UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s corporate customers can now use both Light and Pro versions of their online banking package with a fully operational mobile app to go with it. Companies’ top managers can also make payments and manage the business’s finances right from their smartphone. ‘UBRD Light App will appeal to even the pickiest customers thanks to its one-tap log in options: you don’t have to enter your passwords any more, as almost effortless fingerprint identification works instead,’ the bank’s press service says. UBRD Lights

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 6, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working together with Oracle and has chosen the latter as its strategic partner in the Industry 4.0 Project for the next five years, the company press service reports. MMK Group’s business processes will get optimized and united through a single corporate information system to ensure much better efficiency for Russia’s leading metal maker. The two parties’ large-scale cooperation program also covers some options for using Oracle Cloud services on an industrial scale. MMK intends to upgrade its corporate

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 6, 2018. South Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry had its quality management system re-certified for compliance with the national GOST standards and international ISO 9001-2015 standards once again, the chamber’s press service reports. The chamber launched its quality management system in 2005. Four re-certification audits have been carried out since then, with auditors competing on the system’s flawless performance every time. ‘We haven’t once found any discrepancy as regards the national standards; the CCI has outstanding expertise in the field of quality

UrBC, Moscow, July 6, 2018. 89% of Russians are not in favor of raising men’s retirement age to 65 and 90% are opposed to raising women’s retirement age to 63, according to Levada Center’s recent survey findings. 70% and 73% of respondents, respectively, said they felt strongly against it, and only 7% to 8% of those surveyed said they supported the new legislature. Most respondents (87% and 84%, respectively) believe the current retirement age (60 for men and 55 for women) is the best possible option. Only 13% to 14% of those surveyed believe it’s also possible to retire later, but they

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 6, 2018. Ural Airlines now operate a direct flight between Chelyabinsk and Harbin; the maiden flight took place on July 4, 2018, and the plane was nearly fully booked. According to the air carrier’s press service, over 140 passengers flew from Harbin to Chelyabinsk. The flight gets operated on Airbus 320 planes (both Business and Economy seats available) every Wednesday. ‘Flights to China are seen as one of the company’s priorities. The airline keeps introducing new flights from different parts of Russia to China in order to improve our partnership with the People’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2018. Obuv Rossii Group, the Russian fashion retail giant, and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) signed an agreement: the bank now opens a credit line (RUR 1bn) for the company for the next two years, the bank’s press service reports. The money will be directed to funding the Group’s current business operation, including its retail network expansion. ‘The UBRD and Obuv Rossii have been partners since 2012, and it is with pleasure that we keep on working with one of the country’s leading banks. The bank’s funding is an important factor for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2018. The number of MegaFon.TV’s online movie theater users rose by 85% since the beginning of the year, MegaFon’s press service reports. According to the Cinema Foundation of Russia, viewers now tend to watch Russian movies more often: 34.8m people have watched new releases in the first half of the year, which is 50% more than one year previously. ISPs and mobile carriers report the same: MegaFon.TV’s mobile app now features Russian movies rather than international blockbusters in its user rating. In May and June, MegaFon.TV users (both mobile app and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s customers got more than RUR 25.2m back as insurance payments this year; this exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 100%. ‘These funds were used to handle the borrowers’ financial issues in case of insured events and let them keep making their loan repayments or redeem the entire amount,’ the bank’s press service reports. The main reason the insurance payments went up is that the borrowing parties grew more financially and legally literate and are now more proactive in applying for insurance money.

UrBC, Moscow, July 5, 2018. Nathalie Tours had to cancel all of the already booked and prepaid tours due to financial troubles, the tour operator’s Director-General Vladimir Vorobiev announced during a broadcast on Echo of Moscow. ‘There is this problem that the negative publicity has been affecting our ability to meet our contractual obligations, so our partners are all refusing their services to the company. We do not see any other way out but to have all our contracts annulled,’ he said. Vorobiev explained the publicity in question is ‘the information circulating on the market, including

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 5, 2018. The demand for hotel rooms rose by 28% in Yekaterinburg during the World Football Championship days compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department refers to Hotel Advisors’ research findings as indicating. It is reported that the hotels were 73.7% full on average throughout the entire championship-hosting fortnight (no data are available for hostels or private apartments). The per-room revenue is estimated at RUR 4,050, which is RUR 2,061 more than one year earlier. According to Sverdlovsk Region Tourism Development Center,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 4, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the 15th Mining & Metallurgical Industry CSR Contest, the plant’s Information & PR Department reports. 61 mining and metallurgical enterprises competed in the contest; this is the second year in a row that MMK wins in Environmental Protection & Resource Saving. ‘MMK invested more than RUR 4bn in environmental projects last year. The company implemented several large-scale ones: the sintering plant’s sulphur-trapping units got reconstructed; the gas-filtering facility got upgraded at the electric

