UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. OOO Elmash/UETM might be declared insolvent soon, as an application to this extent was submitted to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court on August 3, 2015. The plaintiff is Moscow-based OOO LLK International; it is not clear how big the creditor’s claim is. An investigation by prosecution authorities in May revealed that UETM and its related enterprise Energomash Uralelectrotyazhmash owed their workers 73m RUR worth of wages.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. The prices of food items went up by 20.3% in Sverdlovsk Region between July 2014 and July 2015 (the figures do not account for strong drinks), Sverdlovskstat reports. Alcohol items grew 11.2% more expensive in the course of a year. Non-food items grew 13.3% more expensive, while the price of services went up by 15.8%. Sverdlovsk Region’s overall inflation rate was estimated at 16% between July 2014 and July 2015. Compared with June 2015, however, food items were 0.1% cheaper in July.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. 3.3m passengers traveled with Sverdlovsk Railways in July 2015, which was 1.6% less than a year earlier. This figure included 2.4m commuters and 0.9m long-distance travelers, the company press service reports. Sverdlovsk Railways’ passenger turnover amounted to 1,032,500,000 passenger-kilometers, which was 5.3% less than a year earlier. As for the year on the whole, 18m passengers have departed from Sverdlovsk Railways’ stations since the beginning of the year (down 2% on January-July 2014), including 13.3m commuters and 4.7m long-distance travelers. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. The overall amount of current loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region’s residents reached 1.4bn RUR on July 1, 2015, the National Credit History Bureau reports. Out of the overall amount, consumer loans come to 865m RUR and micro-loans come to 546m RUR. According to the Bureau, banks and micro-financing institutions have lent the local borrowers 50.89bn RUR by July 1, up 29.4% on the first quarter of the year. Consumer loans amounted to 26.88bn RUR, with the average loan amount at 32,500 RUR, while micro-loans amounted to 24bn, with the average amount at 14,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s metallurgical facilities are now going to use new, additive technologies, the company press service reports. For one, a modern 3D printer with ABS plastic printing options was launched at the Digital Technologies Sector. The 3D Fortus 400mc unit can create precise and long-lasting parts even of larger sizes. The system is fit to produce parts ranging in size from 355x254x254 mm to 406x355x406 mm through gluing and can be used to make three-dimensional prototypes and any kinds of models and parts and demonstration aids as well

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Yekaterinburg road maintenance authorities got 27,580 m2 of roads and highways repaired in July2015, the city council reports. Additionally, 6,980 m2 of pavements were repaired as well. Yekaterinburg Council’s Urban Development Committee reports that municipal funds were used to get 127,000 m2 of roads repaired between May 25 and July 31. Repair teams are also working to repair and replace curb stone and asphalt in Krasny Lane, Bratya Bykovy St, Yeremin St, Chelyuskintsy St, Bolshakov St, Moskovskaya St, Serov St, Sheinkman St, Narodnaya Volya St, Belinsky

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. The Ural subscribers’ unpaid telephone bills now amount to as much as 2.5bn RUR against 2.1bn RUR a year earlier, the National Collection Service reports. Users based in Yekaterinburg owe their telecommunications suppliers 490m RUR out of these 2.5bn RUR. As for the country on the whole, the overall amount of unpaid bills came to 28.7bn RUR in the first half of the year; this figure is expected to rise to 31.8bn RUR by the end of 2015. Most of these debts are to mobile providers (25.7bn RUR), the rest being unpaid landline bills (1.5bn RUR), and Internet

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. 1.06m people traveled to Sverdlovsk Region last year, which was 100,000 people less than in the year 2013, Rostourism’s website states. Sverdlovsk Region got 981,900 visitors from other parts of Russia (against 1,055,100 people in 2013) and 83,800 international travelers (against 92,000 people in 2013). As for Ural Federal District, 2.78m people came on a visit (against 2.98m a year earlier), while the number of visitors from abroad increased from 161,900 people in 2013 to 167,700 people last year. Also, while Sverdlovsk Region got fewer international

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Sputnik Hockey Club is going to give out one Hyundai Solaris as a lottery prize for the team’s supporters who buy a Supreme Hockey League Championship season ticket for 2015/2016, the corporation’s press service reports. The season ticket costs 4,000 RUR and grants entry to twenty-five home games where the Nizhniy Tagil team will play against their rivals at V.K. Sotnikov Ice Sports Palace. Other prizes include TV sets (one for each of the home games), with winners selected at random based on their entry ticket number. This

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is going to feature all of its latest developments (including the self-propelled howitzer 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV and tanks T15 and T14) at the 10th Russia Arms Expo Exhibition, the event coordinators report. The Russian Defense Ministry’s Procurement Department agreed to the exhibits being displayed on a guarded and cordoned site. 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV, the Russian 152-mm SP howitzer, was designed by Burevestnik, the Nizhniy Novgorod-based scientific research institute. The howitzer is meant for destruction of short-range nuclear

