UrBC, Moscow, March 30, 2020. Ural Airlines evacuated 133 Russian nationals from Thailand on March 27, 2020, the air carrier’s press service reports. Special-purpose Flight U6 856 arrived in Irkutsk on Friday. The airline keeps on operating special-purpose flights in the meantime. Moscow-Yerevan-Moscow flight will get operated on April 1.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2020. Ural Airlines will be operating more Yekaterinburg-Kaliningrad flights in April. Starting April 19, direct flights to Kaliningrad will be available on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. All flights will be operated on Airbus liners. The departure time for the flights leaving Yekaterinburg on Mondays and Fridays is 11:00 AM; the departure time for Wednesday and Sunday flights is 9:00 AM. The departure time for the flights going from Kaliningrad back to Yekaterinburg is 12:25 PM and 10:30 AM, respectively, the airline’s press service informs UrBC.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2020. ChelPipe Group’s member enterprises are currently coordinating training courses on their in-company Power of White-Coated Metallurgy Talent Development Program. 46 employees of the Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant and Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant are now on the program. The program covers four primary fields: managerial skills workshops, production system tools, business specifics, and production technology/quality management. The focus is on practice: some 70% of the learning time is spent practicing on the job. As for the lectures, these get

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2020. RosSet’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) installed overhead ground-wire cable at its 220-kV Urengoyskaya Power Station-Tarko-Sale Main, FGC UES’s Ural division’s PR and media group reports. The new cable ensured a more reliable power supply to end users in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, including the pumping stations at Transneft’s Purpe-Samotlor Pipeline. An overhead ground-wire cable is an important component of electric mains that is meant to provide lighting protection and thus help avoid risks of power outages. In the course

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2020. Ural Airlines took more than 10,000 Russian nationals home from abroad on its custom flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. 60 evacuation flights were operated between March 16 and March 25, 2020. Most of the passengers arrived from Prague, Antalya, Dubai, and Larnaca; a certain number of people also returned from Budapest, London, and Tel Aviv. The airline’s evacuation flights are still in progress: Moscow-Tel Aviv Moscow flight will get operated on March 26; Irkutsk-Bangkok-Irkutsk one will get operated on March 27; and Moscow-Yerevan-Moscow

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 27, 2020. The number of the telecom company MegaFon’s mobile Internet connection users in Russia rose by 6.7% in the last quarter of 2019 and reached nearly 35 million, the company’s press service refers to MegaFon’s financial report as indicating. Experts believe the increase has to do with updated payment plans that now include a range of cross discounts and cashback options and with the network connection growing more stable. 2,470 4G stations got launched in the fourth quarter of 2019, many of which are now operating in Sverdlovsk Region. The stations got

UrBC, Moscow, March 26, 2020. The Russian tourism industry might lose RUB 37 billion this year because of all the travel bans, Executive Director at the Association of Tour Operators of Russia Maya Lomidze said at a press conference in Moscow. According to Lomidze, this could be the case if the travel ban stays in place through September 2020. This would mean, according to Lomidze’s estimates, that outbound travel segment would lost RUB 25 billion and the inbound one RUB 12 billion. Now at the end of February 2020, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia asked Russian Prime Minister

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2020. RosSet’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems is going to improve lightning protection of mains connected to Troitskaya Power Station, FGC UES’s Ural division’s PR and media group reports. ‘The company started mounting a new overhead ground-wire cable at the 220-kV Troitskaya Power Station-PS90-2 Main. Over 40 km of the cable will have to get replaced all in all, which will protect the main against lightning-caused electrical overstress and will thus ensure reliable power supply from Troitskaya Power Station to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2020. NEYVA Bank and Renaissance Insurance Group launched their new car repair insurance plan on March 24, 2020. According to the bank’s press service, NEYVA Bank’s customers can now avoid unnecessary risks and not worry about car accidents so much with a bumper to bumper coverage policy that is now available on very appealing terms. ‘Every proactive driver knows what a car accident entails; this is a very worrisome, unpleasant situation that usually involves having to spend a lot of money on car repairs. The whole thing is even more unpleasant for the injured

