UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. According to MegaFon’s retail statistics, their Urals-based customers bought a 4G smartphone every three minutes last year. Every one in five smartphones got insured against theft, mechanical damage, and getting wet, which is 33% more than in 2017, the company’s press service reports. Nine out of ten devices people bought in 2018 support high-speed LTE options. The service grew so popular due to extended product range and keen demand for the fastest Internet connection available. MegaFon Ural’s customers tended to buy Samsung produce more often than that

UrBC, Moscow, January 18, 2019. The U.S. Department of Treasure chose to take more time processing En+ and UC RUSAL deals; both companies belong to the Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, and U.S. companies are allowed to do business with them through January 28 as of now, Kommersant reports. The original deadline has already been shifted from January 7 to January 21 once. Now the U.S. Senate recently failed to advance a measure to block the delisting of Deripaska’s assets, which, in turn, boosted aluminum prices at LME by as much as 1.9%. United Company RUSAL and Deripaska’s other assets got

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. Last year, 26% of Sverdlovsk Region-based professionals in gainful employment had a pay rise, whereas 30% started making less. According to HeadHunter’s press service, their survey findings revealed that more than 50% of job-seekers who faced a pay cut say their income shrank by at least 15%. As for respondents with a pay rise, the increase stayed within the 10% limit, even though the actual percentage increased with the seniority of position. In 76% of cases, people’s wages and salaries dropped due to reduced bonus payments; among those with a pay rise,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 18, 2019. The rental prices for a studio apartment on Sverdlovsk Region’s housing market rose by 2.5% in the last quarter of 2018 compared with the last quarter of 2017, domofond.ru refers to its own research findings as indicating. The prices went up from RUB 14,992 to RUB 15,365 a month on average. According to domofond.ru, the rental price of studio apartments increased in sixty-nine Russian constituencies in the course of one year. For Chelyabinsk Region, for example, prices rose from RUB 10,382 to RUB 10,545 (+1.6%) a month on average.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. Ural Airlines’ punctuality parameter rose by 4% in 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The parameter in question thus amounted to 90% last year (96.5% for tourist-filled, chartered flights). The airline operated 61,634 flights in 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 11%.

UrBC, Moscow, January 17, 2019. The U.S. Senate is going to advance a measure to stop the Trump administration’s plans to drop Oleg Deripaska’s En+, United Company RUSAL, and EuroSibEnergo from the sanctions list. The measure got approved by a 57-42 vote, Kommersant reports. The next step is to take the resolution through a ratification stage via a procedural vote, for which it needs to get supported by at least 60 senators. Once the paper has been supported by the majority, the final vote and the support of the House could bring the resolution directly to President Trump’s desk. Now Oleg

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. A non-profit organization Zhivoy Shemur is now active in Sverdlovsk Region: Denezhkin Kamen National Park’s press secretary Robert Karapetyan announces via a Facebook post that the organization will be dealing with the environmental problems in Sverdlovsk Region’s north. The group unites a number of public organizations, communities, and experts from Severouralsk and Ivdel. The organization’s website provides information on the lab tests of water from the local rivers, photographs, details on conferences and meet-ups, and legislative changes in the

UrBC, Moscow, January 17, 2019. Russia’s inflation rate was estimated at 0.2% on January 1-14, 2019 and at 0.7% compared with the start of the year, Rosstat reports. Between January 10 and January 14, the price of wheat rose by 0.6%, that of flour by 0.5%, and that of chicken and buckwheat by 0.3%. At the same time, the price of sausages, margarine, and chocolates dropped by 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.1%, respectively. Prices increased most noticeably in the vegetable and fruit segment, with the increase at 1.1% on average. Tomatoes and cabbage are now 2.6% more expensive, carrots are 1.9% more

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 17, 2019. The negative balance of UralTransBank’s assets and liabilities reached RUB 909 million on December 20, 2018 (compared with RUB 560 million on the day the bank’s license got annulled), a bankruptcy proceedings report on the Bank of Russia’s website states. It is reported that the fund deficit increased after the bank had paid out a portion of its outstanding loans and set up additional reserves for it. Now Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court pronounced UralTransBank insolvent on December 20, 2018, and instituted bankruptcy proceedings for the business.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 16, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) upgraded the appliances at six power substations in Western Siberia. Last year, twenty air break and oil break switches got replaced with the most advances SF6 ones, FGC UES’s PR & Media Group for Western Siberia reports. The company invested RUB 511 million into the modernization project to make the power supply to end users in Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region (where 3.6 million people live and major oil and gas companies operate) even more

