UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 24, 2018. A new football pitch opened at MMK Children’s Health & Education Center today, MMK’s press service reports. ‘It only took a month to put up this amazing sports playground here. Special-purpose coating, certified running tracks, and so on: we did everything to make sure children’s sports practices could be efficient as well as safe. The stadium is fit for tournaments and relay races and will serve as a site for all kinds of championships in all kinds of sports,’ the press service says. The coating got tested immediately: a football championship was

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering additional flights from Chita to Moscow and back. Flight U6 467/468 will be operated every Friday and Sunday on July 29-September 9, 2018. Departure time (Moscow): 9:25 PM; departure time (Chita): 11:00 AM, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘No changes will be made in the current timetable, just a number of extra flights will be added to ensure more flexibility and the convenience of connecting flights for our customers,’ the press service says. There are government-subsidized discounts available on the flights: people

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2018. 35% of Russians who now make purchases at online shops abroad will stop doing so if the customs duty will get imposed on purchases exceeding €200 in value. Shopping abroad will simply no longer be worth it, the survey respondents explain to Romir Holding. 22% of those surveyed said they would look for ways to avoid customs duty and 27% said they were keeping track of the proposed changes in the legislation. Only 9% of respondents said they were willing to go on shopping online despite the new duty. As it happens, the share of online shoppers who buy over

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 24, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is contributing to the company’s job counseling project, MMK press service reports. The project was originally proposed by the Children’s Arts & Crafts Center in Magnitogorsk’s District Ordzhonikidzevsky. The Center’s employee and the project manager Evgenia Moskaleva believes a company as large as MMK has a lot of corporate social responsibility to stay aware of. The local youth aren’t necessarily aware of what the company has to offer and often leave after they finish school. What is more, the young men and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow Region’s Zhukovsky Airport to Kaliningrad; the flight will be available every Saturday, the air carrier’s press service reports. U6 637 will be available between July 28 and September 29, 2018. Departure time (Zhukovsky Airport): 6:30 PM; flight duration: two hours; prices start from: RUR 5,000 (all fees included). ‘Kaliningrad, formerly the German town of Königsberg, is a bit of Europe on the map of Russia, or a bit of Russia on the map of Europe. Even though the old city had beed destroyed and the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2018. Russians living in the Urals now spend more time online when traveling abroad: according to MegaFon’s press service, Sverdlovsk Region-based international travelers used twice as much Internet traffic in June 2018 as they did one year earlier. This amount of data would be enough to view a thirty-day long video non-stop. Sverdlovsk Region-based tourists downloaded/uploaded the equivalent of 500 movies when they were abroad in June. Those based in Tyumen Region came second in this ‘race’ and downloaded/uploaded the amount of data roughly comparable to 55,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2018. International football fans purchased RUR 943.8m worth of goods within the tax free system in Russia during the World Football Championship days this year; they had 11,300 receipts issued to them, RIA Novosti refers to the Federal Customs Service as stating. The Chinese visitors spent the most and made up 70.8% of all customers. Mexican nationals come second, as they made up 2.8% of all customers, followed by the football fans from Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Qatar, and Vietnam (2.1%, 1.94%, 1.25%, 1.1%, and 1%, respectively). Most of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2018. Rosatom’s Ural Electromechanical Plant/UEMZ in Yekaterinburg recently underwent civilian goods production audit by France’s Schneider Electric SAS and Russia’s Rusatom-Elektronika (RASU). According to RASU’s press service, the audit was necessary in order for the company’s electro-technical produce to enter the international market. It was determined that UEMZ is organizationally fit to make USG — Ural Switchgears low voltage electrical devices that meet all of the EU and the IEC requirements. The devices are used within electric power supply systems as

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2018. Russian travelers tend to prefer international vacations this summer and mostly head for countries where no entry visa is required, tutu.ru reports. Turkey remains the most popular destination as always: the share of Russians going there in the summer rose from 19.91% last year to 28.21% in 2018. Greece comes next on the list, even though its share dropped from 8.8% down to 7.54%. Cyprus is No. 3 this year; its share of travelers increased from 3.66% to 6.34%. Trips to Armenia grew 62% more expensive in the course of one year and now cost RUR 22,600 for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2018. Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company’s Bogoslovsky Plant will have to pay RUR 420,000 in fines after an electrician got killed in their Severo-Peschanskaya Mine, Sverdlovsk Region division of the State Labor Inspectorate’s website states. The accident occurred on May 4, 2018. The worker fell down from a height and died of injuries. ‘It was determined that poor organization of labor was the main cause of the accident,’ the website says. The ensuing investigation revealed a number of violations of Article 5.27.1 of the Russian Federation Administrative

