UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 7, 2018. The average asking price of an existing home went up by 2% (from RUR 71,400 to RUR 72,900 per m2) on Yekaterinburg market between the beginning of the year and this month, the press service of the online estate service N1.RU reports. According to N1.RU’s analysts, the average asking price rose mainly due to larger apartments growing more expensive: the price of two- and multiple-bedroom homes started gradually rising as early as last year. Centrally located apartments and those in District Parkovy are getting pricier the fastest. ‘Luxury apartments enter the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 7, 2018. Strong winds (up to 25 m/sec) and heavy showers and hail are expected in Sverdlovsk Region, the weather service Gidromettzentr reports. ‘Wind speed is expected to reach as much as 25 m/sec or more in some locations on June 6; we are also in for large-scale hail storms and heavy showers,’ the service warns. The Ministry of Emergencies suggests locals stay out as little as possible. ‘You’ll be safe from the hail and the storms inside a house, an apartment, a car, or any sort of weather shelter. It is advisable to take care of your pets or poultry and place

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 6, 2018. Locals came in from Nizhniy Tagil, Kachkanar, Yekaterinburg, Lesnoy, Kushva, Alapayevsk, Petrokamenskoye, Nikolo-Pavlovskoye, and Gornouralsky to take part in EVRAZ Holding’s fifth annual race. Children ran a one-kilometer race and adults competed in the five-kilometer one, the holding’s press service reports. The High Five 2018 Race gathered together more people than ever this year: 1,000+ runners entered the competition, with the youngest participant Ilya Kylin as young as five and the oldest ones Yuri Araslanov and Alexei Vassilyev as old as eighty-one.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 6, 2018. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev asked the constituency’s respective ministries to consider setting up a united atomedics center in Yekaterinburg to facilitate diagnostics and treatment of cancer with the help of promising Russian developments, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. The Governor said at a radiation medicine-focused meeting on June 4 that the Mid-Urals had all the facilities and potential to set up a pilot skills center for diagnostics and treatment of cancer. ‘Sverdlovsk Region has been good partners with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 6, 2018. Around 70% of businesses and state-run organizations based in the Urals have chosen MegaFon as their VPN provider, the company's press service reports. ‘Private companies operating in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Regions as well as state-run organizations in the area have been investing in their information security: the demand for virtual private network services doubled against last year; so far, every one in two VPN connections MegaFon’s engineers installed recently has been activated for a Sverdlovsk Region-based company,’ the press service says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 6, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s mortgage loan book rose to RUR 1.6bn this year, which is 60% more than in the last quarter of 2017. The better part of the loans got issued to borrowers based in Yekaterinburg/Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk, and Ufa, the bank’s press service reports. According to the UBRD’s data, customers based in Yekaterinburg+Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, and Novosibirsk mostly apply for a mortgage in order to buy a one-bedroom apartment; those based in Ufa, Kazan, and Kirov look to buy a studio apartment, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 6, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) had over 7,000 old sleeve filters replaced at its gas-filtering facilities. The replacements cost RUR 20m altogether, the company press service reports. The new filters will reduce both dust emissions and the company’s environmental impact. The filters are made from innovative materials with special-purpose fabric properties, an additional soak-treatment coating, and reinforcing threads that all ensure more durability throughout the product’s entire lifespan. In addition to gas-filtering facilities upgrades,

UrBC, Moscow, June 5, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new bill on the ways Russia can counteract in response to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other states. The full text is available on the official legal information portal. Under the new legislature, the Russian Government, acting upon the President’s will, can introduce a range of counteractions/counter sanctions as long as these actions do not jeopardize vital commodities whose counterparts cannot be obtained from Russian/non-U.S. manufacturers. The decisions can also be made by the President based upon the Security