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) came first in the rating of Russian ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises in the second half of 2018 as the best national manufacturer of flat rolled products and paint-coated and galvanized rolled goods. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the bi-annual rating was made public in the latest issue of the Metallosnabzheniye I Sbyt magazine. MMK proved No.1 among all the Russian rolled sheet manufacturers once again, thanks to up-to-date, highly productive facilities that got put up in the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. MMK Group’s MMK METIZ won one of the prizes at Chelyabinsk Region round of the nationwide Russia’s Most Socially Responsible Business Contest. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the contest got coordinated by Chelyabinsk Region Labor & Employment Department. The goal is to make employers more socially responsible towards their employees, ensure the development of collective agreements as a tool for managing work relations, make prevention of accidents at work and occupational illnesses more efficient, create incentives for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 16, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) launches its new Savings 540 Days Deposit on January 15, 2019. This deposit type differs from its counterparts in that the savings period is longer (eighteen months) and the interest rate comes to up to 7.85% a year, the bank’s press service reports. ‘This is a perfect offer for those who’ve already saved a certain amount and are now considering various long-term investment options. A bank deposit is still one of the clearest, affordable, and secure mechanism, so over 95% of private customers’

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. Metallurg Foundation, a charity organization that gets primarily funded by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), was declared to meet the Silver Standard in the course of the All-Russian Donors’ Forum Annual Report Contest (aka Starting Point). According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the contest gets coordinated by the Donors’ Forum with support from Russia’s Economic Development Ministry and Presidential Grants for Civil Society Development Foundation and in cooperation with the Social Information Agency and Blagosfera Center. This year,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Yekaterinburg-based cardholders/customers of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) made RUB 1.7 billion worth of transactions between December 30, 2018 and January 8, 2019; this is 53% more than last winter break, the bank’s press service reports. Just like one year earlier, the better part of the money got directed to card-to-card transfers; the overall amount (RUB 256.7 million) is comparable with last year’s figures (RUB 253.3 million). The cards were also used heavily at supermarkets (RUB 15.9 million in 2018-2019 compared with

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 15, 2019. MMK Group’s asset MMK METIZ recently got audited and re-certified for compliance with the new rail industry standard ISO/TS 22163:2017. The company is now one of Russia’s first metal goods makers to get certified for the standard. According to MMK METIZ’s press service, it took the representatives of German-based certification authority DQS’s Russian branch a week to conduct a full audit of the company’s management system and test it for compliance with the ISO/TS 22163:2017 standard; the new standard comes to replace the earlier one known as IRIS. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Koltsovo Customs’ officers did not let a batch of fake Cartier jewelry get smuggled into Russia. According to Ural Customs’ press service, a passenger on Beijing-Yekaterinburg flight was bringing with him sixteen cardboard boxes with six rings and sixteen bracelets in them, all bearing Cartier engravings. The overall weight was estimated at slightly under a kilogram. The customs officers confiscated the jewelry, had it examined by experts, and checked with the trademark owner. A Cartier representative estimated the damage to the brand at RUB 6.5m. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Fifty young employees of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) received corporate awards in the Best Young Team and Youth Award Laureate contests, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. Ten EVRAZ NTMK workers (blast furnace keepers, repair technicians, mill rollers, engineers, foremen, and so on) received the Youth Award Laureate awards. All of them proved very active in the plant’s social events and professional skill competitions and submitted and launched quite a few improvement proposals. The Best Young Team

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. More than nine million people flew with Ural Airlines last year. According to the air carrier’s press service, Ural Airlines offered their services to 9,000579 passengers (up 13% on the year 2017), including 4,894,305 passengers on domestic flights, 2,283,595 passengers on international flights, and 1,822,679 passengers on flights to and from the CIS member states. The airline operated 61,634 flights in 2018 all in all (+11% on a year earlier), including 33,917 domestic flights, 14,766 international flights, and 12,951 flights to and from the CIS member

UrBC, Moscow, January 14, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to buy RUB 265.8bn worth of foreign currency between January 15 and February 6, 2019, the ministry reports. ‘The overall amount of money directed to making foreign currency purchases comes to RUB 265.8bn. The purchasing transactions will be made on January 15-February 6, 2019, which means the daily amount will come to the foreign currency equivalent of RUB 15.6bn’ the Finance Ministry’s website indicates. Russia’s federal budget is expected to get an additional RUB 220.6bn from the oil and gas revenues in January 2019, which