UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2018. The UK refused to have the raw stuffs needed to make painkillers exported to Russia, TASS refers to Moscow Endocrine Plant’s Director-General Mikhail Fonarev as stating. ‘We depend on imported opioid substances 100% at the moment. These means that absolutely everything - morphines as well as codeine and thebaine stuffs - needs to be purchased abroad. Spain is one of our suppliers, for example. There are other countries as well, but the UK is one country that refused to supply any stuffs to Russia,’ he is quoted as saying. According to Fonarev, introducing a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2018. A students’ design office was set up in Nizhniy Tagil Tech Institute (a subsidiary of Ural Federal University). According to EVRAZ Holding’s press service, the prospective engineers can use the newly purchased equipment to practice the most advanced design and 3D modeling techniques. ‘The design office is fit for fifteen students, each of whom can use two monitors and a graphic station. There’s also a large OHP, an interactive board, and a docucam. We’ve also invested in e-textbooks, comfortable furniture, and up-to-date printing/scanning appliances. The

UrBC, Pervouralsk, October 15, 2018. The NGO Gorod Pervykh activists planted five oak trees in F.A. Danilov Park in Pervouralsk. The trees were donated to the town by one of the locals, who had them grow from acorns in her garden, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. ‘We were very enthusiastic about this local lady’s proposal to have the young trees replanted in the urban environment. There wasn't enough room for the oaks in her garden by then. I hope we’ll see big, leafy oak trees here in one hundred years’ time, so that our grandchildren can enjoy them,’ says Gorod Pervykh

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems allocated around RUR 2bn to get its power facilities in Western Siberia ready for winter, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. Throughout January to September, all the scheduled repairs at substations and electric mains in Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region got completed one hundred percent. The facilities’ breakdown rate dropped 22%. ‘The repair progress got reported on during a recent meeting on FGC UES Western Siberia’s power

UrBC, Moscow, October 12, 2018. The measures the Bank of Russia has been taking to contain inflation (including a recent increase of the key rate) will result in ongoing reduction of interest rates on mortgages, the bank’s head Elvira Nabiullina believes, according to Prime. ‘As for mortgages, the interest rates did go down and reached an all-time low in the middle of summer. And the number of newly issued mortgage loans has been rising fast enough as well. Our analysis findings indicate that this has been happening specifically due to the fact that we keep the inflation in check,’ Nabiullina

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers its insurance plans (My Child and Teledoctor) in every Russian town the bank operates in, that is, in forty-six federal constituencies all in all, the bank’s press service reports. My Child is an insurance plan offered jointly with D2 Strakhovanie that covers the following: disability due to accident and temporary disability/incapacitation due to accident. The child must at least three years old on the day the contract is signed; the plan expires in the year the child turns eighteen.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 12, 2018. A representation of Southern Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry opened in Harbin this month, the CCI’s press service reports. The CCI’s China branch will be in charge of supporting Chelyabinsk Region’s businesspeople’s visits to China organizationally; doing due diligence checks of prospective Chinese partners; coordinating meetings and negotiations; organizing tours of China-based exhibitions; helping Russian companies register as a legal entity in China; and supporting Chinese businesspeople’s visits to Chelyabinsk Region for negotiation purposes.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s migration loss figures went up by 14.6% in January-August 2018 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The migration loss balance thus reached 1,185 people in the eight months of the year (compared with 1,358 people one year earlier): 77,134 migrants arrived in the constituency and 78,492 people left. The local depopulation rate also went up 1.7 times. 34,166 people were born in Sverdlovsk Region in January-August 2018 and 39,806 people died.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. 6,999,739 people flew with Ural Airlines between January and September 2018, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 14%, the air carrier’s press service reports. 3,880,528 passengers flew on domestic flights in these nine months of the year; 1,837,489 people flew internationally; and 1,281,722 people traveled to or from the CIS member states. The airline operated 47,242 flights altogether (up 13% on the year 2017), including 26,480 domestic ones, 11,766 international ones, and 8,996 flights to and from destinations in CIS member states. The

UrBC, Moscow, October 11, 2018. The Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Enforcement at Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry uncovered a fraud at FOREX’s Russian representation. ‘According to the information we have, the suspects used the name of the well-known brand to act as legitimate forex e-traders for their customers and collected private customers’ funds, promising enormous profits and ROI in return. In actuality, all the money got transferred to ad hoc accounts and stolen,’ says Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s official spokesperson Irina Volk. To make everything look

