July 3, 2014. Starting from July 1, 2014, 26 locomotive maintenance depots formerly run by Russian Railways were handed over to the management of STM-Service (a member enterprise of Sinara Transport Machines Holding), the holding’s PR Department reports. Under the contract the company has signed with Russian Railways, STM-Service is now offering full-cycle maintenance services to about 5,000 locomotives (8,200 sections) of various series ranging from freight mainline AC and DC locos to freight diesel-locomotive shunters and mainline locomotives to electric and diesel passenger locos.

July 3, 2014. The economics weekly Kommersant Dengi carried a rating of Russian banks based on the amount of money in private individuals’ deposits as of June 1, 2014. In Q2’14, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development was the 23d largest bank in the country in terms of private individuals’ deposit volume, the bank’s press service reports. The UBRD has long proved to be a reliable bank for those looking to save and build up on their savings: as of June 1, 2014, private individuals trusted more than 89m RUR worth of their savings to the bank all in all; the share of deposits in the

July 2, 2014. Ural Airlines and its new partner Taxi Avantime are offering new discounts to Wings Club members, the airline’s press service reports. To join the Wings Club program, you need to submit your application via the airline’s official website www.uralairlines.com, on board, or at Ural Airlines’ booking offices. To get a discount on a taxi ride in Yekaterinburg, you need to produce your Wings Club membership card or your boarding ticket at Taxi Avantime stand at Koltsovo Airport. The discount comes to 3% to 10%.

July 2, 2014. The Consumer Lending Act that came into effect on July 1, 2014 could improve the quality of Russian borrowers, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Lending Services Director Svetlana Davydova said at a press conference. According to Ms Davydova, the new law resulted in significant changes in the way loans are issued to private individuals; the banks’ ways of resorting to non-transparent lending schemes have been limited as well. ‘Under the new law, the borrowing party can now spend at least five days thinking of whether to sign the lending contract. This is an

July 2, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s youth club celebrated its 15th ‘birthday’ on the Russian Youth Day, the corporation’s press service reports. The jubilee concert organized for the occasion gathered together the most active and labor-loving young people at I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s youth club has remained the leader for many years and is still one of the largest youth organizations in Russia. The corporation employs 12,392 workers under 35 at the moment, of whom 7,143 people are youth club members. ‘Over these fifteen

July 2, 2014. The commander of Vietnam’s National Defense Ministry’s Engineering Corps took an interest in the vehicles made at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) that were shown to him by Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Deputy Director-General Valeriy Platonov, ChTZ Director-General Viktor Voropayev, and Tractorozavodsky Technological Park’s Daughter Companies & Affiliates Director Dmitri Shkyrdin during their business trip to Vietnam, the corporation’s press service reports. The military authorities were shown the entire range of the

July 2, 2014. The Federal Act FZ 353 on Consumer Lending that aims to bring more structure to the Russian lending market comes into effect on Tuesday, July 1. With the new legislation’s regulations in mind, Bank Koltso Urala is launching a free information service for its customers. The service provides an annually updated loan repayment schedule, the bank’s press service reports. ‘Starting today, customers who take out a loan from Bank Koltso Urala will get access to My Account section on the company website. After they enter their log-in and passport at cabinet.kubank.ru, borrowers can

July 1, 2014. Employees of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant celebrated their professional festive day – the All-Russian Day of Inventor & Production Improver – on June 28, the corporation’s press service reports. The target figures for the number of proposed and implemented production improvement suggestions for the first half of 2014 were met by 100%. Over 300 experts from 55 structural divisions of the plant took part in this process. The enterprise currently sees a reduction in production costs as one of its top development priorities; one part of dealing with this task is the

July 1, 2014. The Kazakh Government approved of the signature of an intergovernmental agreement between the Russian and the Kazakh Governments that would regulate the way the two parties could cooperate when developing an ore deposit located on the two countries’ state frontier, Vesenne-Aralchinskoye deposit (Government Provision 646 dated June 13, 2014), Russian Copper Company’s PR Department reports. Russian Copper Group’s member enterprises – Ormet (Orenburg Region, Russia) and Aktyubinsk Copper Company (Aktyubinsk Region, Kazakhstan) – have the right to use the resources of the deposit.