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2018. EVRAZ NTMK’s charity marathon moved on from the plant’s mechanics to the rail beam department’s workers this month; the symbolic ‘relay baton’ was handed over from one department to another at a meeting chaired by the Managing Director, EVRAZ Holding’s press service reports. The plant’s mechanics spent about two months doing their part of the project, with all the subdivisions of the Senior Mechanic’s Department taking part. ‘Schools and day cares in remote locations rarely get focused on, so we decided to support Kindergarten 34 in the village of

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 20, 2018. Chelyabinsk Region’s businessmen and women took part in a round table discussion on the best social entrepreneurship practices; the video conference got coordinated by Russia’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the press service of South Urals CCI reports. The event was organized by Russia’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry in cooperation with the Regional Social Program Foundation and a number of constituency-level CCIs. The Chamber’s Vice President Elena Dybova moderated the discussion. She said social entrepreneurship was rather a booming thing these

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s court officers issued 71,440 warrants this year so far that impose a temporary ban to leave the country on locals with unpaid debts. Their accumulated debt exceeds RUR 58bn, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers’ press service reports. Among the debtors are 9,541 people with unpaid child support (total amount: RUR 1.8bn). Over 2,700 people have unpaid housing bills (total amount: over RUR 99m). 3,937 people have unpaid traffic fines (total amount: RUR 120m). 1,814 people also owe RUR 234m in taxes and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2018. 10,000 people are expected to come to the famous Usadba Jazz Open Air Festival in Yekaterinburg this Saturday. According to MegaFon’s press service, their customers will be given special treatment, with a musical show, a comfortable lounge area with smartphone chargers, autographs from the show’s headliners, great quality connection, and high-speed Internet. Russia’s largest open air event in the jazz, funk, world music, soul, indie, and electronic music sector is held in Yekaterinburg every summer. This time, Sansara, Secret Atelier, Daraa Tribes

UrBC, Moscow, July 20, 2018. The Russian State Duma approved of the pension reform bill after the first reading. Nearly all of the United Russia’s deputies voted in favor of raising the retirement age, while the rest of the deputies voted against the proposal. Under the terms of the reform proposed by the Russian Government, the retirement age will go up from 60 to 65 for men and from 55 to 63 for women. The second reading has been scheduled for the end of the year.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2018. 28 alumni of ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program completed their army term at a regiment in Gorniy Shchit, Sverdlovsk Region. They have all been invited to work at the Group’s member enterprises, the Group’s press service reports. Their solemn welcome ceremony took place at ChelPipe Group’s Training Center, where their families, friends, school acquaintances, teachers on the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program, production mentors, and workers of the Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant all

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s hotels faced RUR 302,520 in fines for various consumer rights violations during the World Football Championship days, the local division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) reports. The authorities issued 124 administrative offense warrants during their World Cup checks. Mostly, the hotels were either overcharging their customers despite the Russian Government’s ad hoc decree on pricing policy for World Cup days) or they failed to obtain a star/classification certificate.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering extra flights for passengers wishing to get to Moscow from Novosibirsk and Tomsk. According to the airline’s press service, Novosibirsk-Moscow-Novosibirsk flights will be operated twice a day every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday between July 13 and September 9, 2018. (Departure times: 8:30 AM (from Novosibirsk) and 11:30 PM (from Moscow). The extra flights offer the passengers the convenience of a flexible timetable and of the connecting flights to other destinations in Russia and abroad. You can book your tickets on the company

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2018. ChelPipe Group supplied its first 138,000 kg of weld-less, stainless pipes to Kudankulam Nuclear Power Station in India, the company press service reports. The pipes were made at ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ. The pipes (diameter: 16 mm; layer thickness: 1.5 mm) are meant of the station’s steam-generating unit. The pipes had to meet special customer requirements such as additional ultrasound testing and eddy current testing (supervised in person by a set of inspectors in India). Under the terms of the contract, the Group is to deliver

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2018. Yekaterinburg received visitors from every one in three countries of the world this summer; MegaFon’s engineers report that over 170,000 travelers from 103 different countries used their Internet connection, the company press service reports. Together, the international football fans downloaded more than 4,000 Gb of data via MegaFon, which is enough to watch a four-moth long video online, for example. Koltsovo Airport, Yekaterinburg Arena, Ploshchad 1905 Underground Station, and the intersection of Malyshev St and Vainer St proved the most popular log-in