UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 14, 2018. Rostourism blacklisted seven hotels in Sverdlovsk Oblast for overcharging prospective guests during the World Football Championship 2018 days, Kommersant says. Rostourism’s ‘black list’ stems from the Russian Government’s decree that sets an upper limit to the cost of hotel accommodation in the FIFA Confederation Cup game-hosting cities and constituencies during the World Cup days. The agency first carried the list in late January 2018, with 41 hotels featured on it. The hotels brought their prices down shortly after the publication. The new list

UrBC, Moscow, February 14, 2018. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service proposed a bill to the Russian Government requiring that all companies in the pharmaceutical sector get licensed for the sake of national security, the FAS’s press service reports. ‘The FAS has placed a proposal with the Cabinet stating that the Russian Government should take charge of granting permissions to use inventions, usable models, or industrial samples without the patent owner’s specific consent (but with notifying the patent owner as soon as possible and paying them a compensation) in order to protect the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2018. ChTPZ Group is going to take part in the first All-Russian Mentor 2018 Forum in Moscow on February 13-15. The goal is to promote professional mentorship throughout the industrial sector, the Group’s press service reports. ChTPZ shareholder Andrei Komarov, Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s Managing Director Alexei Dronov, and the Group’s key mentors and top experts in dual education and mentorship practices development will represent their company at the forum. The event, which gets coordinated by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, will feature a special

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2018. A new-format post office (Post Office of The Future) opened in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District today. Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast Evgeny Kuivashev, Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob, Director of Russian Post Ural Dmitri Kisselev, and RSG-Akademicheskoye’s top managers all attended the opening ceremony in Akademik Sakharov St. The new outlet is going to become one of Yekaterinburg’s largest post offices. A 100-square-meter office houses a parcel dispatch and delivery center, a customer service area, five customer counters, an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2018. The number of gadgets with Internet connection rose by 20% in Ural Federal District over the course of the last twelve months, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. According to the company analysts, 150 new devices get connected to the Internet in Ural Federal District every day. The majority of these ‘smart’ appliances are registered in Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, and Chelyabinsk Oblasts. Interestingly, the gadgets are already using up more Internet traffic than human users. ‘The overall amount of Internet traffic in M2M appliances doubled in the course of

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 13, 2018. MMK Group’s metal goods plant MMK METIZ is going to raise its minimum wage; the decision was made by the employer and the company trade union at the latest Collective Agreement Committee meeting, the company press service reports. The committee also looked into the the way the collective agreement got complied with throughout 2017. Detailed reports were made on every paragraph. Both parties agreed that all the provisos had been met in full. Also, they went over all the comments and improvement proposals submitted by the plant workers. It was decided to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2018. 259 Yekaterinburg shops find themselves in the ‘safety perimeter’ of World Football Championship 2018 games. All of them are located right next to Central Stadium. According to Chair of Yekaterinburg Council’s National & International Events Committee Anna Baychibayeva, some of the shops will have to close down during the World Cup days. For one, four private clinics will have to stop operating for four days. Baychibayeva said these temporary limitations wouldn’t affect cafes or restaurants, but only one contractor company with a special contract

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 12, 2018. A new-format post office will open in Yekaterinburg’s Akademicheskiy District on February 12, 2018, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast Evgeny Kuivashev, Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob, Director of Russian Post Ural Dmitri Kisselev, and RSG-Akademicheskoye’s top managers will all attend the opening ceremony at 3 PM. ‘This is a post office that gets reopened in the city’s newest district, with Russian Post buying the place with its own funds. This is also the first new-format post office in town that

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 12, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is reopening the canteen at its Metallurgical Equipment Repair Department 3 after remodeling, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. EVRAZ NTMK and EVRAZ KGOK Managing Director Alexei Kushnarev, the plant’s Chair of Trade Union Vladimir Radayev, and representatives of the plant’s caterer CorpusGroup all attended the solemn opening ceremony. ‘All the rooms and engineering infrastructure at the canteen have been repaired. The dining area now has new furniture, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 12, 2018. MegaFon is offering Sverdlovsk Oblast-based customers a great deal on Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A smartphones, the company press service reports. You can now buy two units for only RUR 9,990 at MegaFon stores if you also put a certain amount in your mobile phone account as well. ‘The special-offer purchase of the two smartphones will come cheaper than the options available through the popular Chinese online shops. The smartphones can prove a great St. Valentine’s Day gift, or a special treat for Defender of the Fatherland’s Day or International Women’s Day,’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 12, 2018. 367 businesses were sold in Yekaterinburg last year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 29.7%, Avito’s research findings indicate. The average selling price stood at RUR 725,300, which was 35.2% below the country’s average. ‘Yekaterinburg was the country’s No.5 among all cities with population over 1m people in terms of the number of companies sold, and No.6 in terms of a company’s average selling price. In 2017, the demand for ready businesses rose on the national scale, with 14.1% more companies sold through Avito in 2017 than in 2016

