UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2019. MMK Industrial Park and Credit Ural Bank signed an agreement to provide basic banking services to the park’s residents. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the agreement opens up new opportunities for the park residents in terms of cash and settlement services, loans, online banking, salary accounts, and banking support from Credit Ural Bank. ‘MMK Industrial Park is a ready-to-use, 65-hectare-large site that can serve as an all-purpose facility for investors and offers the best solutions and business space. The park has everything

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2019. ChelPipe Group launched a new company website that now unites all of the company’s key online resources and is meant to make customer interaction even more efficient, the Group’s press service says. The new website is meant for both communication and business: customers can now place an order for some items from the Group’s catalogue online, as well as order after-sale services. The website goes along all the modern e-commerce standards and therefore provides the actual experience of an online shop: finding and selecting a product is practically

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 27, 2019. Gorod Pervykh, a local movement supported by ChelPipe Group, coordinated a recycling/waste separation event (UtiliZatsiya) in Pervouralsk for the first time ever, the Group’s press service reports. A garbage/recycling collection point was set up in the city’s main square, so locals could take their paper, plastic, and metal waste as well as used batteries there. More than a hundred residents of Pervouralsk joined in the several-hour event; the movement volunteers took in 1,000 kg of paper-based waste, around 300 kg of used batteries, and over 100 kg of

UrBC, Moscow, February 27, 2019. The preferential-terms lending program for small and medium enterprises (part of the national SME & Sole Trader Support Program) took off on February 25, 2019. Small businesses can now apply for preferential-terms loans (interest rate under 8.5%) at seventy authorized banks operating in twenty-nine federal constituencies, Russia’s Economic Development Ministry’s press service reports. ‘Our list of seventy authorized banks selected to take part in the program was finalized this week. As you can see, this is a much longer list than the one we came up with

UrBC, Moscow, February 27, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region proved Russia’s sixth largest credit card market (in terms of the number of newly issued cards), with as many as 23,583 cards issued by banks in January 2019 alone (compared with 19,600 one year earlier). According to the National Credit History Bureau, Chelyabinsk Region came ninth on the list: 18,181 credit cards got issued to applicants there in January 2018 and as many as 20,806 one year later (+14.4%). The country’s top three credit card markets were Moscow (52,200 newly issued credit cards), Moscow Region (45,900), and Krasnodar

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2019. Maxim Paramonov, Yegor Polevoy, and Andrei Syusyukin from EVRAZ Consolidated West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK) Rail Department got awarded the titles of Russia’s Qualified Engineers at the 19th All-Russian Engineer of The Year 2018 Contest, EVRAZ Holding’s PR Department reports. The three awardees received their medals and badges of honor in the course of a solemn ceremony at the Russian Union of Scientific and Engineering Associations HQ in Moscow. Yegor Polevoy is EVRAZ ZSMK Deputy Tech Director with a Ph.D. in Engineering Science, a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2019. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) completed its new 500-kilowatt power substation Voskhod; this is going to be the key power source in Omsk Region now. The project required RUB 5.6 billion in terms of investments, FGC UES Western Siberia’s press service reports. Voskhod Power Substation is meant to increase Omsk Region’s power grid’s capacity and ensure highly reliable power supply to Omsk with its 1.2 million people. The solemn launching ceremony was attended by Governor of Omsk Region Alexander Burkov and Head of Federal

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2019. Kachkanar Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (EVRAZ KGOK) invested in making the dust-trapping facilities at the plant’s production departments more efficient. This resulted in reduced dust levels at workplaces, decreased air emissions, and therefore smaller environmental impact, the plant’s PR Department reports. EVRAZ KGOK had eighteen dust-trapping and gas-filtering units at Crushing Department, Processing Department, and Pelletizing Department upgraded last year; two more units got renovated as well, which boosted their trapping efficiency;

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2019. Yekaterinburg’s law-enforcement officers coordinated 2,231 operations and events last year, including 845 operations relating to politics and finance and 1,386 events in the field of public education. According to Head of Yekaterinburg division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry Sergey Kulagin’s report for the year 2018 (available on Yekaterinburg Duma’s website), the overall number of crimes registered in the city went down in 2018 against 2017 and reached 18,434 instances. The police uncovered/prevented 1,432 financial crimes (up 77.9% on a year

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 26, 2019. The debts of Sverdlovsk Region’s municipalities will get restructured so that RUB 200 million will be written off, Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Ministry’s website reports. The documents to this effect have been signed by Vice Governor and Sverdlovsk Region’s Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko. The decree (On Partially Restructuring The Principal Budget Loan Debt of Sverdlovsk Region-based Municipalities To Offset Cash Gaps of Their Budgets) means the local towns and cities’ principal debts will get partially written off. The towns in question are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2019. Ural Federal District’s annual inflation rate was estimated at 3.9% in January 2019 (still below the country’s average of 5%); in Kurgan Region, the figure was 5%; in Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, and Tyumen Region (including its autonomous regions), the inflation rate was estimated at 4.7%, 4.1%, and 2.8%, respectively, the Central Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s press service reports. The prices of food items rose 4% faster in yearly terms (up 0.7% on a year earlier, mostly due to greenhouse-grown vegetable price fluctuations). The increase

