UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. The 3d local physics contest for high school students closed in Nizhniy Tagil recently; prizes were established by Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Executive Director Vladimir Roshchupkin, the company press service reports. Sergei Vorobiev from Nizhniy Tagil School 9 and Pavel Cheshkov proved the strongest among 15- and 16-year-olds, while Alexei Zudov from Nizhniy Tagil School 51 won gold in the 17-year-old contestants category. 15-year-old Sofia Shipiguzova from Nizhniy Tagil School 61 won the Judges’ Choice Award for the original solution to a physics

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Vityaz, a machine-building enterprise and part of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation, is going to ensure engineering supervision for its two-section carrier vehicles in Novaya Zemlya, Schmidt Island, and the New Siberian Islands in 2016 and 2017, the company press service reports. The company is already in charge of the vehicles’ operation and maintenance under the terms of the contract signed with Russia’s Defense Ministry. ‘Keeping the Army and the Navy’s armored vehicles combat-ready is one of the Russian Armed Forces’ and the defense industry enterprises’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 28, 2016. Metcombank made it to the list of Russia’s one hundred largest banks again, based on its undistributed profit figures, asset volume, and amount of own funds, the bank’s press service refers to Interfax-CEA as stating. Metcombank’s financial outcome reached a record-setting high last year, which secured the company the 42nd position in the national rating. The bank was also Russia’s No. 83 in terms of own funds growth (by 4.1% in 2015) and No. 98 in terms of asset volume. ‘Getting on the Top100 list means we keep developing stably and remain reliable even

UrBC, Moscow, April 27, 2016. The insurance company Rosgosstrakh incurred 4.65bn RUR worth of net loss (calculated in accordance with the IAS) in 2015 against 4.24bn RUR in net profit a year earlier, Prime refers to the company’s financial report as stating. ‘Most of the losses resulted from payments on the obligatory third party liability car insurance,’ the company explains. The company paid almost 16% more in insurance premiums (up from 129.9bn RUR to 150.7bn RUR) and 53% more in payouts (up from 65.5bn RUR to 100bn RUR). At the same time, its net ROI rose from 8.9bn RUR to 18.7bn RUR. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation held its 13th research-to-practice conference for young workers in Nizhniy Tagil; the conference was dedicated to the corporation’s prospects in the current economy, cost optimization, and quality improvements, the company press service reports. Reports were presented by employees of the corporation’s Nizhniy Tagil-based head plant, Yekaterinburg-based Plant 9, Uraltransmash (Yekaterinburg), Electromachine (Chelyabinsk), Vityaz (Ishimbay), Omsktransmash (Omsk), and KULZ (Kamensk-Uralsky) as well as by students of Ural State

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Sinara Development (a member enterprise of Sinara Group) is starting to work on a new apartment building at 1 Butorin St in Yekaterinburg (a downtown location near Kuibyshev St), the Group’s press service reports. The developer obtained its construction permit on April 15, 2016 and is now busy setting up the construction site. The building is expected to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2017 at the latest. ‘This twenty-five-storey apartment building, with its only entrance and a panoramic view of the city at the top, is to become the block’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Institute of Reactor Materials in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region (a member enterprise of Rosatom Corporation) is planning to start producing Lu 177 (lutetium) in 2018 to support cancer treatment, the institute’s director Dmitri Markov said in the course of his recent press tour. According to Markov, the institute currently focuses on supplying its customers with radionuclide materials necessary for making radiopharmaceuticals. However, the organization is planning to switch to the more sophisticated produce in the near future and sell it on both home and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Downward trends persist on Yekaterinburg commercial estate market, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. ‘The letting market and the buying market are reacting differently to the dropping demand. The average shop’s rent declined by 4% in the first three months of the year, while that of an office went down by 5%. At the same time, owners willing to sell their property are not so eager to reduce their asking price. It appears not all the sellers actually realize what the current situation is like and what may happen next,’ says the chamber’s analyst Mikail

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Yekaterinburg Duma deputies accepted the city council’s report on budget implementation in 2015. The report was presented by Andrei Koryukov, who was recently appointed Deputy Mayor for Strategic Planning, Economic Issues & Finance. According to Koryukov, the budget was originally adopted with 1.5bn RUR-plus deficit: expected municipal revenues came to 33.11bn RUR, while the city’s yearly expenses were estimated at 34.68bn RUR. By the end of the year, however, Yekaterinburg budget’s revenues amounted to 32.64bnRUR ( 96.8% of the target figures), while

