UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new Surgut-Moscow (Domodedovo) flight starting December 25, 2018. The flight will get operated daily, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Ural Airlines are thus the only airline to operate flights from Surgut to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. The arrival and departure times are highly convenient: Flight U6 598 Surgut-Moscow: departure 9:30 AM, arrival 11:05 AM (the flight is three hours and thirty-five minutes long), Flight U6 597 Moscow (Domodedovo)-Surgut: departure 12:15 AM, arrival 5:35 AM (the flight is three

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine set a new month record in November, when the mine’s coal output reached 806,000,000 kg (the target figure was actually 684,000,000 kg). This is the best month’s output among all of Raspadskaya Coal Company’s assets. According to the company's press service, this is the first time in the last eight years Raspadskaya Mine proved so productive. Sections 1 (head: Andrei Sokolov), 10 (head: Alexei Fisenko), and 17 (head: Sergey Vassilyev) made a particularly great contribution to the overall success. The stoping teams

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems is currently re-assessing its supply of workers’ protective gear and uniforms as part of the corporate job safety and occupational hazard control program. The company purchased over 1,000 sets of individual protective gear, including breathing protection devices for extremely low temperature conditions, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. ‘The company’s Western Siberia division will soon be operating in anomalously cold weather: about fifteen degrees centigrade lower than the regular mean

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 11, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering their customers reduced-price tickets for Saint Petersburg-Kaliningrad-Saint Petersburg flights. The offer holds for all the round trip tickets for flights to be operated through January 31, 2019. Prices start from RUB 5,050 for Economy tickets. According to the airline’s press service, the flights get operated on a daily basis. Flight U6 391 Saint Petersburg-Kaliningrad: departure 12:55 PM, arrival 1:10 PM (the flight is one hour and forty-five minutes long). Flight U6 392 Kaliningrad-Saint Petersburg: departure 2:25 PM,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2018. Smartphone owners can now use an app that helps visually impaired users scan banknotes for nominal value; the app was designed by Sensor Tech Lab with MegaFon’s support. The product is unique in that the app reads every bill’s denomination out loud and also produces different kinds of vibration sequences for every kind of bill, which means the app will also be useful to the deaf-blind, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘Interestingly, smartphones are exactly the kind of devices that can be crucial in the visually impaired people’s rehabilitation. For

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 10, 2018. Metallurg Foundation (a charity mainly supported by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works/MMK) was among the winners of the all-Russian social innovations and service quality contest focusing on children’s projects, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. 175 organizations from all parts of Russia took part in the competition all in all; 103 applicants got approved by a board of experts and got audited successfully within the voluntary certification system for teenagers and children’s goods, services, and infrastructure. ‘This is the fifth time the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2018. Russian and international perfume makers asked Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in their recent letter to take perfumes and colognes off the list of products that have to get authenticity markings, Kommersant reports. The letter was signed by heads of Association of Perfumery, Cosmetics, Household Chemicals and Hygienic Goods Manufacturers, Russian Perfumery and Cosmetics Association, and Direct Sales Association; together, the associations represent over 90% of the manufacturers and importers operating in the country, including L Oreal, Unilever,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2018. Ural Public Prosecutor’s Office for Transportation is now investigating the delay of Royal Flight’s Yekaterinburg-Nha Trang flight on December 6, 2018. According to the office’s press service, 329 passengers who checked in for the flight (43 of whom were children) had to wait for the ready aircraft for more than twelve hours. ‘The investigation is meant to determine whether and how the air carrier complied with the federal air travel regulations relating to passengers, cargo, and luggage transportation,’ the press service says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 10, 2018. 59% of Russian companies now have rules and guidelines for their employees’ social media presence; thee years ago, the figure was 51%, SuperJob refers to its own research findings as indicating. According to SuperJob, the businesses are mostly worried about their trade secrets (37% of respondents provided this reason for controlling their workers’ online behavior). 21% of employers insist that their staff comply with the netiquette conventions. 18% forbid any negative comments relating to an employee’s workplace, management, and coworkers. Every one in

UrBC, Moscow, December 7, 2018. The Russian Government is currently working on a poverty relief plan, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev announced in the course of recent TV interview. In his decree on the Russian Government’s primary tasks for the next six years (dated May 7, 2018), Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the goal was to halve the current poverty rate by 2024. ‘In order to bring the poverty rate down 200%, an extensive action plan needs to be adopted. The plan is now being developed by the fellow ministers,’ Medvedev said. The plan dwells on quite a few points, including