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s prosecution authorities carried out a number of special-purpose inspections which resulted in the closing down of thirty-five casinos operating illegally outside the specially designated areas; additionally, twenty payment kiosks were detected that had hidden gambling options in them, their press service reports. Following the courts’ rulings, 671 pieces of gambling equipment, including 553 slot machines, were declared public property and then destroyed. 74 claims were placed by prosecutors with the general jurisdiction courts; two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. Two new hotels, the Hilton at 9A Lenin Ave, and the Ogni Yekaterinburga Hotel at 108 Belinsky St, will get commissioned in Yekaterinburg in time for the city’s 292nd anniversary. The city council’s press service reports both buildings are nearly complete, so the hotels are expected to welcome their first guests very soon. There are currently 111 hotels operating in Yekaterinburg; the average occupancy rate comes to 52%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. According to the United Cities and Local Governments World Organization, Yekaterinburg is one of the top three internationally active cities, the city council’s press service reports. The Top3 rating was presented at the organization’s Eurasian sector’s General Assembly in Kazan. The three winners among the larger cities are: Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, and Nizhniy Novgorod. Yakutsk, Stavropol, and Tiraspol are the top three medium-sized cities, while Yelabuga, Magadan, and Bugulma proved the top three smaller cities. Kazakhstan’s capital Astana was

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. According to Sverdlovskstat, the overall unemployment rate stood at 6.4% in July 2015, while the number of those without a job rose by 7.7%. 146,152 people were registered as jobless in July 2015, compared with 134,900 people a year earlier. There are 2,284,512 people of working age in the constituency, as of July 2015, of whom 2,138,360 people have jobs. Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department reports seventy-five companies have informed them of upcoming layoffs since the start of the year. Thirty-five companies are already making a number of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporations is going to cover tuition fees of forty-four students (the company’s prospective employees) who got into colleges in Yekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg, Nizhniy Tagil, Novouralsk, and Lesnoy that are part of Uralvagonzavod Corporate University, the company press service reports. ‘These work-incentive programs are a school-leaver’s chance to get into a top-ranking college and our company’s chance to get a highly skilled employee for the job it needs. Our current employees’ children have a priority in the distribution of the funding

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 3, 2015. Kazakhstan Aselsan Engineering is going to present its products at the international arms exhibition Russia Arms Expo this year, the exhibition website informs. ‘Kazakhstan Aselsan Engineering specializes in electronic circuit cards that can be used in a variety of mechanisms ranging from submarines to spaceships. The company also makes, sells, and distributes electronic optical devices such as daytime- and night-viewing devices, TV appliances, and aiming devices. This year, RAE military vehicle and weaponry demonstrations will be performed in the form of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 3, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s Rubtsovsky subsidiary won in the annual Altay Territory’s Best Industrial Enterprise Contest for the first time this year, the corporation’s press service reports. The company’s outstanding performance in 2014 secured it the first prize as a defense enterprise with over 250 employees. ‘We hope this victory will motivate Rubtsovsky to keep on expanding its production output and master new, promising and modern products as well as introduce new technologies,’ a letter sent by Altay Territory Government

UrBC, Nizhniy Tagil, August 3, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation proved one of Russia’s top twenty socially responsible companies in July 2015. The recent joint project with Komsomolskaya Pravda-Ural was one of the factors that helped the company retain its CSR leadership position, their press service reports. The Top20 rating was created by Russia's Agency for Political and Economic Communications (APEC) and featured such giants as Gazprom, Russian Raiwlays, Rosneft, and Lukoil. Rating positions 11 to 20 were mostly assigned to metallurgical and O&G companies. ‘Uralvagonzavod

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 3, 2015. The price of a liter of gasoline for purchase in Yekaterinburg went up from 31.66 RUR to 33.97 RUR between July 20 and July 26,2015, Rosstat reports. In early July, the average price of AI 92 came to 32.95 RUR per liter, that of AI 95 to 35.33 RUR per liter, and that of diesel fuel to 34.65 RUR per liter. Fuel prices have been rising very noticeably over the last four weeks: the average price per liter was 32.76 RUR as recently as at the beginning of June (31.86 RUR for AI 92 and 34.26 RUR for AI 95).

UrBC, Moscow, August 3, 2015. Russian household appliances market sagged by a whopping 35% in the first half of the year, Vedomosti refers to Candy Hoover as reporting. The demand mostly dropped for inexpensively and medium-priced goods, with TV screen sales plummeting the most, that is, by 40% compared to the start of the year. As it happens, the demand for household goods soared overnight following the drastic fall of the Russian ruble in late 2014.