UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Ural Airlines now operate direct flights from Samara to Tivat, Yerevan, Baku, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Sochi, and Osh. According to the air carrier’s press service, Ural Airlines are offering their passengers very good prices with all the fees included. The prices are subject to change depending on the currency exchange rates, however; besides, there’s a limited number of available seats per flight. ‘The airline is trying to make you happy with flights to warmer destinations. All Samara locals have to do is select their specific country for the unforgettable

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy will take part in the all-Russian Double Happiness event for the first time this year, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘We expect several dozen families living both in the district and other parts of Yekaterinburg to take part in the event. The idea is to provide a platform where parents of twins and triplets can meet offline and share their experience, and where the children can meet and play,’ says Akademicheskiy local and mother of multiple children Inga Shchukova, who originally suggested joining in.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. The Ural Bank for the Construction & Development’s analysts report their business customers grow increasingly more interested in mobile banking options. According to the bank’s press service, their small business UBRD Light mobile app has been downloaded 20,000 times since it got launched in the summer of 2018 (and as many times in the forty-five days of Q2’19 as in the entire first quarter of the year). ‘The app is getting ever more popular with the arrival of the vacation season. Business owners and managers definitely deserve a break, but they still

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 24, 2019. Ural Airlines are re-introducing direct flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Bordeaux and Montpellier this spring. Reduced-price tickets are already on offer, the air carrier’s press service reports. Flight U6 793/794 (Moscow-Bordeaux-Moscow) will get operated every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday starting June 1. Prices start from €40 (Moscow-Bordeaux), €65 (Bordeaux-Moscow), and €105 (there and back). Flight U6 791/792 (Moscow-Montpellier-Moscow) will get operated every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday starting June 2. Prices start from €40

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 24, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov Order of Alexander Nevsky for Work Achievements and Many Years of Conscientious Performance, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. ‘I see this award as the acknowledgment of the work efforts made by MMK’s entire team. The company will keep trying to remain Russia’s flagship metallurgical enterprise and will do its best to represent the country on the global metallurgical market,’ Rashnikov says. Viktor Rashnikov was born on October 13,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. 94,500 m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in April 2019; this was 15% less than in April 2018, Sverdlovskstat reports. 428,400 m2 worth of housing got commissioned in January-April 2019, which was 22% less than one year previously. The share of privately put up houses came to 281,800 m2, which was 21% less than in January-April 2019.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, May 23, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Siemens AG’s daughter enterprise OOO Siemens signed a three-year contract for the supply of electric equipment to the former. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the two companies will work together through OOO Siemens’s online store Industry Mall. MMK’s tech experts will be able to select the necessary equipment using a configuring tool and customize their order with extra options such as additional protection appliances, more engine sensors, and so on. All the order-placement routines will now

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are now offering their customers extra discounts on state-subsidized flights from Kaliningrad to Moscow and back. According to the air carrier’s press service, prices start from RUB 1,700 (one way) and RUB 3,400 (round trip) for Moscow-Kaliningrad and Kaliningrad-Moscow flights if you book before June 30; the offer holds for people under 23, women over 55, and men over 60. Children under 12 can travel for as little as RUB 1,275 (one way) and RUB 2,550 (round trip). ‘Eligible to apply for the state-subsidized plane tickets are Russian nationals

UrBC, Moscow, May 23, 2019. The Central Bank of Russia recently made its data protection policy for banks even stricter, the CBR’s press service reports. The CBR’s new regulations make it obligatory for the banks to ensure information security for the following transactions: — collecting money from natural persons and legal entities to put in bank deposits; — depositing the funds in question within the banking system; — opening and administration of natural persons’ and legal entities’ bank accounts. Russian banks only used to be obliged to ensure information security for money transfers. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 23, 2019. Ural Airlines are putting the tickets for their flights operated from Yekaterinburg on sale, the air carrier’s press service says. The special price offer applies to the following flights: Yekaterinburg-Prague-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 18,000); Harbin-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 18,000); Yekaterinburg-Harbin (prices start from RUB 18,000); Yekaterinburg-Harbin-Yekaterinburg (prices start from RUB 25,000); Harbin-Yekaterinburg-Moscow (prices start from RUB 18,000); Moscow-Yekaterinburg-Harbin (prices start from RUB 18,000);

