A test model of GRANIT 002 (2ES10 Series), a freight locomotive with asynchronous traction drive, performed a ride with a record-setting 9,000-ton train attached to it from Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny to Balezino. The loco was manufactured at Ural Locomotives, a joint venture of Sinara Group and Siemens AG. The machine was successfully tested by the key customer Russian Railways, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, Sinara Group BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyansky, and Siemens AG Chairman of the

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) had to provide their opinion in a civil suit based on a claim of citizen F against Rostelecom’s Ural branch in the first half of this year. The plaintiff insisted on the need to protect her rights and to have the moral damage done to her made up for, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor reports. It was determined in the course of the hearing that the plaintiff had not been receiving any landline phone bills for a while and applied to the phone company a number of times; the telecommunications

Head of Yekaterinburg Municipal Council Alexander Yakob offered his comments on the Russian Federation President Dmitri Medvedev’s decision to propose Yekaterinburg as Russia’s candidate for hosting World Exhibition EXPO 2020. According to the official, the fact that Yekaterinburg gets to apply for the event signifies that the city’s international, strategic, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical achievements are recognized. It’s certain that, if Yekaterinburg gets chosen as the host city for EXPO 2020, this historic event will give the capital of the Urals a new development boost,’ Yakob says.

Holding the World Exhibition EXPO 2020 in Yekaterinburg will mean the city’s transportation system and the social sphere will change entirely and its safety level will reach a dramatically new height, deputy head of the city council for strategic planning, economics, and finance Alexander Vysokinsky said in his interview to channel 41-Domashny’s Poslesloviye, the city council’s press service reports. No such event has ever been held in Russia or even the entire former USSR. Yekaterinburg has already hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and the Petersburg Dialog forum and

Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport is about to raise its jet fuel prices by 1,000 RUR per ton. Jet fuel is available for 26,150 RUR per ton at the moment, and starting August 9, 2011, the airport’s price list will state that the fuel will be sold for 27,200 RUR per ton. The increase thus amounts to 4%. This is actually the second time prices have gone up recently. The previous 4% increase was announced by the airport on May 24, 2011. The air carriers have already responded to this rise: they will have to make the price of plane tickets go up. Jet fuel expenses constitute about 27% of the

The construction jobs on the Radisson Hotel construction site will start in six months, and the building will be commissioned in 2013,’AtomStroyComplex’s Director-General Valery Ananyev said at a recent press conference in Yekaterinburg. The construction of a high-rise Radisson SAS Hotel is expected to start in Yekaterinburg at the intersection of Malyshev St and Krasnoarmeyskaya St. The construction company reported earlier that the building and assembly jobs would only begin in the summer of 2011, but nothing has started as of yet. We’ve been faced with a number of problems. First, the land

Member of Russia’s Soviet of the Federation Arkady Chernetsky welcomed the Russian authorities’ decision to propose Yekaterinburg as one of the potential hosts of the World EXPO 2020 Exhibition and promised to do his best to make sure the exhibition does take place in Yekaterinburg and meets the highest quality standards. This is a very significant occasion for the city, as Yekaterinburg will be able to reach absolutely new heights after 2020, the city will become quite a different thing in terms of comfort, it will also turn into a new international hub, which will be a truly life-changing

Russia runs quite good chances of hosting the international exhibition EXPO 2020, feels Chairman of Sverdlovsk Region Government Anatoly Gredin. Now Russian President Dmitri Medvedev decided that Yekaterinburg should be chosen among the Russian cities that proposed as candidates for hosting the event in 2020. If this happens, Yekaterinburg will look totally different in 2020. It will become an international city,’ Gredin said.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin offered his comments on Russia’s official decision to take part in the competition for hosting the world exhibition EXPO 2020 and on Yekaterinburg being chosen as the potential host city. This is extremely important for the region, this decision has a lot of work behind it, a year’s work of a team; it also stems from the fact that the city is developing very rapidly, and so is its infrastructure (hotels, roads, and communications). This choice is an assessment of our business community’s efforts and an indicator of how Yekaterinburg itself is

Tax reliefs stimulate consumption, whereas it would be better for Sverdlovsk Region Duma to stimulate investment. The idea that a tax relief would give enterprises a chance to reproduce its funds more rapidly sounds dubious,’ Blagodat Securities Investment Company’s Director-General Vsevolod Chaschin told UrBC. Now the energy sector enterprises based in Yekaterinburg might be offered tax reliefs. This will involve Enel OGK-5, OGK-1, OGK-2, and TGK-9. The initiative was proposed by Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Taxpayers Petitions Committee. I believe the initiative results from the terrible

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin met the newly appointed consuls of the Republic of Vietnam in Yekaterinburg Nguyen Kuang Vin and of the People’s Republic of China Yuan Henge. The Governor spoke to the Vietnamese Consul-General about a proposal to sign a socio-economic cooperation agreement between Sverdlovsk Region and the Vietnamese provinces. As for the Chinese diplomat, the two officials discussed the technology of building high-speed railway lines and the two parties’ possible cooperation in the field of machine tool building.