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 7, 2018. Zaha Hadid Architects apparently knew that their proposal for a new concert hall for Sverdlovsk Philharmonic in Yekaterinburg would interfere with a lived-in apartment building at 40 Karl Liebknecht St, the company’s Associate Director Christos Passas said during his presentation of the project at 100+ Forum Russia. Passas said they were aware there were still home owners living in the building, but this was an issue that could be better dealt with by their customer. It was the customer who set out the project specifications. The company provided a

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 7, 2018. A group of Lysva Metallurgical Plant’s trade union delegates paid a visit to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. Lysva Metallurgical Plant became a member of MMK Group’s large production chain around a year ago. The new owner brought the long-expected changes that touched upon every aspect of the plant’s operation from production issues to management system. The trade union representatives, who lead the plant’s social life, went to see their MMK counterparts for an experience-sharing session. Visitors

UrBC, Moscow, December 7, 2018. Russia’s fast food restaurant market shrank 1.3%, in money terms, in the third quarter of the year compared with one year earlier. Still, it turns out that the number of times Russians tended to eat at fast food venues increased by 3% in the third quarter compared with the second one. According to Romir Holding, McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King are still the market’s top three. Customers, however, are growing increasingly picky about the range of food items on offer, which is why the fast food market players have to keep launching new deals and promotion offers.

UrBC, Moscow, December 7, 2018. The Russian market sales of new passenger vehicles and LCVs rose by 10.1% in November compared on a year-on-year basis and amounted to 167,494 units, Russia's Association of European Businesses (AEB) reports. All of the ten best-selling car makes are locally produced brands. All in all, 1.62 million automobiles got sold in January-November 2018, the AEB Automotive Manufacturers Committee (AMC) indicates. According to AEB AMC Chair Jörg Schreiber, car sales kept rising steadily throughout November. It was reported earlier that a similar increase in sales is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2018. The 5th International High-Rise Construction 100+ Forum Russia opened in Yekaterinburg on December 5, 2018. This year, the focus is on BIM technologies and digital construction. The forum takes place at Yekaterinburg EXPO on December 5-7. Around 10,000 people are expected to visit the forum and present their talks at the business and academic sessions. The event’s business agenda covers presentations by 350 invited speakers, 30 of whom come from outside Russia. Among the new topic to be covered at the forum are ways to do urban renovations while

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 6, 2018. Metallurg Magnitogorsk Ski Resort, which Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) put up next to Lake Bannoye, got launched fifteen years ago this month, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The place is a popular mountain ski resort with over 200,000 visitors a year; the resort won Urals’ Best Mountain Ski Resort, Russia’s Best Mountain Ski Resort, and Best Sports Facility for Tourism awards. Metallurg Magnitogorsk also hosts high-profile mountain skiing, snowboarding, and mountain bike competitions on a regular basis. The resort was designed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2018. The Urals-based Russians have used MegaFon’s banking card over 2,000,000 times to pay for their shopping this year so far, the telecommunications provider’s press service reports. ‘The company’s big data reveal how shopping patterns fluctuate depending on the season, in what time of the year men tend to part with their money more eagerly, and which season sees the male and female shoppers’ clocks ticking in the same rhythm. For one, women generally spend more in the summer, with their average receipt amount and the overall amount of money spent on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2018. Starting December 1, 2018, the interest SKB-Bank pays its customers on their reward checking accounts goes up to as much as 6% a year (for the debit card holders who get their salaries in these accounts and have opted for the Special+ packages), the bank’s press service reports. Customers who have signed up for Premium Card, Elite, Premium, and Premium+ packages will earn 7% interest in their checking accounts.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 6, 2018. Workers of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) Rail Department completed their round of Good Deeds Relay Race this month: the department’s head handed the symbolic relay baton over to the Vehicle Department, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s PR division reports. The plant’s metallurgical workers supported Kindergarten 16 in Novoasbest, Sverdlovsk Region. They spent forty-five days getting the building ready for the winter: new window panes got installed, pipes and flooring got replaced, the heating and power supply infrastructure had to be

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, December 5, 2018. MMK Industrial Park in Magnitogorsk came up with a performance report for the year, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Information & PR Department reports. MMK Industrial Park’s current premises are a ready-to-use, 65 hectares large facility with all the engineering infrastructure on hand. ‘The park got certified by Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry, which means investors can enjoy the tax benefits of a zero property tax and a 3.5% drop in the local income tax,’ MMK Industrial Park’s Director Vladimir Dremov said at a recent off-site