April 22, 2015. Russia’s GDP dropped by about 2% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with a year earlier, Interfax refers to Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev as saying at the State Duma meeting on Tuesday. According to Medvedev, the industrial output decreased by 0.4% compared with Q1’14. ‘All this isn’t the worst of the possible scenarios. To be frank, the situation with prices, unemployment, the banking system, and many branches of industry could be more complicated and threatening,’ Medvedev said. He added that the country had gone through ‘much more serious problems’ in 2009, when its GDP

April 22, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s stock of cattle went down by 1.3% (278,900 head of cattle) in March 2015 compared with March 2014, Sverdlovskstat reports. Pig livestock came to 332,400 (-1.3%), that of sheep and goats came to 64,600 (-3.8%), while poultry stock rose by 3.8% and amounted to 13.8m.

April 22, 2015. 20% of Yekaterinburg residents are planning to go abroad for their vacations this year, E1.Rabota’s research team states. 25% intend to stay in town, 31% will head for their dachas or countryside B&Bs, and 24% of respondents said they are going to travel around Russia. Based on the last year’s survey findings, 18% of Yekaterinburg dwellers haven’t had a vacation for over two years, and 9%of those surveyed said they only used 50% of their vacations. 42% take some time off conventionally, that is, for two weeks twice a year. 14% of respondents said one month’s paid holiday

April 21, 2015. Uralvagonzavod and Uraltransmash (member enterprises of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) organized training sessions for the tank crews who will operate their vehicles during Victory Day Parade on May 9. According to the corporation’s press service, the crew members were selected from among the candidates who had the best technical skills for driving military vehicles. ‘Forty tank troopers (eight officers and thirty-two private soldiers) from Naro-Fominsk Unit in Moscow Region trained at Uralvagonzavod and a group of military officers from Western Military District trained at

April 21, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant coordinated its annual improvement proposals contest; over three hundred workers from the plant’s 55 departments took part in the competition this year. ‘Our target improvement figures were exceeded by 3.13 times. All the departments and workers who contributed to this received money premiums,’ the corporation’s press service says. 310 improvement proposals were adopted by the plant in 2014 against 288 proposals a year earlier. This resulted in 65.3m RUR in savings (against 48.3m RUR in 2013). Additionally, the company spent 377,100 kg

April 21, 2015. The Key to Success, ChTPZ Group’s motion picture, won the first prize in the first Russian Man of Labor Film Festival, the Group’s press service reports. The prize was awarded by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh and Russian Federation Hero of Labor Konstantin Chumanov. The Key to Success is a movie about The Future of White Metallurgy, the Group’s unique educational project implemented in cooperation with Sverdlovsk Region Government and Pervouralsk Metallurgical School. The movie focuses on the

April 21, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Labor Department expects the local unemployment rate to increase by nearly two times this year, the department’s deputy head Natalia Bordyugova said at a press conference. ‘There are currently 32,000 unemployed people in the Mid-Urals. According to our forecasts, the figure could go up to 56,000 people in the short term. Unlike in 2008 and 2009, the government has not been supporting troubled enterprises on a large scale,’ Bordyugova said. According to the official, the official unemployment rate in the area has risen by 25% since the beginning of the year so

April 21, 2015. More than 370bn RUR were invested in Sverdlovsk Region’s fixed assets in 2014, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 3%, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Infomration Policy Department refers to Governor Evgeniy Kuivashev as stating. ‘This was the seven largest amount of investment among all Russian federal constituencies. In 2013, we were in the ninth place. By the end of this year, fixed asset investments will come to over 22% of the area’s GDP,’ the Governor said.

April 20, 2015. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev signed a decree appointing Viktor Koksharov Rector of Ural Federal University, the official legal information website states. Koksharov’s contract expired on April 8, 2015, along with the terms of ten UFU vice rectors. It wasn’t clear until the end of last week whether the Russian Education Ministry would renew the contract. On April 13, a decree issued by Education Minister Dmitri Livanov reappointing Viktor Koksharov Rector starting from April 9, 2015, arrived at the university.

April 20, 2015. Head of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ Tube Rolling Department Evgeniy Gaas presented the plant’s White Metallurgy Production System at the 10th International Pipe Manufacturers’ Congress. According to the plant’s press service, Gaas has been contributing to the project since the day it was launched. He worked at Vysota 239, the system’s pilot department, assisted Vladimir Putin in the department’s opening ceremony in 2010, and was appointed head of the department at the age of twenty-six in 2012, which made him the youngest manager in the Russian metallurgical sector.