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted Bulat Okudzhava Theater Days Festival in celebration of the plant’s 80th anniversary, the company press service reports. Both the plant’s management and current and retired employees gathered together in Nizhniy Tagil Drama Theater on April 22 for the first night of We, the Undersigned, a play by Alexander Gelman. The city mayor Sergei Nosov gave a welcoming address to the audience before the show began. The corporation’s deputy DG Alexei Zharich stressed the festival’s particular importance

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. KMEZ, a copper electrolysis plant and a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company, pays special attention to training and professional development of its production instructors, the company press service reports. ‘These instructors, working together with the plant’s experts and managers, are in charge of providing blue-collar job training right in the workplace. These are usually workers with both impressive skills and vast experience but also with a bent for explaining all the intricacies of a job to a novice. Certain teaching skills and willingness to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is offering its subscribers 36 gigabytes of prepaid Internet traffic which will be available in every part of Russia, the company press service reports. According to MegaFon, their subscribers rely heavily on their tablet computers when traveling around the country. The new Internet Tablet S offer means they can now freely share their holiday pictures and watch videos online when away from home. ‘A tablet computer is a great companion on the road, offering all the benefits of a TV, a music player, a play station, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s non-food consumer goods index changed by 2.6% since the start of the year, Sverdlovskstat reports. The prices of perfumes and cosmetic items rose most noticeably, by 5.9%, those of electrical appliances and household goods by 5.6%, those of tobacco items by 5%, and those of household chemicals by 4%. Additionally, the price of footwear went up by 4.1%, that of jersey wool and knitted items by 2.6%, and that of other clothing articles by 1.8%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 26, 2016. Several hundred people will most probably lose their jobs in the second quarter of the year, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly deputy Andrei Alshevskikh refers to the local labor and employment department as stating. The data provided by the department indicate that Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport is planning to make 107 out of its 1,826 employees redundant by June 20, 2016. Also, 113 out of Serov Ferrous Alloys Plant’s 2,417 workers will have to be let go, as will 173 people working at Vesta Management Company in Severnouralsk and 63 employees out

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2016. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) is taking part in the national job counseling event called The No Turnstile Week for the second time this year, the company press service reports. Over three hundred companies from forty different constituencies, including Ural Vagon Zavod, took part in the event last October. The idea is to familiarize schoolchildren, students, and their parents with the ways local businesses operate on their premises. Omsktransmash coordinated its No Turnstile Week in three stages: a job counseling

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2016. Sinara Development (a member enterprise of Sinara Group), which is currently acting as the general construction for the reconstruction of Yekaterinburg Central Stadium in time for the World Cup 2018, started working on the internal part of the roof of the building, the Group’s press service reports. The first 35-ton part of the internal roofing support beam (made of highly durable steel) has already been mounted. The section is located right above the northern spectator stands, at the height of 35 meters. A special 220-ton-strong lifting crane had to be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2016. The telecommunications provider MegaFon is now offering its customers a special wake-up call service, which is expected to unite those who need to get up on time with those who are willing to wake a stranger up with a phone call, the company press service reports. ‘This is bound to result in loads of fun. Some people find it hard waking up in the mornings, and some people love sharing their positive vibes and talking to people they haven’t formally met. Interestingly enough, in Russia, the service is considerably more popular with women rather then men.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2016. Sun’s Children, the Sverdlovsk Region-based non-profit organization uniting over 270 families with children diagnosed with Down syndrome, joined the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s charity project, the bank’s press service reports. As part of its Parrot Program, the UBRD is planning to coordinate a series of workshops this May that will be fully tailored to meet the children’s special needs. ‘Some changes were made to our charity project Children Believe in Miracles eighteen months ago when it was decided that the bank would not only help

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 25, 2016. Ural Airlines are launching a flight from Saint Petersburg to Batumi this spring, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flight will be available twice a week starting from May 16, 2016. This is going to be one of the first new flights to be operated from Pulkovo Airport in the spring and summer of 2016. The airline also introduced a Saint Petersburg-Tbilisi flight last year, which is available every Friday (or Thursday, starting from May 26). ‘Georgia, this hospitable country, will be your love at first sight. A pleasant climate, a warm sea, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 22, 2016. Prices dropped by 10% on Yekaterinburg existing home market against February 2015 and by 2.4% in the first three months of this year, with the average asking price at 69,028 RUR per m2 on April 1, 2016, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s analysts report. Rather predictably, homes in the older apartment buildings lose their value the fastest: the average asking price of the Brezhnev era apartments declined by 14.5% in the last fourteen months, that of the Khrushchev era apartments dropped by 12.9%, and that of apartments in the nine-storey apartment buildings put