UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 23, 2018. The price of diesel fuel went up from RUR 41,300 to RUR 47,800 per 1,000 liters in the course of one year, acting Agriculture & Food Minister of Sverdlovsk Region Vladimir Grebnev said at Sverdlovsk Region Government committee meeting today. ‘According to Gazpromneft Regional Sales, the price of diesel fuel reached RUR 47,800 per 1,000 liters on March 15. I’d like to stress that exactly one year earlier, the price was RUR 41,300 per 1,000 liters,’ the official said. Acting Minister is worried such a considerable price increase (+15.7%) will result in

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 22, 2018. ChelPipe Group had its pipes with premium threaded joints rebranded recently: the produce will now get branded as ЧТПЗ Прайм on the Russian market and as ChelPipe Prime on the international ones, the company press service reports. ‘ChelPipe Prime stands for the company’s unique approach to production process and its philosophy of transformation known as White-Coated Metallurgy. The rebranding is part of the Group’s strategy for development and promotion of new product types,’ says the Group’s Director-General Boris Kovalenkov. ‘Given the expected increase in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Three administrative offense lawsuits have been instigated in Sverdlovsk Region following hotels overcharging their prospective customers on the World Football Championship 2018 days, local division of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor reports. The Russian Government actually issued a special Decree on Government Regulation of Hotel Accommodation Prices in Russian Federation Constituencies Hosting FIFA World Football Championship 2018 and FIFA Confederation Cup 2017. Rospotrebnadzor also determined that certain businesses provided accommodation

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. The average asking price currently comes to RUR 68,040 per m2 on Yekaterinburg existing homes market; this is 0.4% more than four weeks previously and 1% more than one year earlier, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s Analytical Department reports. Prices have been going up a little in all locations. For one, housing prices rose by as much as 4.1% in downtown Yekaterinburg in the course of four weeks, with asking price currently at RUR 98,333 per m2. As for existing homes in Yekaterinburg’s second and third most expensive locations just outside the centrally

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Yekaterinburg Underground confirmed that the city’s defunct TV tower would get pulled down in the near future. ‘As the blasting/special-purpose jobs operator AO RVS is going to be pulling down the radio and TV tower at 15 Stepan Razin St, and in accordance with Yekaterinburg Council’s Decree 514 as of March 19, 2018 (On Traffic Shutdown in Stepan Razin St and Dekabristov St and Cancellation of Underground Trains from Ploschad 1905 to Botanicheskaaya Stations), no trains will be operated from Ploschad 1905 to Botanicheskaaya in both directions between 9 AM

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region Government came up with a list of local roads and highways that will undergo repairs this year, the plan is to draw up the project documentation for the needed construction and reconstruction jobs and overhauls, the Mid-Urals Information Policy Department reports. There are now eighty road sections on this list, with some of them transferred over from last year. The list covers the sections that need fixing particularly urgently because they are responsible for connecting the more remote villages and settlements to the rest of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 21, 2018. EVRAZ Holding acted as a sponsor for the International Big Helmet Judo Championship in Yekaterinburg on March 17-18, 2018. Thirty-five countries competed in the event this year, with best sports players from Russia, Japan, France, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, and Kazakhstan fighting for the first prize. ‘Supporting sports in the territories where the holding runs its business is EVRAZ’s top charity/CRS priority. The company has been investing in a self-defense and judo classes in Kachkanar for over a decade now; we also sponsor our Uralochka NTMK volleyball

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 21, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Senior R&D Center Expert Sergey Denisov is now Engineer of The Year, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘Sergey Denisov has a PhD in Engineering Sciences and is a highly skilled professional in the field of rolling goods manufacturing. He’s patented 37 inventions and has published over 190 science papers and two monographs. He personally contributed to the development and introduction of a number of technologies at MMK that won gold medals at high-profile international exhibitions,’ the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 21, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s scrap metal-collecting asset META came up with a performance report for 2017. ‘META sold 1.32m tons of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal last year, which was 2.5% less than in the year 2016 (1.45m tons). These sales figures included 829,000 tons of scrap metal collected from the Group’s own enterprises (up 69,000 tons on a year earlier) and 491,000 tons of transit scrap metal,’ ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. Among the Group’s daughter companies, Vtorchermet, META Chelyabinbsk, META Yekaterinburg, and META Perm managed to raise