April 20, 2015. Yekaterinburg scored 11th in the rating of Russia’s most migrant workforce-appealing cities. RBC research involved cities with population of more than 150,000 people, the agency indicates. This place in the rating means Yekaterinburg is one of those cities where the number of working people exceeds that of its residents: the figure currently stands at 103%. ‘Companies provide data on their employees’ income tax depending on where the company is located and regardless of where an employee’s residence address is. This means the more taxpayers there are in a city’s database, the

April 20, 2015. ChTZ Uraltrac (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) is going to supply five B14 bulldozers to Vietnam, the corporation’s press service reports. The vehicles with moisture-insulated equipment and high quality coating that can withstand tropical temperatures will be shipped to customers as soon as in May. The plant’s Head of CIS & International Sales Alexander Sergeyev says the delivery contract was signed in December, but the letter of credit was only made available in March due to sanctions imposed on VTB Bank. ‘To make sure the agreement can go through, our

April 20, 2015. Kamensk Uralsky Foundry Plant/KULZ (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) took on a number of young workers with less than one year’s experience, the corporation’s press service says. ‘Several scores of young workers gathered together at the company’s assembly hall; some of them started working as recently as a month ago. These are blue- and white-collar workers under thirty-five years of age from the plant’s non-ferrous casting, pig-iron casting, mechanical, assembly, molding, repair, galvanothermic, electrical, water supply, transport, and technical control

April 17, 2015. Ural Airlines are offering special rates on their Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights: a ticket for the flight operated between April 16 and May 31 is now available for 3,170 RUR (one way, all fees included). According to the company’s press service, there are currently up to five daily Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights on offer. ‘Airbus liners will take our travelers to Moscow in the most comfortable way possible; all the airplanes have both economy and business class sections, passengers are offered a hot meal, some refreshments, tea, coffee, and soft drinks,’ the airline says.

April 17, 2015. Owner of Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company Iskander Makhmudov lost $2.6bn in the course of one year, states Forbes annual rating of Russia’s 200 richest businesspeople. The UMMC owner went down by six positions in the rating and is now in the 29th place. UMMC Trading House DG Eduard Chukhlebov, with $400bn of yearly income, was in the last place. At the same time, Russian Copper Company BOD Chairman Igor Altushkin, with his $1.6bn-income, went up by seven positions in the rating. Viktor Vekselberg, BOD Chairman of Renova Group (Koltsovo Airport shareholder) was among

April 17, 2015. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev and UMMC Holding DG Andrei Kozitsyn signed a cooperation agreement on April 16 covering the launch of a high-speed tramway to connect Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Andrei Kozitsyn explains the project will take off after agreements have been signed with the two cities’ councils, upon which Sverdlovsk Region Government will have adopt a special decree on the launch of the tramway before July 1, 2015. The prospective route is expected to span from Prospekt Kosmonavtov Underground Station in Yekaterinburg to downtown

April 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation adopted the right policy for Zarechnaya Coal Company in trying to retain its workforce and bring its output back to the 2012 level, the company’s former Director-General Vitaliy Kharitonov said in his interview to Interfax. Kharitonov said the company representatives were negotiating with creditors in Kuzbass, providing feedback to workers, and liaising with the government and surveillance authorities. ‘Their aim is to retain the workforce, live through two difficult years, and then resume the business development. These development plans include,

April 17, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant now manufactures the casing for RT-120, a cushioning part of a freight railway carriage. According to the corporation’s press service, the part itself gets assembled at a certain Russian plant and then delivered to Uralvagonzavod to be mounted on the carriages. ‘RT is a Russian cushioning unit which protects both carriages and their cargo from possible damage, especially from damage that can occur during sliding and shunting operations. Making the casings for the RT-120 is a completely new direction for Uralvagonzavod. The difficulty

April 16, 2015. Ural Airlines launches additional Yekaterinburg-Baku and Yekaterinburg-Yerevan flights. Yekaterinburg-Baku flights are now operated on Saturdays as well as Thursdays, Yekaterinburg-Yerevan ones are operated on Thursdays and Sundays. Besides, the airline’s customers can also fly to Georgia: a direct flight from Yekaterinburg to Tbilisi is available every Monday. Tickets are already on offer. Additionally, a new scheduled flight from Yekaterinburg to Chisinau will be launched on May 15, 2015. The flight will be operated every Tuesday. ‘A convenient timetable will allow

April 16, 2015. Supply on Yekaterinburg existing homes market keeps rising: the number of apartments added to Ural Chamber of Real Estate’s database has been growing by 3% a week for the last one and a half months, the Chamber’s Analytical Department states. The number of apartments available for purchase went up to 9,850 (+26%) since February; that of rooms in communal apartments went up to 1,440 (+20%). ‘In contrast to sellers, buyers haven’t been very active so far this year. The demand dropped noticeably after the end-of-year frenzy. This couldn’t help affecting the prices, which have