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2020. Director-General at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Pavel Shilyayev signed an executive order to adopt a new energy policy for the company; the goal is to cut down on the energy component in products’ prime cost, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The company representatives say the new energy policy will enhance the efficiency of energy spending at every single workplace; will help use secondary energy resources to the fullest; and will help improve the current energy spending control system. MMK saved some RUB 500 million thanks to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 26, 2020. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky signed an executive order to give Timofeyev-Resovsky St a new name; the decree is now available on the town council’s website. Now the proposal to rename an existing street in honor of Vassily Parin MD came from Yekaterinburg residents and members of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch last year. Akademik Parin St now runs between Blizky Quarter and Quarter Eleven (currently under construction). In the future, as per the area’s urban transit network plan, the street will serve as a link between these two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 25, 2020. NEYVA Bank’s executives believe the worst-case COVID-19 pandemic scenario will result in banks with high-risk lending policy incurring drastic losses. Vice Chair of the Board at NEYVA Bank Igor Koshmin told UrBC that how many more private borrowers were going to fail to make their loan repayments on time would depend directly on how fast and how badly the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. ‘Small enterprises and micro-businesses in the tertiary sector are already facing a dramatic drop in customer demand and therefore in revenues. This means they won’t have the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 25, 2020. The housing developer Brusnika now lets you choose and buy an apartment online, the company’s press service reports. ‘Customers can now look at the range of homes on offer, pick a particular apartment, and make a reservation using acquiring options. Online apartment shopping saves you time, and you no longer need to visit our offline office to do all the paperwork,’ the company says. You can find the entire catalog of floor plans, with all the details and current prices, photographs, and rendering samples at brusnika.ru. ‘These are all actual apartments

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 25, 2020. Ural Airlines will start operating flights from Kazan to Simferopol, Sochi, and Krasnodar in April. According to the airline’s press service, the plan is to keep the flights available through October. ‘The flights will be operated on Airbus planes in the following mode: Kazan-Simferopol-Kazan flights will get operated up to five times a week starting March 25; Kazan-Sochi-Kazan ones will get operated on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays starting April 18; Kazan-Krasnodar-Kazan ones will get operated on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 25, 2020. The telecom company MegaFon now lets you buy a SIM card and register it at AliExpress Russia’s Tmall or at the company’s online store (with free one-day delivery), the company’s press service reports. This is an opportunity to practice social distancing and avoid offline shops for those who have to self-isolate. The option is currently available to customers in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Krasnoyarsk, but the service will get launched in more cities, including the ones in the Urals, in the near future. ‘You can activate your SIM card using MegaFon’s

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 25, 2020. New insulators are being installed at RosSet’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems’ seven power substations in Chelyabinsk Region, FGC UES’s Ural division’s PR & media group reports. The insulators are being replaced at RosSet’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems’ transmission substations in Chelyabinsk Region, including the 500-kV Kozyrevo Substation, Kropachevo Substation, and Magnitogorskaya Substation. 612 new cylindrical post insulators will get installed within all the switching equipment. The replacements at the 500-kV Shagol

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 24, 2020. People working in Sverdlovsk Region’s finance sector earned the most last year (RUB 64,000 a month on average), followed by those employed in audit, law, architecture, science, and tech (RUB 56,000) and those in the communications industry and IT (RUB 55,000), RIA Novosti’s recent pay rating indicates. Sverdlovsk Region only came No. 32 in the national rating; according to the rating, in other Russian constituencies, these are the people in the mining industry, finance, and mental labor sector that earn the most. Sakhalin (top salaries at RUB 350,000+ a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 24, 2020. EVRAZ Holding announced it was taking extra steps to protect its workers and ensure uninterrupted production in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center’s PR Department reports. For one, the company employees no longer go on international trips. All workers coming back home from abroad (regardless of whether this was their time off or a business trip) will have to self-isolate on paid leave for two weeks. ‘Access to EVRAZ sites has been limited for foreign experts and contractors. All the preventive measures,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 24, 2020. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Group went in high alert mode and set up an emergency response team (run by the company’s Director-General) to face the spread of COVID-19 on its sites. According to the Group’s press service, the company’s member enterprises are taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus and to reduce the risks of contracting the disease. ‘While the pandemic is still there, there will be no foreign trips and only limited trips inside the country. The company employees who have been to the COVID-19-contaminated locations have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 24, 2020. Banking experts believe the interest rate charged on loans/offered on savings deposits might go up in the near future because of the growing lending and inflation risks. The Bank of Russia decided to keep the key rate at 6% p.a. at the end of last week (March 20). The CBR commented that the current weakening of the ruble was seen as a temporary pro-inflation factor brought about by plummeting oil prices, COVID-19 pandemic, and increased global economic uncertainty in the medium term. Now prior to the CBR’s March meeting, there was plenty of speculation