnik Club’s website and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. The overall arrears of wages amounted to 3.9m RUR in Sverdlovsk Region on August 1; this was 28.6% more than a year earlier, even though the arrears for the last month actually decreased by 27.1%, Sverdlovskstat reports. Three companies reported they failed to pay their employees on time; one of them is in the processing industry and owes its workers 945,000 RUR, another one is a bread and pastry manufacturer (945,000 RUR), and yet another one is an electric power, natural gas, and water supplier (3m RUR). Head of Sverdlovskstat Elena Kutina says

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. 446 kg of food items whose import became illegal last year were confiscated by Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) between December 2014 and July 2015, the division’s Deputy Head Olga Dikonskaya said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. She explained embargoed foods were found in Magnit, Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Verniy, and Megamart supermarket chains. Sixty-six batches got confiscated over the last eight months, including six batches of meat and meat products (U.S. chicken leg quarters and pork filets,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) fulfilled its first order for 18x1.0 mm thermally treated precision pipes made of E325 steel from a German customer, the company press service reports. The pipes will be used in the car-making industry; the first shipment amounted to 5,965 m of pipes. Precision pipes are made from electro-welded blanks in full compliance with international standards, which means the product meets the strictest precision requirements and has all the necessary mechanical and technological properties as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. An urban development contest was held in Nizhniy Tagil in preparation for the City Day. Uralvagonzavod Corporation and EVRAZ NTMK shared the first prize as the Best Employers, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘These are the two primary job providers who shape the city’s economy, so it would be wrong to single out one enterprise at the expense of the other. We both contribute to Nizhniy Tagil’s social life as well,’ said the corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko. Uralvagonzavod invests in the development of the city’s Dzerzhinsky District and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 11, 2015. Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Sergey Nosov declared Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko the city’s Citizen of Honor at the solemn ceremony dedicated to the City Day. The nominee was voted for by the majority of Nizhniy Tagil Duma deputies in late June, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘They often say our job is to make goods and meet production targets, and that’s that. But we also invest in social infrastructure and its further maintenance, we make every effort to make sure the city inhabitants see they are not treated as mere

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2015. The average price of a liter of gasoline went up from 33,97 RUR to 34.23 RUR over the course of one week (July 27-August 2) in Yekaterinburg, Rosstat reports. As of August 2, the average price of AI 92 came to 33.26 RUR per liter, that of AI 95 to 35.51 RUR per liter, that of diesel fuel to 34.65 RUR per liter. As a matter of fact, gas prices increased in seventy-one Russian federal constituency capitals last week. In six of the constituencies, the increase was 1.1% or more. The country’s average increase was 0.5%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2015. The average price of a square meter of housing on Yekaterinburg existing homes market has gone down by 3.7%, down to 73.424 RUR, since the beginning of the year, Ural Chamber of Real Estate's analysts report. The market supply is still at its all-time high: there are currently over 11,400 apartments and 1,800 rooms in communal apartments for sale in the Chamber's database. This is, respectively, 46% and 52% more than six months ago. The number of studio apartments on offer is up by 76%, that of one-bedroom apartments is up by 50%, that of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2015. Retail sales of alcohol drinks dropped by 3.5% in Ural Federal District in the six months of 2015 compared with a year earlier, National & Local Strong Drinks Market Research Center (CIFRRA) reports. 41m liters of vodka were sold in Ural Federal District in January through June, with sales going down only in Kurgan and Chelyabinsk Regions (-21% and -10%, respectively). CIFRRA analysts report 4.1% more cognac got consumed in the first half of the year, while the consumption of wine and beer went down by 4% and 8%, respectively. The consumption of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2015. 145 employees of Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company) got new apartments in the suburban area Berezovaya Roshcha 2, the company press service reports. This residential district comprises four low-rise apartment buildings (72 apartments) and a number of town houses with 109 apartments altogether. The total area of new housing comes to 16,000 m2. This project is part of a public-private partnership supported by Sverdlovsk Region Government (which funded the construction of all the engineering and road infrastructure). The

UrBC, Nizhniy Tagil, August 10, 2015. Chief Metallurgist of Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) Alexei Smirnov was selected as Engineer of the Year 2014 in the national contest. He was one among the contest’s fifteen finalists, the corporation’s press service reports. Smirnov has worked at Plant 9 since 2011; he supervises all the thermal treatment departments as well as the development and introduction of progressive and competent design documentation. He is also in charge of analyzing current technological processes in order to cut down on the labor-intensity,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. 149.4bn RUR worth of taxes were paid to the Russian Federation budget by Sverdlovsk Region's residents and businesses in the seven months of 2015; this was 13.6% more than a year earlier, the local division of Russia's Federal Tax Service reports. 43.7bn RUR were directed to the federal budget (up 7.7bn RUR, or 21.3%, on last year). Most of this federal budget income (39bn RUR, or 89.2% of the overall amount) stemmed from VAT payments (covering domestic goods, work, and services and imported goods). This figure was 7bn RUR, or 22%, more than a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. The food embargo has meant Yekaterinburg restaurateurs are faced with shortage of good quality butter for making their pastries. For one, Andrei Semenov, the owner of Podsolnukhi, a cafe specializing in pies, was unable to find a single good quality Russian butter brand. 'Our bakers have tried EVERY SINGLE brand of Russian 82% butter, and none are good enough. I believe the ingredients our honorable dairy manufacturers use are not the ones that the packaging claims there are there,' Semenov posted in his social network account. 'It says

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. 720 construction permits (totaling in area to 2,000m2) have been issued by Yekaterinburg Council's Architecture, Urban Development & Land Use Department since the beginning of the year, the city council's press service reports. Deputy Mayor for Capital Construction & Land Use Sergey Myamin announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg that the council had agreed on twelve housing projects (1.259m m2 of new housing), with ninety-nine more proposals relating to all kinds of urban development still under consideration. There are currently

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. ChTPZ Group supplied around 11,000,000 kg of large-diameter pipes for Yamal SPG, a joint project on the development of Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye natural gas deposit in Yamal Peninsula worked on by Novatek, the Chinese company CNPC, and France's Total. The Group's pipes will be used to construct the first section of the pipeline network, from the well proper to the gathering station, the company press service reports. The Group is Russia's first company to start manufacturing non-standard, single-joint arc-welded pipes of relatively small diameter

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) gave overhauls and upgrades to eighteen T 72B3 tanks in 2014-2015 to make them fit for competing in Tank Biathlon Championship. Twelve out of these eighteen tanks are going to be used directly in the championship, while six more are set aside as the reserve. Based on the results of the drawing procedure, the Russian national tank biathlon team hit the road on its red-colored tanks during the second round of the contest. The championship comprised several different stages: individual, sprint,