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Head of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Category Purchases Department Pavel Vasev is now Purchases Director of the Year 2019. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the large-scale changes introduced in the company’s purchasing practices resulted in a much more efficient supply chain for MMK. ‘This isn’t the first time MMK’s purchasing practices get assessed so highly by the expert community. The plant won the annual all-Russian Competitive Purchases Leader contest several times before. For one, MMK got the Best Project on Business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers owed their workers RUB 35.1m in delayed wages and salaries as of May 1, 2019; this is RUB 3.9m,or 10.2%, less than the figures for April 1, 2019 and does not include the data for small enterprises, Sverdlovskstat reports. All in all, six local organizations owe pay to 548 workers at the moment. The number of employees with delayed wages is at its highest in the motor engine production sector (353 people, total amount: RUB 21.792m), heating energy-producing boiler shops (97 people, total amount: RUB 2.56m), and the companies

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. The share of overdue debt (30+ days) on consumer loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers dropped by 0.8%, down to 20.8% of the overall amount owed in Q1’19, the National Credit History Bureau reports. In Russia on the whole, the share of bad debt declined by 1.7% in the first quarter of 2019 against one year earlier and came to 20.2%. ‘Even though the share of overdue payments kept going down throughout 2018, there is still quite a lot of bad debt in the consumer lending sector, despite the fact that creditors keep monitoring both the quality of

UrBC, Moscow, May 22, 2019. Russians’ factual incomes are highly unlikely to go up this year, Russia’s Accounts Chamber’s analytical report on the federal budget/the state-run non-budget funds’ budget implementation in January-March 2019 states. ‘Both Urals oil prices and the ruble exchange rate kept going up throughout the first quarter of 2019. Inflation rate went up to 5.3% a year in March, industrial production output increased by 2.1%, and retail trade turnover increased by 1.8%. People’s factual disposable incomes, however, kept dropping (by 2.3%),’ the report indicates. According to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Star Festival for student summer job teams will take place in District Akademicheskiy in Yekaterinburg on May 26, 2019. This year’s event is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the student summer job organizations in Russia, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. Some 1,300 festival participants will gather next to the student summer job teams’ monument in the center of Krasnolesye St-Pavel Shamanov St- Wilhelm de Gennin St quarter. The student summer job organizations first appeared in Sverdlovsk Region 56 years ago. There are more than 3,000

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Some two hundred people took part in Raspadskaya’s job counseling forum for high school, vocational school, and college students in Mezhdurechensk; the event was coordinated by EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company, their PR Department reports. Students from ten different schools in Mezhdurechensk, students of T. Gorbachev Kuzbass State Technical University’s local subsidiary, Mezhdurechensk Mining & Construction School, and Tom-Usinsky Energy & Transportation School all came to the forum. ‘The forum opened with a movie about Raspadskaya, one of Russia’s

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russia’s used car market amounted to 482,200 automobiles in April 2019, which exceeded the figures for April 2018 by 8.6%, Autostat reports. The Russian brand LADA remains the absolute market leader: more than 25% of used cars sold in April (123,000 units) were LADA makes. This is, in fact, 6.6% more than one year earlier. As for foreign-made cars, the Japanese brand Toyota, with 52,800 used cars sold last month (+4.8% on a year earlier), was No.1, followed by another Japanese brand Nissan (27,300 units, up 10.9% on a year earlier), and the Korean brands Hyundai

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May21, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s sheep and goat stock decreased by 4.1%, or 2,700 head of cattle in April 2019 compared with April 2018, that is, from 66,400 down to 63,700. The cattle stock also dropped by 0.8%, or 2,000 head of cattle, that is, from 266,300 down to 264,300, Sverdlovskstat reports. The overall number of cows declined by 0.5%, or 600 head of cattle (from 116,200 down to 115,600). Sverdlovsk Region’s pig stock rose by 3.1%, or 10,700 pigs (from 346,100 up to 356,800); the poultry stock rose by 0.7%, or 100 chickens/ducks (from 13,400 up to 13,500).

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russian employers owed their workers nearly RUB 2.9 billion in delayed wages and salaries as of early April 2019; approximately the same amount of wage arrears also got paid out in the first two months of the year, Interfax refers to Russian Vice Premier Tatiana Golikova as stating. ‘The Russian Government made a drop in wage arrears its special priority. According to our latest data, the overall amount of delayed wages and salaries reached RUB 2.9 billion on April 1, 2019. At the same time, RUB 2.9 billion got paid to 68,000 employees in January and February

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russia’s Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) sees no problem with a potential ban on selling alcohol to customers under 21 years of age, head of the service’s Control & Finance Department Vladimir Mishelovin told RNS. According to Mishelovin, as the service that protects fair competition, the FAS can see no threats to competition in this case. Should such a decision be made, the service sees no problem with this whatsoever. Mishelovin says the decision to prohibit the sale of alcohol to people under 21 should be taken on the national level after a large-scale