August 9, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region public prosecution authorities for the environment conducted a scheduled inspection of Kamensk-Uralsky Metallurgical Plant (KUMZ) and detected some grave violations of the law, the press service for Ural Federal District division of the General Prosecutor's Office reports. The inspection revealed that the plant, which is using the local water resources, has been dumping manufacturing water into the River Iset and Volkovskoye Reservoir; now the amount of pollutants dumped actually exceeds the legal limits. A number of lab tests showed that the maximum

August 9, 2013. 921 instances of violating the Russian Federation phyto-sanitary requirements were revealed at Koltsovo Airports checkpoint in July 2013, Sverdlovsk Region division of Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog)'s press service reports. 1,850 kg of regulated products were confiscated from passengers' luggage and carry-on luggage at Koltsovo Airport's state border checkpoint in the course of phyto-sanitary inspections between July 1 and August 4, 2013. 1,081 kg of restricted goods were brought to Yekaterinburg from Tajikistan, 614 kg were brought from

August 9, 2013. SKB-Bank's own money order system called beGOm keeps expanding. The service was recently made available at 150 offices of Eskhata Bank located in some 20 cities and towns of Tajikistan, the bank's press officer says. Customers can now benefit from BeGOm services at 489 branches of various Kyrgyzstan- and Tajikistan- based banks. Last year, Bakai Bank and Aiyl Bank from Kyrgyzstan joined the system, and Eskhata Bank from Tajikistan followed suit in March 2013; in April, beGOm was introduced at Kyrgyzstan-based EcoIslamicBank. What makes beGOm money orders so

August 9, 2013. The amount of apartments for sale on Yekaterinburg existing homes market has dropped by 4% since the beginning of the summer and reached 8,700 to 9,200 apartments, Ural Chamber of Real Estate's analytical research says. At the same time, the current supply is actually 29% bigger than at the start of 2013. Existing homes prices rose by 0.4% over the last four weeks. The only exception was the city's fifth most expensive district, where prices declined by 1.5% and came to 51,748 RUR per sq m. The fluctuations stayed within 1% range, which means the market has retained

August 8, 2013. An exercise therapy class was recently open at Karabashmed's health unit, Russian Copper Company's PR Administration reports. A trampoline, some bar-bells, an exercise disk, a pres bar, a hoola hoop, a mini stepper, a fitness ball, a skip rope, and a sit-up bench have already been purchased as class equipment. You can also have your blood pressure checked and have an oxygen cocktail here. According to senior primary health worker Zaituna Shaikhovna, the workers come willingly, first and foremost because they want to keep fit, build up some muscles, and improve the

August 8, 2013. 45,430 new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in Yekaterinburg in January-June 2013, which was 7%, or 3,159 cars less than a year earlier. Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg reports that 8,032 automobiles were sold in Yekaterinburg in June, which was 12%, or 1,131 cars less than in June 2012. Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg's Director-General Mikhail Chaplygin says that if the current sales trend continues, up to 90,000 cars might be sold in Yekaterinburg by the end of 2013, which will be 7.5% less than in 2012. 'Last year's figures could be attained if the

August 8, 2013. Ural Airlines announces a sale on tickets for flights from Moscow to Novosibirsk and back, the company's press service reports. The price of a round trip ticket to Novosibirsk and back, with flight operated between August 20 and December 15, 2013, now starts from 7,000 RUR (one way, fees excluded). The special price offer is good when booking between August 6 and September 15. Ural Airlines' Moscow-Novosibirsk-Moscow flight is operated daily on the comfortable Airbus liners that have both the economy and the business class section.

August 8, 2013. UC RUSAL might halt its electrolysis production facilities at five smelters of its West Aluminum Division (Volgogradsky, Ural, Bogoslovsky, Nadvoitsky, and Volkhovsky smelters) until the price of aluminum goes back to $2,400 per 1,000kg, Interfax refers to the company's Director-General Oleg Deripaska as saying. According to Deripaska, the loss-making enterprises in the Urals and the North-West of Russia are now fully subsidized by the profit-making plants in Siberia. 'It is already obvious that we cannot keep the prime cost of our produce at the same level: the

August 8, 2013. Ilya Dmitriyev was appointed MegaFon Ural's IT Director. The company's press service says that the former IT Director Anna Belosheikina became Head of MegaFon Ural's Sverdlovsk Region division in May 2013. MegaFon Ural Director Valeriy Velichko says IT technologies are becoming increasingly more important in the telecommunications sector; not only are they responsible for the uninterrupted accessibility of corporate systems and applications, but they also make an impact on business results and the company's success on the whole. 'The reliability and