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 5, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Healthcare & Education Center in Magnitogorsk hosted Chelyabinsk Region’s Junior Chess Championship 2018, MMK’s press service reports. MMK sponsored the local round of the championship as well. The contestants were all children under nine, grouped into eighteen teams representing Chelyabinsk Region’s various districts and towns. Each team comprised two boys and two girls. First-graders Mikhail Andreyev and Eva Zanina from School 5, Sati Gabbasova from School 53, and Bogdan Antipin from School 13 represented the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2018. ChelPipe Group presented its new tech solutions at Modern Pipe Production Conference 2018, the company press service reports. Sixty design institutes and R&D centers in the oil and gas industry contributed to the event. The exponents looked into the new kinds of pipe produce on the market and talked about the promising venues for expanding ChelPipe’s product range. ‘ChelPipe Group keeps working to improve its existing technologies as well as to master making new pipe varieties. The Group’s member enterprises can currently manufacture a wide range of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2018. Ural Airlines got declared Taxpayer of The Year in Yekaterinburg Council’s contest once again, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘The contest aims to distinguish the most bona fide taxpayers who contribute to the city’s overall development. Out of the fourteen contestants the judges’ panel selected as finalists, five made it as award winners, with Ural Airlines rated No.1,’ the press service says. In 2017, Ural Airlines paid RUR 3,157,853,000 in taxes all in all. The company also made RUR 472,574,000 worth of personal income tax payments.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 5, 2018. The developer RSG-Akademicheskoyer is coordinating a tender to find the designers for a new quarter in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy, the company press service reports. Under the terms of the contract, the designers are to produce a comprehensive development project for Quarter 11, do all the engineering survey jobs, and come up with project and design documentation for a set of apartment buildings with adjacent/built-in commercial space and underground parking lots (Blocks 11.1.1 and 11.1.2). Opening bid: RUR 48,699,038. Application deadline is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2018. Starting June 1, 2018, Ural Airlines are taking Saratov Airlines’ passengers on their own flights. The offer holds through June 30 provided there are seats available on board, the air carrier’s press service reports. Saratov Airlines’ passengers with valid tickets can fly with Ural Airlines from Krasnoyarsk to Sochi and back and from Kazan to Simferopol and back. ‘To use the option, Saratov Airlines’ customers with valid tickets need to apply to Ural Airlines’ offices at their airports of departure,’ the press service explains. You can get updates on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2018. 49.7% of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s commission-based profit came from small businesses’ fees in the first quarter of the year, the bank’s press service reports. Based on the bank’s statistical data, 72% of commissions get charged for settlement transactions. The increase in the overall amount mainly has to do with the expansion of the bank’s customer base: the number of companies banking with the UBRD rose by 14.4% in the first quarter of 2018 compared with one year previously. The customers were enticed by appealing terms and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering reduced-price tickets for Yekaterinburg-Tbilisi-Yekaterinburg flights to be operated in the early fall. According to the air carrier’s press service, the flights will be operated every Monday and Friday starting from October 10, 2018. Prices start from RUR 3,900 (Yekaterinburg-Tbilisi) and RUR 5,000 (Tbilisi-Yekaterinburg), all fees included. ‘Georgia is great in any season, so you can travel there all the year round. Tbilisi is particularly appealing in the fall, with its nice weather, few tourists, and seasonal fruit. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2018. There were 6.4m people in the workforce segment in Ural Federal District in the first quarter of the year, Sverdlovskstat reports. ‘Also, 316,000 people were unemployed but on the lookout for a job; based on the World Labor Organization’s methodology, they are to be categorized as jobless. 71,000 people registered with employment centers as jobless by the end of March 2018,’ the agency says. Local employers placed 120,500 job opening ads with Sverdlovsk Region’s employment centers by the end of March 2018.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 4, 2018. A criminal suit involving a Yekaterinburg resident charged with registering 1,500 foreign nationals fictitiously has been placed with District Verkh-Isetsky Court, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities report. According to the investigative team, the woman allegedly registered foreign nationals as staying/residing in her apartment in Posadskaya St. The accused thus knowingly misrepresented the data on the migrants’ application/registration forms. She is believed to have thus registered 1,349 foreign nationals who did not actually live at her

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2018. The average asking price of an existing home rose by 1.3% on Yekaterinburg housing market compared with the start of the year and by 2.7% compared with twelve months earlier, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s report states. The average asking price currently comes to RUR 68,162 per m2. In terms of location, prices have been going up in nearly all the parts of the city: by 4.7% for centrally located apartments, by 1.3% in Yekaterinburg’s second most expensive locations close to the heart of the city, and by 1.7% and 2.1% in the third and fourth priciest parts of the

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, June 1, 2018. An awarding ceremony for agents of business support and development took place at Chelyabinsk Region Legislative Assembly this week. Representatives of the South Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry were among those to receive the award, which has been given out for the third time this year. ‘The Assembly’s business development award was set up in 2015 to distinguish the most proactive individuals who are both successful businesspeople and energetic contributors to the businesses’ and government’s interactions,’ the CCI’s press service reports. Once a

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, June 1, 2018. The executive committee of Russia’s Mining & Metallurgical Trade Union’s Central Council announced the results of its FNPR (Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia) Best Authorized Representative for Job Safety 2016-2017 Contest, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The goal is to improve trade union’s control over job safety and healthy working conditions on production sites, encourage our authorized representatives for job safety to be more proactive in preventing accidents at work and occupational health problems, and