UrBC, Moscow, December 5, 2016. Russians’ factual income and consumer demand keep going down, banki.ru refers to Head of Accounts Chamber Tatiana Golikova as stating. ‘Consumer demand has been in decline for the second year in a row. This year, people’s spending is estimated to go down by 4.6% (compared with 5.3% in the ten months of the year), which is directly related to people’s shrinking incomes (-5.6% by the end of the year according to the government’s forecasts),’ Golikova said. The official also said consumer prices would go up a little faster in December than in the previous months,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2016. The non-state retirement fund Buduscheye is about to merge with a number other Russian non-state retirement funds, the fund’s director Nikolai Sidorov reports. Last year, the fund set a market precedent by embarking on a merger with StalFond, a major non-state retirement fund; this year, Buduscheye is ready to start managing Uralsib and Nashe Buduscheye. Sidorov says M&A is the current market trend rather than the particular choice of a few certain pension funds. As the security and financial performance requirements grew stricter in the last two or

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2016. ChTPZ Group’s 14th Snezhnost Children’s Festival will open at M.I. Glinka Chelyabinsk State Opera & Ballet Theater on December 8, the Group’s press service reports. The opening show called Classics for Children will be presented by the musicians of P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (founded 150 years ago this year). ‘Since it was set up fourteen years ago, the festival has grown to be a very important cultural event in the Urals. Over 150,000 young visitors have enjoyed this experience so far. Every year, the program grows bigger, with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2016. A new receiver got launched at Rosatom’s Ural Electrochemical Works (UEKhK) in Novouralsk as part of the company overall facilities upgrades program, the plant’s press service reports. Rosatom’s acceptance board had the receiver tested and approved for pilot production in September 2013. It was decided that the plant’s new technology for filling tanks with uranium hexafluoride should be tried out in field conditions. Some fifty filling cycles have been carried out in the course of pilot production since October 2013. The new technology has meant the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 5, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil completed the capital repairs of its day-patient facility at the plant’s medical unit, the company press service reports. The solemn opening ceremony took place a few days previously, with the plant’s Executive Director Vladimir Roschupkin cutting the symbolic red ribbon. According to Roschupkin, the day patient unit now has everything necessary to ensure the patients’ comfortable stay. The repairs were funded by Ural Vagon Zavod. ‘It took us six months to get ten patient wards and a treatment

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko and GLONASS DG Andrei Nedosekov signed a cooperation agreement on the use of GLONASS satellite technology on the first day of Transport Week 2016 Forum. The satellite system is meant to provide terrestrial, aerial, marine, and space navigation services to an unlimited number of users. GLONASS ensures all-the-year-round, 24/7 global positioning services anywhere in the world, regardless of what the weather conditions may be. Also, Ural Vagon Zavod signed an agreement with InfoWatch to ensure

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. ChTPZ Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant supplied 132 casing pipes with ChT-VC Premium I threaded joints to oil deposits in Orenburg Region. By customer’s order, the pipes were made from the highly durable P110 steels, the Group’s press service reports. ‘Our key customers for pipes with premium threaded joints are Surgutneftegaz, Rosneft, Lukoil, and Gazpromneft. The pipes are manufactured at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s Finishing Center and then used at challenging oil deposits with particularly deep or complicated wells and increased gas content,’ the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) won several prizes in the national annual Corporate Philanthropy Leaders Contest that was coordinated by Donors’ Forum, PwC, and Vedomosti for the ninth time this year, Sinara Charity Foundation’s press service reports. For one, TMK was given silver as the Best Education-Promoting Program (co-sponsored by Saint Petersburg State University’s Higher School of Management) for A Place to Stand, a job-counseling project Sinara is implementing together with Sverdlovsk Region-based TMK member enterprises. The program was set up

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. Ural Airlines designated a number of ‘lucky cities’ for this winter: the air carrier’s Wings Club members based in Barnaul, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, and Chita can get up to 35% of their ticket amount into their bonus miles account, the airline’s press service reports. You are eligible for the increased number of bonus points if you fly with Ural Airlines from one of the cities above before March 31. The company offers 15% off your fare if you fly Promo, 25% off Economy, Premium Economy, and Business Light tickets, and 35% off Business tickets.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. A new skating rink that might prove Yekaterinburg’s largest ice rink on a frozen pond opens in Akademicheskiy District today, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. ‘The rink is located on the frozen pond next to the future Preobrazhensky Park and a church. There is a designated area for adults (450m long) and children (50m long),’ the press service says. The skating rink will be used for professional skiers and ice skaters’ practice during the day and for amateur entertainment in the evening. There is a ski rental service in a heated facility

