UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 17, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recently carried a report on its sports-related CSR projects for employees. According to the company press service, the town of Magnitogorsk now has expansive sports infrastructure for doing and playing sports and working out, thanks to MMK. The extracurricular training center Metallurg-Magnitogorsk Sports Club works to implement MMK’s social project on promoting physical culture and sports among the locals and on encouraging MMK workers and their families to lead a healthy lifestyle. The club’s sports

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 17, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Alardinskaya Mine was the first of the holding’s member enterprise Raspadskaya Coal Company’s assets to produce 2,000,000,000 kg of coal from a single mine this year, EVRAZ’s press service reports. This output record for Long-Face 3-38 was set by Alexei Komarov’s team from Section 1 (foreman: Valeriy Kuznetsov). As is the custom there, the company management arrived to congratulate the miners on their success. The workers then presented Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Director-General Sergey Stepanov with a symbolic rock with the inscription

UrBC, Moscow, September 17, 2018. The Bank of Russia does not intend to purchase any foreign currency on the home market until the end of the year as a way of enforcing the budgetary rules. The decision was taken in order to make the authorities’ monetary policy more predictable and thus reduce the financial markets’ volatility, the bank reports. ‘The plans to resume buying foreign currency on the internal market on a regular basis once again will have to be made based on the actual financial market situation at the time. The decision to make up for the currency not purchased this year will

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, September 17, 2018. ChelPipe Group is acting as the sponsor for the 23d International Research-to-Practice Pipw 2018 Conference this year, the company press service reports. The conference will be held on the premises of the Russian Research Institute for the Tube & Pipe Industries (RosNITI) in Chelyabinsk on September 17-19; the event is supported by the pipe industry development fund FRTP and Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry. Russian and international researchers, pipe produce consumers, and pipe manufacturers are all expected to attend. The event’s business

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 14, 2018. Charge-conveying system operator at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Blast Furnace 6 and trade-union group organizer at Team 4 Serdar Yakunin won the All-Russian Mining & Metallurgical Sector’s Best Trade-Union Group Organizer Contest, MMK’s press service reports. A Chelyabinsk Region round of the competition was held among the trade-union group organizers at the local mining and metallurgical enterprises first; this stage got hosted by MMK Group’s trade union organization in May. Trade-union group organizers from MMK Group, MMK METIZ,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 14, 2018. Russian Post opens a new post office (No. 620110) in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy on September 18; the office can be found at 46 Mekhrentsev St. ‘Akademicheskiy locals tend to rely on the post office services quite a lot. Most of the international shipments arriving from China get ordered by customers living in this part of the city. This is why an additional post office in Akademicheskiy was necessary to reduce the workload of the already operating branch No. 620105 at 78 Sakharov St,’ Russian Post’s press service says. The Russian Post

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 14, 2018. The children’s tech park Quantorium opens in Magnitogorsk this fall; the project is supported by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK). According to the company press service, there are currently 52 Quantorium parks operating in Russia, and 25 more will open this fall. In the Southern Urals alone, the parks will open in Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk simultaneously. Chelyabinsk Region Children’s Tech Arts Club acts as the local operator for both parks. The arrival of Quantorium Tech Park in Magnitogorsk is expected to take the local children’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 14, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region came last in the recent environmental rating; Tambov Region and the Republic of Altay shared the first place. The rating for the third quarter of 2018 is now available on the environmental organization Zeleny Patrul’s website. Sverdlovsk Region was No. 85 out eighty-five constituencies featured in the rating. Chelyabinsk Region was No. 84. Sverdlovsk Region scored very low on Environmental Protection Index and Industrial/Environmental Index. The indices are based on air, water, and land condition indicators as well as on the

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 14, 2018. MMK Group’s MMK Trading House expects to sell more than 250,000,000 kg of metal goods on Kazakhstan market by the end of the year, the Group’s press service reports. Director of MMK Trading House Kazakhstan Vadim Tishchenko said at the Central Asia Metal Market International Conference 2018 in Almaty on September 13 that Kazakhstan was the first country to get the company’s foreign mission. This has to do with both the country’s geographical proximity to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), whose goods the company deals in selling, and with

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, September 13, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) will be on the expert committee for developing the Technology & Innovation Launch Standard in Russia, the company press service reports. The unified procedure is expected to increase demand for Russian technologies and help make Russian companies more competitive. The Standard will consist in a set of guidelines on how to work with external innovations and on what other steps can be taken to enhance large businesses’ efficiency and to create a comfortable business environment for new technologies and