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Vladivostok, Russia to Sapporo, Japan on December 4, 2018. The new flight will be operated every Tuesday and Friday, the air carrier’s press service reports. There is a special offer at the start: prices for Vladivostok-Sapporo-Vladivostok flight start from as little as RUR 7,600 (€100) and RUR 14,100 (€186) (one way and round trip, respectively). ‘Welcome to Sapporo, Hokkaido’s No.1 city! This is one of the key locations to do winter sports. The island is sometimes referred to as ‘the Japanese Siberia’; it

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers all of Samsung Pay options to the bank’s MasterCard holders. Customers who have both a UBRD-issued MasterCard and a Samsung device can pay for their shopping using their smartphones, the bank’s press service reports. ‘We’ve already launched Samsung Pay for Visa holders a bit earlier,’ says UBRD Marketing Director Alexei Merzlyakov. ‘This resulted in an increase in the number of card payments, including contactless ones. As we see customer service improvements and customer satisfaction

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy System’s Western Siberia branch invested in a number of new special-purpose vehicles in order to get ready for winter, the company’s PR & Media Group reports. ‘FGC UES Western Siberia is in charge of power facilities operating in Tyumen Region, Yugra, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region. We need very specific, custom-made vehicles for this climatically challenging territories,’ the Group says. The branch currently operates 363 automobiles and special-purpose vehicles, of which about 33% are wheeled and tracked

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. The Louis Vuitton outlet located in a shopping arcade in Sacco & Vanzetti St in Yekaterinburg will stop operating on January 1, 2019, the shop informs its regulars via phone calls and texts, Kommersant reports. The brand’s Moscow office confirmed the news yet refused to comment on the reasons behind the decision to close the shop down. As things are, there will be only six LV shops operating in Russia all in all: four in Moscow and one in Saint Petersburg and Sochi each. Now Bosco Sport and Etra outlets also closed down at Yekaterinburg’s Evropa

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 10, 2018. Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Tsukanov paid a visit to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) this week, the company press service reports. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky, Head of Internal Affairs Ministry’s Chelyabinsk Region division Andrei Sergeyev, Head of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) Chelyabinsk Region division Alexander Yasinsky, MMK Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov, MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev, and Mayor of Magnitogorsk Sergey Berdnikov all

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 10, 2018. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky informed Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Tsukanov about the current state of affairs in the area. The upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS summits in Chelyabinsk were a special topic in their conversation, Southern Urals Government’s press service reports. Governor Dubrovsky said the summit preparations were in full progress and right on schedule, with no setbacks whatsoever. ‘We have work meetings and site inspections on a weekly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 10, 2018. EVRAZ Holding started working on its new investment project: upgrading the rail wheel-band department at its Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK), the holding’s press service reports. The goal is to improve the mechanical treatment line and the press/rolling train as well as the quality of end-of-line testing in order to increase production output by 78,000 rail wheels a year and meet even the strictest acceptance and coating requirements consumers have for the plant’s wheel produce. Two new automated lines will get launched to ensure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 10, 2018. A large-scale no-excise-duties-paid cigarette-smuggling channel got uncovered at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport Customs, Ural Customs’ press service reports. A routine inspection resulted in finding 1,500 kg of cigarettes that got imported to Russia illegally. It was determined that the offenders had been buying the tobacco produce in Kyrgyzstan and transferring it to Yekaterinburg. A customs check at the airport’s freight terminal revealed that the packets of cigarettes had no Russian excise duty stamps on them. Both the confiscated cigarettes and the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 10, 2018. The 17th Appeals & Arbitrations Court dismissed the complaint placed by Russian Orthodox Church’s Yekaterinburg Diocese regarding Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court’s earlier ruling on a set of college buildings in Yekaterinburg. The case was first heard in Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court in June 2018; the Diocese asked for the three buildings to be handed over to the church. The court dismissed the Russian Orthodox Church’s claim, so the plaintiff took the case further to the 17th Appeals & Arbitrations Court. Now Russian Orthodox Church’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 09, 2018. Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardia) Commander-in-Chief for Ural Federal District Alexander Popov presented ChelPipe Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) representatives with thank-you letters to acknowledge the plants’ and their workers’ help during the World Football Championship games in Yekaterinburg in the summer. Rosgvardia’s Ural Federal District division thanked and awarded ChelPipe Chair of the BOD Andrei Komarov and PNTZ Head of GR Department Alexander Khanin. As follows from the letters,