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 12, 2018. 120,266 people left Sverdlovsk Oblast last year and 120,480 people arrived in the constituency, Sverdlovskstat reports. This means the migration-caused increase in population was 214 people (compared with 326 people in 2016). 44,137 people left Sverdlovsk Oblast for Russia’s other federal constituencies, with 40,771 people arriving in Sverdlovsk Oblast from other parts of the country. This means the interregional migration-caused decrease in population was 3,366 people (compared with 5,490 people in 2016). 4,464 foreign nationals left Sverdlovsk Oblast

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2018. Matryoshka doll is going to be Yekaterinburg’s EXPO 2025 ambassador, Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast Evgeny Kuivashev announced on his Instagram account. ‘#Matryoshkа4Expo and #МатрешкаЗаЭкспо hashtags will hit the social networks to support our application very soon,’ the Governor said. Yekaterinburg applied for the right to host the EXPO 2025 Exhibition and is now competing for the privilege with Baku and Osaka. This is the second time the Russian city is applying for this. This time, the theme runs as follows: Changing the World: Innovations and Better

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2018. Polymeric Composite Materials Center/CentroTech (a member of Rosatom’s TVEL) launched three new production sites for making various items from polymeric composite materials, TVEL’s press service reports. The new facilities will be used for spraying of seamless, abrasion-proof coatings (meant to protect the surface of an item from mechanical damage), spraying of gel coats (i.e. modified resins used in composite material coating), and multi-faceted processing of glass-carbon plastics (spraying, injection, and winding). CentroTech’s new produce is quite

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2018. KORTROS Group’s RSG-Akademicheskoye made a presentation of the development of Akademicheskiy District in Yekaterinburg to a group of Indian developers, the company press service reports. The two parties’ business meetings were part of Russia’s partner program in India coordinated by Senior Architect’s School. ‘Our Indian partners presented to us the country’s rich historic heritage created by the famous Le Corbusier as well as modern architectural pieces. For one, we looked at Supernova, a multi-function building in the sprawling Noida New Delhi,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 9, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won the Russian Business Leaders/Dynamics & Responsibility Contest; the event gets coordinated by the Russian Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs every year, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. The company won in the Cadre Potential Development category. The awarding ceremony took place in Moscow on February 7, 2018 as part of the Union’s Russian Business Week. This is not the first time MMK has won an award for its personnel policy. In the past, the company also won in High CSR

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 9, 2018. Ural Federal District’s locals spent 11.1% less money on consumer goods in January 2018 compared with one year earlier, Romir’s research findings indicate. On the other hand, Russians living in the south of the country actually spent 20.1% more than one year previously and those living in the Volga Region spent 10.6% more. The consumer spending of those based in North-Western Federal District, Siberia and the Far East, and Central Federal District declined by 2.3%, 4.7%, and 8%, respectively. The country’s average consumer spending declined by 1.2% in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2018. Rosset’s Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FCG UES) had its 220-kilowatt Karkateevy Power Substation in Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region upgraded, the company’s Western Siberia division reports. ‘The substation’s operating capacity is now up by 37.5% and comes to 187 MVA. The station now has a reinforced 6-kilowatt indoor switchgear and two new power transformer units. This means the electric power supply to Slavneft-Megionneftgaz facilities will rise by 8 MW; also, the power supply to TransNeft Siberia will grow more reliable as well,’ the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is currently doing the startup and commissioning jobs for its new converter steam recycling unit, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Department reports. The use of the new unit means the prime costs of steel-smelting will go down, as will the plant’s natural gas spending (estimated savings: 20m m3 a year). This is the first time a technical solution of this kind has been used in Russia. ‘The unit traps the steam resulting from steel-smelting at our converter shop; the steam then

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 8, 2018. Member of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) Group VUZ-Bank agreed to act as the joint arranger of a syndicated loan for Alfa Bank (Belarus). According to the bank’s press service, Alfa Bank is both the arranger and the agent bank for the loan. The news of the deal was announced on February 2, 2018. Ten different banks contributed to Alfa Bank (Belarus) getting $6m and €29m in the form of a syndicated loan. In addition to VUZ-Bank and Alfa Bank, these are Svyaz Bank, Bank Otkrytiye, Expobank, Gazprombank, Bank Uralsib, AK Bars,