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2019. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Kaliningrad and back, the air carrier’s press service reports. Flight U6 637/638 will be operated daily between June 3 and October 26. Departure (Zhukovsky): 4:40 PM; arrival (Kaliningrad): 5:50 PM. Departure (Kaliningrad): 6:40 PM; arrival (Zhukovsky): 9:35 PM. Zhukovsky will be the second airport in Moscow/Moscow Region from where Ural Airlines will be operating their Kaliningrad flights on a daily basis. You can currently fly to Kaliningrad with Ural Airlines from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2019. More than 109,000 people living in Sverdlovsk Region submitted their tax return forms for the year (up 6% on a year earlier). The expected returns total to RUB 4.6 billion (up 12% on a year earlier), Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service says. In 2018, private individuals submitted over 414,000 income tax declarations to the fiscal authorities, which exceeded the figures for the year 2017 by 2%. 11,000 declarations got submitted by the self-employed, civil law notaries, lawyers, farm owners, and bankruptcy commissioners. 162,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2019. According to Rosstat, the price of garbage pick-up and waste disposal rose by 2.5 times on Sverdlovsk Region market this year. Prices also went up by 1.3 times in Chelyabinsk Region and by 1.1 times in Tyumen Region, the Central Bank of Russia’s Ural division’s press service reports. The annual inflation rate was estimated at 4.7% in Sverdlovsk Region in January 2019; in Chelyabinsk Region, Tyumen Region (including its autonomous regions), and Kurgan Region, the figures were, respectively, 4.1%, 2.8%, and 5%. According to the Central Bank, increased

UrBC, Moscow, February 25, 2019. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev asked the Finance Ministry to look into the issue of whether lifting value-added tax on gold purchased by private customers would be expedient. The Finance Ministry is expected to present its considerations on the expediency of lifting VAT on gold purchased by private customers (provided there are no requirements to store the said gold in certified safety vaults), the Russian Government’s press service refers to Dmitri Medvedev as saying at his recent meeting with the Federation Council members. The Ministry must produce

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 22, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems had its 500-kilowatt Surgutskaya Power Station-Pyt-Yakh Main tested with infrared appliances, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. The main got examined with a thermal imaging unit (from a helicopter). The testing confirmed that the main is fully ready to handle maximum workloads at peak times. ‘The infrared diagnostics’ main advantage is that you can measure the temperature of spots where the cables intersect with shield wires remotely; this means the entire main can get safely inspected

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 22, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Group directed nearly RUB 2.5 billion to social welfare programs and charity projects last year, which exceeded the figures for the year 2017 by 11%. According to the Group’s Information & PR Department, the company allocated more than RUB 1.6 billion to social welfare programs, with a focus on the employee healthcare projects. The Group directed around RUB 425 million to a number of medical programs and covering the workers’ medical bills in 2018; Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works provided about 50% of

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, February 22, 2019. Chelyabinsk Region proved No.13 on the national lending market in terms of the average spending limit on credit cards; the rating involved top thirty Russian constituencies all in all. The limit in question amounted to RUB 42,898 on average in the second quarter of 2018 and RUB 48,015 in the last quarter of 2018 (+11.9%). According to the National Credit History Bureau, Moscow-based credit card holders enjoyed the largest spending limits in the fourth quarter of 2018 (RUB 89,900); they were followed by the cardholders in Saint Petersburg (RUB 72,400) and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 22, 2019. The spending limit on credit cards issued by Sverdlovsk Region-based banks came to RUB 50,839 on average in the last quarter of 2018. This was 4.7% more than in the second quarter of 2018, the National Credit History Bureau’s press service reports. ‘After the average spending limits kept gradually going down from the second half of 2017 on, they then started rising in the second half of 2018. This was mainly because it was in this lending segment where the banks managed their risks most efficiently. Spending limits were one key factor in this risk

UrBC, Moscow, February 22, 2019. The Central Bank of Russia intends to limit Russians’ access to forex trading and to only allow qualified investors enter the forex market, the bank’s Vice Chair Vladimir Chistyukhin told TASS. ‘Allowing forex dealers to operate legally would be a very big step. The Central Bank has opposed the respective draft bill for a long time, but the legislative authorities made their decision as they saw fit. However, the proposed legal mechanisms are obviously insufficient to ensure protection for private players. We are about to compete our draft bill on qualified