August 7, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) supplied its goods and maintenance services relating to the fracturing job on a well in Davydovsky oil deposit that belongs to Orenburgneft (a member of NK Rosneft); the fracturing job will be done by the oil servicing company Schlumberger. According to the company's press service, this is the first time TMK's premium produce will be used in a fracturing job. Unlike regular pipes, pipes with enhanced maintenance characteristics guarantee reliable fixture of stands, whatever the workload, and the necessary air-tightness when used,

August 7, 2013. METCOMBANK is now launching new technologies aimed at reducing fraud risks; these technologies have already proved efficient, as 10 fraud attempts involving credit cards were prevented in the first month of the launch alone, the bank's press service reports. The bank analysts look into every transaction that a customer performs 24/7, and if there are grounds to suspect it can be a fraudulent action, they contact the cardholder over the phone to find out if this was really them who performed this transaction. 'Ensuring the total safety of all the transactions is above

August 7, 2013. MegaFon subscribers now have a unique opportunity to pay for their shopping at the online store Ozon.ru using their mobile phone account. In fact, if you use your mobile account to pay for the shopping before August 31, free delivery is offered. MegaFon's press officer reports. The service is available within the popular Mobile Payments system. Thanks to this system, MegaFon subscribers pay their Internet, TV, and housing bills as well as road police fines and restaurant bills and make loan repayments and much else besides; they can also use the service to make money

August 7, 2013. The international rating agency Standard & Poor’s placed Uralkaliy's (URKA+5.39%) long-term credit rating BBB- and the national scale ruAAA rating on the Rating Watch list, and this might actually be demoted in the future, Prime reports. The rating agency explains that the rating has to be reconsidered after Uralkaliy announced on July 30 that it would stop dealing in export sales through Belaruskaliy. S&P experts believe that under these circumstances, the company's solvency might drop below the BBB- level, as giving up on export sales will exert some

August 7, 2013. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation made Bank24.ru face administrative liability and pay a fine; this information is available from the regulatory body's website. Bank24.ru was fined for violating Article 15.27 of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code by failing to meet the legal requirements on countering money laundering activity and terrorist financing. The bank had to face administrative liability on the basis of the first part of the Article. The Central Bank's decree has already come into full effect.

August 7, 2013. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came up with a report on the projects it implemented that were aimed at decreasing the company's energy spending at MMK Group's enterprises and divisions in the first half of 2013. The events were targeted at saving energy, electric power, fuel, drinking and manufacturing water, heating energy, and air separation products, the company reports. The measures taken in the first half of 2013 (including replacing the energy-intensive equipment and improving the performance of the appliances used) 3.7 million kilowatt-hours of

August 6, 2013. 10,000 sq m of housing was put up in Sverdlovsk Region in six months of 2013; the target figure was 13,200 sq m. In addition, 58km of pipelines were laid, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press service reports. So 145 families were able to improve their living conditions under the Social Development of Rural Areas through 2013 Program; before the end of this year, 53 more families are expected to move to new dwellings. 185m RUR are expected to be allocated to the rural areas housing construction in 2013. 123m RUR will be provided by Sverdlovsk Region’s budget and the rest will

August 6, 2013. MegaFon Ural is now giving its subscribers a chance to watch thousands of films in Russia’s most popular online movie theater ivi.ru without any extra charge for the Internet traffic, the company’s press service reports. Ivi.ru is visited by over 15m unique users every month. This year, ivi reports, the website gets 125 to 150 million hits monthly. ‘People increasingly prefer to watch their favorite films and series at a suitable time and do not like depending on a TV program. MegaFon Ural subscribers who use the mobile carrier’s mobile Internet connection can now enjoy not

August 6, 2013. 240,000 sq m of private housing was put up in Sverdlovsk Region in January-June 2013, which is 23% more than a year earlier, the region’s government’s press service reports. At the same time, the amount of housing commissioned in the first half of the year was 8% more than in the first half of 2012 and came to 389,000 sq m. The volume of housing construction affected the demand at the building materials market as well. For one, the floor tiles production rose by 2% in January-June 2013 and the brick production increased by 5%. Sverdlovsk Region Government is planning to have

August 6, 2013. Prices for all the basic types of building materials rose in all parts of Russia over the last month: this was the conclusion made by experts from the National Costing Pricing & Value Engineering Association (NASI). According to these experts’ research findings, the single-piece wall materials prices rose by 2.4%, cement became 1.9% more expensive, and ready-made slurry became 0.7% more expensive. The price of non-ore building materials increased by 0.4% and the price of ferrous metal stock used in the building industry rose by 0.2%.

August 6, 2013. NLMK Electrotechnical Steel Director Valery Shevelev succeeded Sergey Makurov in his position as the Director-General of VIZ-Stal, the enterprise’s press service reports. Shevelev is going to combine his new duties with the responsibilities of NLMK Electrotechnical Steel Director. What is more, he will also be in charge of running NLMK subsidiary in Yekaterinburg – NLMK Ural. Now Shevelev actually was the head of VIZ-Stal before, in 2006-2007.