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 2, 2016. Existing home prices have gone down by 6.67% on Yekaterinburg market since the start of the year and currently come to 66,829 RUR per m2 on average. In November, the price decrease amounted to 0.65% against October, SRG’s research findings indicate. Yekaterinburg is currently Russia’s third most expensive location among cities with population over 1m people in terms of existing home prices, outstripped by Moscow (172,034 RUR per m2 on average) and Saint Petersburg (101,549 RUR per m2).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 1, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon presented the visually impaired children in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk with a collection of CDs with sign language interpretation and audio description options, the company press service reports. Free showing of children’s movies with subtitles and audio description components also took place in twenty-nine Russian movie theaters on November 29, 2016. In Yekaterinburg, the event was supported by Verba Fund, co-chaired by a member of Uralskiye Pelmeni team Andrei Rozhkov. In Chelyabinsk, the showing was organized

UrBC, Moscow, December 1, 2016. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world’s leading OCTG manufacturers, coordinated Investor’s Day at Moscow Exchange on November 25 with support from Aton Group, the company press service reports. The event was attended by TMK Deputy Director-General for Strategy & Development Vladimir Shmatovich, Deputy DG for Economy & Finance Tigran Petrosyan, Deputy DG for International Markets Andrei Parkhomchuk, Strategy, Risk Management, & Investor Relations Director Igor Baryshnikov, Strategic Investment Analysis & Investor Relations Director

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 1, 2016. Interest rates on foreign currency deposits offered by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development went down by 0.25% in November, the bank’s press service reports. The bank currently offers its customers four such deposit types: Convenient, Savings, Mobile, and Multi-Currency. According to the bank’s Debit Transaction Director Olga Aksenova, this downward trend is typical of the entire banking sector. ‘Banks are offering minimum interest rates on foreign currency deposits at the moment, which has to do with the fact that there is no need to have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 1, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s souvenir shop UVZSHOP.ru opened at the domestic flights terminal in Roschino Airport in Tyumen; this is the third Russian airport (in addition to Balandino Airport in Chelyabinsk and Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg) to host the corporation’s branded clothing store, the company press service reports. Tyumen residents and visitors to the city will find a wide range of products on offer in Roschino: clothes, footwear, souvenirs, and travel accessories such as sleeping masks and glasses, comforters, memory sticks, key rings,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 1, 2016. The rating agency RAEX (Expert RA) affirmed Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s credit rating at A, promoting the company from the second to the first sub-level, with Stable rating outlook, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The positive factors to take into account were relatively high activity diversification, enhanced geographical diversification of sales network and production sites, plenty of investments in facilities maintenances and upgrades, and relatively high diversification of debts,’ the press service says. According to the agency’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation signed two strategically important agreements on hi tech produce development for both civilian and special purposes, the company press service reports. The first of these agreements, on technology transfer, was signed by Director-General Oleg Sienko on the corporation’s behalf and by Chair of the Board Igor Drozdov on behalf of the Skolkovo Foundation. ‘The goal is to efficiently introduce hi tech developments by Russian innovative companies into production process and to make them popular on the market as well as to work

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2016. Evraz Holding’s West-Siberian Metallurgical Works (ZSMK) invested some 3bn RUR in production upgrades, retooling, and capital repairs this year, Evraz Holding Siberia’s press office reports. The key goal was to get the plant’s continuous casting machine reconstructed. The upgraded machine resulted in increased output, a new method of steel-teeming, and reduced environmental impact. Also, the plant keeps investing in capital repairs of the equipment used at its sintering, blast furnace, and steel-smelting departments. In 2016, two of the company’s blast

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2016. The world’s first interactive 3D map available to over 4m people who come to Koltsovo Airport every year was introduced in Yekaterinburg recently. The map was developed and installed as part of Multimobility Project coordinated by Belaya Trost (‘White Cane’), a non-profit organization for the visually impaired, and the telecommunications provider MegaFon, the company press service reports. The map will be useful for everyone, including people with vision disabilities, who can use the map’s sensor surface and an in-build audio support system. The map and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2016. Historic tours of local landmarks are available for Yekaterinburg residents and visitors to the city in Akademicheskiy District, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The participants will be taken on a guided tour in the company of an experienced guide and themed travel expert Polina Ivanova. ‘Some of the city districts represent a perfect historic model of the way Yekaterinburg looked at a certain time period. VIZ, for example, is an old plant with a square, a church, a hospital, and workers’ log cabins. Uralmash, Elmash, and Khimmash have the