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 21, 2018. Ural Airlines will start operating flights from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport to Yekaterinburg, Simferopol, and Sochi on March 25, 2018. All flights will be operated on Airbus A320 liners, the air carrier’s press service reports. The company’s maiden U6 1 flight (Yekaterinburg Koltsovo - Moscow Sheremetyevo) departs at 7:30 AM (local time) and arrives in Moscow at 7:50 AM (Moscow time); flight U6 2 departs from Moscow at 10:45 PM (Moscow time) and arrives in Yekaterinburg at 03:05 AM on March 26, 2018 (local time). According to Ural Airlines’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 21, 2018. Sergey Kustikov, who works as excavator operator at EVRAZ Holding’s Kachkanar Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK), and the plant’s pelletizing mill’s pellet mill operator Alexander Gofler received state awards; the awarding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The awarding ceremony took place at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District’s office in Yekaterinburg. According to EVRAZ Holding’s press service, Sergey D. Kustikov was given the medal of For Merit to The Fatherland

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. 246,600 m2 worth of new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January and February 2018, which exceeded the figures for one year previously by 1.5 times, Sverdlovskstat reports. 159,200 m2 of housing got commissioned in February alone (2.4 times more than in February 2017), including 110,800 m2 of private houses (3.1 times more than last February).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s agribusinesses stopped buying milk from local farmers, several farm representatives told UrBC. These are mainly local enterprises that are no longer interested in cooperation. According to farmer Maxim Glazyrin, Rosselkhozkooperatsiya (Kosulino), AgriCo (Sukhoi Log), and Talitskiye Molochnye Fermy haven’t been doing any business with the farms since the start of the year. No company gave he reason the contract got annulled. ‘Rosselkhozkooperatsiya informed us on February 28 that they were backing out of the contract. This means we

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. The number of people living in Sverdlovsk Region declined by 152,300 people (-3.4%) in the last fifteen years, Sverdlovskstat reports. 4,477,552 people lived in the constituency as of January 1, 2003; as of January 1, 2018, the figure was 4,325,256. According to the statistics available, the population numbers kept going down between 2003 and 2011 and up between 2012 and 2015. A new decline began in 2016, with depopulation at 4,000 people in the year 2017 alone.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region-based civil servants’ monthly salary amounted to RUR 46,545 on average last year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 0.6%, Sverdlovskstat reports. The local legislative branch officials started earning 6.1% more (up to RUR 69,026 a month), those in the executive branch and local government officials started earning 0.4% more (up to RUR 43,626 a month), whereas public prosecution authorities and judicial branch officials started earning 1.6% more (up to RUR 62,968 a month).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. Five apartment buildings in Yekaterinburg will have to do without electric power supply temporarily due to repair jobs, Standart Management Company reports. No electric power will be available at 22 Lenin Ave from 8 AM to 5 PM on March 20-21 and at 7/2, 9, 11/1, and 11/2 Bardin St from 9 AM to 8 PM. The repair jobs are being coordinated by Yekaterinburg Grid Company.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region locals are now using their bank cards increasingly more often: they bought over RUR 382bn worth of goods and services through bank transactions last year, which is 14% more than one year previously, the Bank of Russia’s Ural Division’s press service reports. The number of transactions also rose by 15%, up to RUR 464.5m. At the same time, cardholders still tend to use ATMs for cash withdrawal less than in the previous years. In 2017, only 18.6% of card transactions were related to cash withdrawal. All in all, cardholders made 571m

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, March 19, 2018. South Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry intends to help establish business ties between Chelyabinsk Region and the Republic of Crimea, the Chamber’s press service reports. According to Director of South Urals CCI Foreign Economic Activity Department Natalya Osipova, the Chamber has coordinated a number of business missions to the southern territory in the last few years. The last visit, which took place in 2017, proved particularly fruitful. ‘Chelyabinsk Region’s enterprises have a lot to offer to the Crimea. We are the leaders on the machine-building

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2018. Akademicheskiy Management Company won the local Best Management Company Contest; the competition was coordinated by Sverdlovsk Region’s Ministry for Communal Housing Services & Utilities on March 15, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. According to the event coordinators, the contest aims to distinguish companies with the best housing management practices and to help spread these practices across the constituency in order to ensure residents’ comfort and safety. ‘The contest was two-fold: first, an expert committee processed competing

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 19, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working to improve its personalized energy savings system, with the employees’ personal accountability for efficient use of energy resources, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘The goal is to improve the way we keep track of our resource spending and to introduce an efficiency competition. We embarked on this project as early as 2015, when costs analysis was carried out at our blast furnace department; we identified material and human resource control points and made an inventory of the