Vladivostok Avia reports its net profit dropped dramatically by 269.9m RUR, or 56.5%. The company explains the decrease in profit has to do with lower passenger traffic at long-haul flights bound for the central part of Russia, and an overall 15% decrease in the company’s average passenger fare.

President of Russian Railways Public Company Vladimir Yakunin is going to take part in a pilot ride of the experimental electric locomotive 2ES10 Granit, complete in three units and fitted with a record-setting 9,000-ton train, along Sverdlovsk Region Railways. The first 2ES10 electric locomotives created by Ural Locomotives (a Sinara Group and Siemens joint venture) are now undergoing final certification and commissioning procedures. The locos were designed and developed in accordance with the Russian Railways’ technical specifications. In order to prove the locomotives’ actual technical and

The law-enforcement authorities of Sverdlovsk Region’s Krasnoturyinsk Investigative Department accused a fifty-four-year-old Krasnoturyinsk dweller and sole trader Naimjon Mamadzhanov of committing a crime described in Article 143 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (violation of labor safety regulations leading to involuntary manslaughter), the Investigative Department’s press service reports. It was revealed in the course of an inquiry that two workers, who happened to be the citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were working on the roof of one of the alumina shops at

Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation decided not to declare any share dividend for the year 2010. 95% of the plant’s last year’s net profit will be directed to covering the expenses accumulated in the previous years, states Rosimuschestvo’s order cited via the corporation’s website. Uralvagonzavod’s net profit amounted to 5.69bn RUR in 2010, of which 285m RUR is to be placed into the reserve fund and 5.41bn is to be spent on covering the previous years’ losses. In fact, Uralvagonzavod did not declare any share dividend in the year 2009 as well due to lack of profit.

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) shipped more metal goods to carmakers in the first half of 2011 than in the entire year 2009. In order to meet the strategic goal of becoming the Russian automobile industry’s leading supplier, MMK keeps increasing the volume of shipments to the Russian carmakers. In 2009, the share of goods delivered to the Russian car manufacturers came to 209,000 tons (4.8% in the entire volume of metal goods shipped onto the Russian market). In 2010, the volume of shipments nearly doubled and amounted to 406,000 tons (6.4% of all the domestic market shipments). In

The Ural Federal District division of Rosprirodnadzor (the state environmental watchdog) is now inspecting Pripyshminskiye Bory national park, OOO Polyksen, Sverdlovskaya Poultry Factory, and OAO Uraltransmash. The authorities are checking whether these companies comply with the orders given, Rosprirodnadzor’s press service reports. The authorities are also checking whether OAO RTz OTzM, OOO Metall-Industriya, OOO Metal-Torg, OOO TzGS, and FAN Scientific & Production Enterprise can meet their licensing requirements and terms and doing inspection raids of water conservation zones in

The net loss of UralProyektAvtomatika Scientific & Production Organization rose by 20.59% in the second quarter of 2011, that is, from 772,000 RUR in the first quarter up to 931,000 RUR in the second quarter, the company’s official data state. The increase in loss is explained by the growing expenses and dropping revenues.

Deposit Insurance Agency State Corporation extended the deadline for TyumenEnergoBank to settle its debts with the top priority creditors till October 25, 2011, the corporation reports. At the same time, the bank now has to pay back 23.5% rather than just 13% of the total amount of sums claimed by its creditors.

An electric arc furnace that was stopped due to an accident at Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant will only resume operating in December 2011 at the soonest, the spokesperson for Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) reports. It was reported on July 10, 2011 that an electric transformer shut down at Nizhneserginsky Metal Goods Plant (part of NLMK Group), which caused one of the two electric arc furnaces to stop working. The shut-down occurred because of an electric circuit breakup in the transformer’s primary side, which means the coil will have to be replaced. The accident is expected to