UrBC, Moscow, September 13, 2018. Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said the national economy was expected to hit its lowest point in the first quarter of 2019 and to start gradually recovering from then on, Kommersant reports. ‘The dynamics will have to do with the VAT increase, a one-time negative-effect factor. Starting from the second or third quarter of the year, our economic performance indicators will be looking increasingly better,’ Oreshkin said at Eastern Economic Forum. The minister also said the foreign currency market might also remain particularly volatile

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 13, 2018. Yekaterinburg Council coordinated a meeting to look into the communal housing services issues such as compliance with the legal requirements, unpaid housing bills, and crime rate in the sector, the council’s official website states. Housing management companies that haven’t been paying their heat and power suppliers on time are one acute problem. Eighteen local companies currently owe their utility suppliers nearly RUR 2.8bn in unpaid housing bills. As for the upcoming heating season, 3,439 apartment buildings in Yekaterinburg have already been

UrBC, Moscow, September 13, 2018. Russia’s Agriculture Ministry suggested that less improved wine could be bought for the government and the town councils. ‘The ministry’s draft bill puts forth an expanded list of certain foreign-made foods that will be subject to a purchasing limit/ban if they should be purchased for the government’s and the town councils’ needs. The amended list, if adopted, will cover wines, sparkling wines, liqueur wines, and fruit wines,’ it is explained. ‘Quite enough of this wine produce gets made in Russia, as well as in the Eurasian Economic Union,’ the Ministry

UrBC, Pervouralsk, September 13, 2018. ProyekTY Social Skills School coordinated its first creative session in Pervouralsk, with over a hundred starting-up and experienced local businesspeople taking part. The school gets supported by ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ), the Group’s press service reports. First, the session activists presented their projects that are targeted both at making a profit and at improving the locals’ lives. The projects covered a wide range of ideas, from tourist cycling routes to new mobile apps. Interestingly, old-age pensioners were the target

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2018. Ural Airlines offered its services to 2,998,862 people in June through August 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 12%, the airline’s press service reports. 1,702,277 passengers traveled on the air carrier’s domestic flights, 854,266 on international flights, and 422,319 on flights to and from the NIS member states. The airline operated 19,002 flights in the summer months altogether, including 5,089 international ones, 10,994 domestic ones, and 2,919 flights to and from the NIS member states. The Black Sea resorts (Simferopol,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2018. Gorod Pervykh, an environmental movement inspired and supported by ChelPipe Group, coordinated a special eco-race (aka plogging) in Pervouralsk, the Group’s press service reports. ‘Plogging (a portmanteau word stemming in part from the Swedish word plog (‘plough’)) is an increasingly popular sports activity that combines jogging and picking up litter. This was the first time a plogging event took place in Pervouralsk, with several dozen locals taking part, schoolchildren among them. All the participants got provided with rubber gloves and trash bin

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2018. 6,021,909 people flew with Ural Airlines between January and August 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The airline offered its services to 3,349,824 passengers on domestic flights, 1,563,599 people on international flights, and 1,108,385 people on flights to and from the NIS member states. The airline operated 41,036 flights in January-August 2018 all in all (up 14% on a year earlier), including 23,013 domestic ones, 10,173 international ones, and 7,850 flights to and from the NIS member states. The company’s passenger turnover rose by 16%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2018. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob signed a provision relating to a long-term contract for the construction of a secondary school for 1,200 students in District Akademicheskiy’s Quarter 26, the city council’s website states. The new school will be part of the council-founded New Student Openings At Yekaterinburg’s Education Establishments in 2016-2025 Program. Under the terms of the provision, all the construction jobs must get completed by December 31, 2021. Now new School 23 got opened in Akademicheskiy in the course of a solemn ceremony

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 12, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court set the date for the first hearing relating to the Central Bank’s legal action to have AO Tagilbank liquidated on October 2, 2018, the court’s website states. The first hearing was originally meant to have taken place on September 28, 2018. AO Tagilbank was founded in Nizhniy Tagil on November 25, 1991; on July 20, 2018 the Bank of Russia had the bank’s license called off. Based on the bank’s latest report data, Tagilbank was Russia’s 409th largest bank as of July 1, 2018. The insurance payments to Tagilbank’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 11, 2018. Only 55% of Sverdlovsk Region-based workers never work for cash and get all of their pay shown on their payroll statements; this is 5% less than one year earlier, HeadHunter reports. Analysts say the number of those who get a portion of their pay in cash rose considerably this year; however, the number of people who get all of their pay money under the table only rose a little against two years earlier. The banking and medical sectors as well as the academia proved the three areas where the working-for-cash figures are the lowest. Those employed in the