UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Yekaterinburg incoming tourist traffic came to 2.1m people in the eleven months of 2015, the city council’s deputy head Sergei Tushin said in his interview to Open Studio. Yekaterinburg on Channel 41. ‘These figures definitely prove that our authorities’ continuous efforts to promote local tourist services have been successful. The steps we take to make the city’s economy more diverse result in various points of tourist attraction in Yekaterinburg,’ the official said. Tushin said companies organizing tours along the Trans-Siberian routes were key

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. There were 417,600,000 kg of grains stored at Sverdlovsk Region’s agricultural and processing facilities as of December 1, 2015; this is 5.6% less than one year earlier, Rosstat reports. As for the country on the whole, Russia’s grain reserves amounted to 39.9m tons in early December, which was 2.9% (1.2m tons) more than one year earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 17, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region came 29th on RIA Rating’s list of Russian Federation constituencies with the most affordable mortgages. Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region was at the top, with mortgages possible for 49% of local households; Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region (37%) came second, Magadan Region (35%) was in the third place, Kamchatka Territory (29%) was in the fourth place, and Murmansk Region (29%) was in the fifth place. Only 15.5% of Sverdlovsk Region’s households can afford to take out a mortgage, which is much worse than the figures for neighboring

UrBC, Moscow, December 17, 2015. Russia’s industrial production index declined by 3.3% in January-November 2015 compared with January-November 2014, Rosstat reports. In the month of November 2015, the IPI went down by 3.5% compared with last November and by 0.2% compared with October 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ paid some 4bn RUR in taxes (directed to Chelyabinsk Region budget) this year, the company press service reports. The plant’s BOD Chairman Alexander Fedorov presented the figures during his meeting with Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky. ‘We have an understanding that ChTPZ is going to meet all the target figures for the year 2015. This year, we supplied our large-diameter pipes to major infrastructure projects such as the Power of Siberia, the Southern Gas Corridor, and Bovanenkovo-Ukta; we also

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index (IPI) declined by 6.7% in November 2015 compared with October 2015 and by 0.3% compared with last November, Sverdlovskstat reports. Also, the IPI in January-November 2015 was 3.9% less than in January-November 2014. The processing industries’ IPI dropped by 9.6% in November compared with a month earlier and by 0.8% compared with November 2014. The IPI for January-November 2015 was 2.7% lower than in January-November 2014. The fossil resources development industries’ IPI went down by 10% in the course of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based companies’ turnover rose by 8.1% in January-November 2015 compared with January-November 2014 and amounted to 5,129,021,000,000 RUR, Sverdlovskstat reports. Things look best in the wholesale and retail trade sector (which includes car mechanic’s services and repairs of household goods and personal items), with turnover at 2,847,047,000,000 RUR, up 7.1% on a year earlier. The processing industries’ turnover came to 1,393,457,000,000 RUR, or 16.3% more than a year earlier. At the same time, the construction industry’s overall

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 16, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Service of Court Officers banned 61,174 locals from leaving the country in the last eleven months, the division’s press service reports. According to the division, this is 8,484 people more than a year earlier. These people’s unpaid debts come to 108,000 RUR on average. Most of the debtors are the ones who failed to make their loan repayments in time.

UrBC, Moscow, December 16, 2015. Russia’s diamond jewellery market declined by 40% in ruble terms and by three times in dollar terms (down to $1bn) this year, Vedomosti refers to Bain & Co as reporting. The company says this decrease in sales has to do with the current economic situation, people’s shrinking incomes, and, consequently, more competition with less expensive precious stones, designer jewellery not made of precious materials, and silver items. According to the company’s experts, the Russian market has always tended to focus on less expensive items, but this trend has grown

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 15, 2015. Nizhniy Tagil Cycling School 4 (reopened in 2013 with the help of Sverdlovsk Region Cycling & Mountain Bike, Trekking, & BMX Federation) closed this year’s season this December. According to Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s press service, the solemn closing ceremony was attended by the federation’s President Nikolai Sudakov, Vice President of Sverdlovsk Region Sports Federation and the school’s teacher and coach Andrei Dolgikh, Ural Vagon Zavod HR Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees Sergei Saranchuk, as well as the young cyclists, their