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2018. 132 students who have successfully completed ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program received their vocational school-leaving certificates today; seven students graduated with honors, the company press service reports. The program’s most promising alumni are already employed with ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ). Vassily Kozyritsky and Andrei Mihailov won the 5th WorldSkills Russia’s local rounds in Mechatronics; Evgeny Aleksandrov and Maxim Melnikov won the 3d WorldSkills Hi Tech’s nationwide round;

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2018. Volunteers from the NGO Gorod Pervykh are now working to reconstruct one of Pervouralsk’s architectural landmarks, a rotunda located between Gagarin St, Chkalov St, Volodarsky St, and Trubnikov St, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. First, forty volunteers removed all the grass that has grown on the structure and cleaned up the site. Together with employees of ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ), they will soon start putting the surrounding trees into shape and removing all dead shrubs. Once this has been finished, the rotunda itself will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) looked into 227 websites of local hotels and carried out 284 unscheduled inspections to determine seventeen cases of hotels overcharging their guests during the World Football Championship 2018 days, the division’s press service reports. Now the Russian Government set an upper limit on accommodation prices for all the Russian cities hosting the World Cup games. Following the checks, three and six legal entities had to face administrative liability, with charges based on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 4, 2018. The agreement on the construction of a medical cluster in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy was signed on July 3, 2018, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The agreement was signed by all the key participants in the unique project, including RSG-Akademicheskoye’s Director-General Viktor Krivosheyin, Rector of Ural State Medical Academy Olga Kovtun, acting head of Maternity & Neonatology Research Institute Galina Malgina, and Executive Director of the non-profit Ural Biomedical Cluster Vladimir Vlasov. Additionally, heads of Sverdlovsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 3, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) helps make the city ponds and water reservoirs cleaner by planting exotic flora there that eats both organic and nonorganic stuffs, the company press service reports. The plant’s environmental experts planted water hyacinth (Eichhornia) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) into a pond connected to the Vyazovka River and some single-cell green algae (Chlorella) in Nizhniy Tagil Pond and Lenevskoye Reservoir. The planting campaign is a monthly event; Vyazovka River Pond gets some 650 root

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 3, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) cancelled the commission on its 120-day-grace-period credit card on July 2, 2018, the bank’s press service reports. You can apply for your free card through September 1, 2018; the offer holds for Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Kirov Region, and Bashkortostan. As for the other constituencies where the UBRD operates, the offer holds between June 18 and August 18, 2018; this applies to Perm Territory, Moscow, Voronezh Region, Saratov Region, Orenburg Region, Belgorod Region,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 3, 2018. Equipment for the new steam turbine got delivered to Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Central Power Station; the new turbine is meant to replace its older counterpart and to ensure a boost in the station’s energy efficiency. The assembly and startup will begin in the very near future, the company press service reports. The turbine was made at Ural Turbine Plant and comes with the latest automated control system to ensure best-mode performance and energy savings. For one, the unit needs less heat to produce one kilowatt of electric power, which means

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 3, 2018. The average offers for long-term rentals in Yekaterinburg grew 30% more expensive between May and June (the figures went from RUR 18,500 up to RUR 24,100 per apartment on average), the online estate service N1.RU reports. Rental prices went up most noticeably in VIZ, Parkovy, and the centrally located bits, where the monthly rent rose by 30% on average. The rental market supply increased dramatically in VIZ, Avtovokzal, and the central locations. Also, the supply of the more expensive two-bedroom apartments rose by 7.5% all over the city. The number of

UrBC, Moscow, July 3, 2018. Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies extended its inspections of shopping malls through July 30, 2018, RIA Novosti reports. According to the ministry, every one in six malls in the country fails to comply with the regulations for the performance of automated fire alarms and firefighting systems. The ministry first started checking the shopping malls all over the country after a major fire outbreak in Zimnyaya Vishnya Mall in Kemerovo, when sixty-four people (forty-one of them children) got killed. By early May, the inspections resulted in nearly a third of all malls