July 1, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation organized Minor Olympics for children from Childhood kindergarten and daycare chain, the corporation’s press service reports. The competitions were held at the company stadium Sputnik and gathered together more than 200 children from 25 kindergartens located in Dzerzhinsky District of Nizhniy Tagil. Every kindergarten is supported by a department from the corporation’s head plant. These are actually the second Minor Olympics for pre-school children. Uralvagonzavod Corporation tried this out for the first time last year, and the experience proved rather

July 1, 2014. Experts from Bank Koltso Urala looked at the financial results of June and the demand for foreign currency last month. It turned out that the US dollar was the most popular currency with private individuals over the last four weeks: the dollar sales rose by one-third compared with May 2014, while the euro sales stood at the same level, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The popularity of the US dollar mainly has to do with the fact that this is traditionally the currency of choice when it comes to foreign currency savings. Moreover, if you are trying to spend less, it makes

July 1, 2014. The special 35th Airbus A320 liner was added to Ural Airlines’ fleet of vehicles recently. This is the 20th liner of the A320 type that the company purchased from a seller in the Philippines. The liner is fitted with 156 seats, including 144 economy class ones and 12 business class ones, the air carrier’s press service reports. The new aircraft is expected to be used both on international and domestic flights. The liner’s first flight under the airline’s flag was operated on Saturday night. This was a Yekaterinburg-Moscow one. Now Ural Airlines embarked on a fleet renovation

June 30, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant keeps working on capital and current repairs of socially important facilities: the company currently operates a number of major sports and medical establishments, Palace of Culture, and several recreation camps, the corporation’s press service reports. The maintenance of V.K. Sotnikov Ice Sports Palace was made the responsibility of the enterprise in 2010. All the current repairs relating to preparations for the new Supreme Hockey League Championship have by now been completed. The roof of Section B is being repaired, and the ice arena is

June 30, 2014. MegaFon and VimpelCom (Beeline) announced a recent improvement in their Radar/Locator services. The subscribers of the two telecommunications giants can now identify locations not only of the subscribers within their home network but also those who use the other operator’s services. Just like before, up to five phone numbers can be assigned to the service, provided that each phone number owner consents to being tracked, the company’s press service reports. Both Radar and Locator are very popular with families with children and elderly relatives, as they help keep track of where

June 30, 2014. The amount of fuel loaded into BN-800 reactor at Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station in Yekaterinburg is now sufficient for the start of a nuclear reaction (the minimum critical mass figure has been reached), the station’s Information & PR Department reports. The final preparatory procedures and reception all the permissions from Rostechnadzor are now taking place so that the reactor could be taken to the critical state. This event, which is significant for both Russian and global nuclear industry, will occur within the next few days. The preparatory stage for the first

June 30, 2014. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) held its annual general meeting on June 27. The event was attended by shareholders and their representatives: together, they hold 96.7146% of all of the plant’s voting shares, the enterprise’s press service reports. At the meeting, the shareholders approved of the company’s annual report and annual accounting report, including the report on the financial performance in 2013; they also decided what to do in terms of profit and loss distribution based on last year’s data, and approved of the possible future deals and the scale of such deals,

June 30, 2014. The construction of Southern Semi-Ring for Yekaterinburg orbital motorway will be completed by 2018. This year, the construction of the section connecting Medny and Polevskoy Tracts will begin, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev said at his meeting with Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin. It is known that the construction of the first, pilot section of the orbital motorway that has linked the Yekaterinburg-Perm Tract junction and the road to the village of Medny has already been completed. In 2014, Sverdlovsk Region authorities are

Only very few business owners actually enjoy recalling the way their companies were set up. However, when they do go through with it, some quite fascinating things are revealed. President of Penetron Group Igor Chernogolov, someone whose bodacious bearing grew proverbial among the business elite in the Urals, made quite a speech to the public recently. Chernogolov developed his waterproofing construction mix business in every way one could think of; he never resorted to understatements while extolling the virtues and competitive advantages of his product and sometimes descended to overtly

June 27, 2014. Throughout the month of July, members of the airline’s Wings Club will be granted 250 extra bonus rubles per every flight segment to their member account when flying on business to Moscow and bank, Ural Airlines’ press service reports. These extra bonuses for business trip can help the cardholders save on their holiday travel. Ural Airlines operate Chelyabinsk-Moscow and Moscow-Chelyabinsk flight every day; these are operated on the comfortable Airbus A320 liners that have both the economy and the business class sections. You can join the Wings Club by applying via the

June 27, 2014. The time it takes to get a building connected to Sverdlovsk Region electric grids dropped by 1.5 months compared with the previous years, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s Deputy Minister for Energy & Communal Housing Services Igor Chikrizov, the adoption of a local bill on cases that do not require a construction permit increased the availability of the power infrastructure in comparable ways. The new rules made it unnecessary to get construction permits for small but very locally popular structures