UrBC, Moscow, December 15, 2015. Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK was at the top of the national pipe suppliers rating, the company press service reports. The rating was part of the 10th annual Neftegazshelf 2015 Conference that was held in Moscow with the support of the Russian Industry & Trade Ministry and the O & G Equipment Manufacturers’ Union. TMK Neftegazservis Deputy DG for Service Alexander Yegorov received the award in the course of a solemn ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel. The rating is bases on the findings of surveys involving oil and gas companies developing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 15, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s investment potential grew 0.055% worse this year compared with a year earlier, the rating agency RAEX reports. The constituency’s share in the country’s overall potential is reported to come to 2.596%. According to the agency’s research findings, the federal constituencies’ investments risks have been growing stronger for two years now. This year’s integral risk figures rose by 2.9% (compared with 1.3% a year earlier), constituency financial risk figures rose by 6.2% compared with a year earlier, and economic risk figures rose by

UrBC, Moscow, December 15, 2015. The Japanese corporation Toshiba no longer intends to sell its TV sets and household appliances in Russia, Kommersant reports. ‘We are leaving the Russian market completely; all of our supply actually got sold as early as last October, when consumer goods sales reached their peak. This market turned out to be very hard to operate on, since the Korean companies Samsung and LG have a 70% share of it,’ says Toshiba RUS Director-General Hiroaki Tezuka. It is reported Toshiba plans to focus on B2B contracts. Now Toshiba Corporation runs two companies in Russia,

UrBC, Moscow, December 14, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation proved one of the world’s top hundred arms manufacturers in the year 2014, Prime refers to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as reporting. The Russian company was given the 61st position in the rating, with the maximum (72.5%) increase in sales that year. Some other Russian manufacturers made it to the rating as well, for example, High-Precision Complexes (the 39th place) and RTI Systems (the 91st place). Almaz-Antey, with its 23% increase in sales, was in the 11th place in the rating, OAK was given the 14th

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 14, 2015. LEPSE (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) took on fifty new workers, the company press service reports. The young newcomers gave ‘a pledge of allegiance’ of sorts to LEPSE Director-General Gennady Mamayev, who acted on the entire company’s behalf. ‘I am positive that you will support our plant’s great traditions. Young people currently make up a third of our team, with many of them joining the management on a regular basis. I wish you professional and personal fulfillment at our plant and hope this place becomes your second home and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 14, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) has been testing its new amphibious tractor PTS4 for a week; the vehicle is meant for production on a serial scale. The corporation’s press service reports the company experts and representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry had to check the machine’s actual technical characteristics (its speed on water and on soil surfaces and cargo capacity) against its declared specifications. The tests were run in an artificial pond near Omsk: to pass the test, the tractor had to move 200km on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 14, 2015. BN800 reactor-based power generating unit 4 at Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station was plugged in and produced its first portion of electric power for the Urals’ energy system on December 10, the station’s PR Department reports. First, the reactor’s performance had to be brought to 25% of its nominal capacity for the purpose; the К-800-130/3000 turbine was set to 3,000 rpm. Following the unit and the power supply system’s synchronization, the reactor’s performance was then brought to 35% of its nominal capacity. The power generating unit entered the

UrBC, Moscow, December 14, 2015. The number of Russia’s poor came to 20.3m people in January-October 2015, which was 2.3m more than a year earlier, Rosstat reports. Poverty rate was thus estimated at 12.4% (17.9m people) in the third quarter of 2015 (against 11.5%, or 16.6m in Q3’14), at 14% (20.1m people) in the second quarter (against 12.1%, or 17.4m in Q2’14), and at 15.9% (22.9m) in the first quarter (against 13.8%, or 19.8m in Q1’14). Poverty rate fluctuations are strikingly seasonal – the figures reach their peak in the first three months of the year and drop to their minimum in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 14, 2015. The average rent amount on Yekaterinburg housing market dropped by 11% (down to 18,600 RUR a month) in the course of one year, N1.RU and E1.Nedvizhimost’s research findings indicate. One could find a place for 21,000 RUR on average a year ago, but now one-bedroom apartments are 12% cheaper, studio apartments are 11% cheaper, and two-bedroom apartments are 7% cheaper than before. Rents were at their lowest in May and June, but went up a little with the start of the school and academic year. The downward trend was typical of all parts of the city, with

UrBC, Moscow, December 11, 2015. Russian end consumers’ unpaid electricity and heating bills amounted to more than 850bn RUR by early October, Deputy Energy Minister Vyacheslav Kravchenko said in his interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta. ‘This is a lot of money that, if it were paid, could be directed to complete renovation of the entire infrastructure, and some of it would even still be left for social welfare projects,’ the official says. Now Russia’s Deputy Construction & Housing Services Minister Andrei Chibis said in August that the unpaid housing and utility bills came to more than 1