UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2015. New-generation trams are now cruising the streets of Yekaterinburg, the city council reports. There will be two trams on Route 18 (VIZ to Shartash Station through Kirov St, Dolores Ibárruri St, Verkh-Isetsky Boulevard, Kommunarov Square, Lenin Ave, Gagarin St, and Blücher St). The 407 tram is a new make with lowered floor in the middle. The low-floor section makes up 39% of the tram’s premises. So far, the first passengers have complained about the relatively high steps at the front- and back-section entrances and rather steep slopes between the low-floor

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2015. Not a single forest fire broke out in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 2015, the city council reports. A special fire alert mode was introduced for the summer, which meant locals were not allowed into the potentially dangerous parts of forests and peat bogs. The city council representatives joined rescue rangers to patrol the nearby forests and detect offenders. ‘Ad hoc committees and teams were set up in every city district to prevent and fight forest fires. The potentially dangerous spots are controlled by these; the spots get inspected on a regular

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2015. The economically priced trips costing under 50,000 RUR will remain the most popular offers on Sverdlovsk Region’s travel market in the winter of 2015/2016, Executive Director of Ural Tourism Association Mikhail Maltsev said at a press conference. ‘We are actually talking about the winter school break rather than New Year trips here. Such package tours in the under-50,000 RUR price range are sure to be popular and get sold out by late or even mid-October. Most of these tours are to Russian resorts, primarily Sochi, to which city a direct flight is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2015. Tanks. Spirit of the Urals, a film by Russian Vice Premier Dmitri Rogozin, won the 26th Rossiya Film Festival Award in Yekaterinburg. The film was given a special Patriotism Promotion Prize and Nizhniy Tagil Council Culture Department’s prize as the Best Patriotic Motion Picture, Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s press service reports. The awards were received by the film director and producer Sergei Savushkin and the corporation’s State Secretary and Deputy DG Alexei Zharich. 361 applications from 49 settlements and 14 cities in Russia, Belarus, Armenia,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2015. 16 private bankruptcy claims were placed with Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court on October 1-2, 2015, the court reports. Seven claims were laid by private individuals, two by legal entities, and seven people pleaded their own bankruptcy. So far, no banks have placed any private bankruptcy claims with courts. The personal bankruptcy legislation came into effect on October 1. Under the new piece of legislature, an arbitration court is allowed to institute bankruptcy proceedings if a private individual’s debt exceeds 500,000 RUR and no debt repayments have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Railways handled 17.6% less of building cargo in January-September 2015 than in the nine months of 2014, the company press service reports. The amount of ferrous metals forwarded by the company went down by 0.7%, that of non-ferrous metal scrap by 10.5%, that of coke by 11.5%, that of cement by 3.2%, and that of chemical and mineral fertilizers by 0.9%. All in all, Sverdlovsk Railways handled 102.8m tonnes of cargo in 2015 so far, which was 2.7% more than a year earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based employees by now owe their workers 566m RUR in delayed wages and salaries, Head of Sverdlovsk Region State Labor Inspectorate Fedor Kravtsov said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘All in all, 115 companies have delayed or failed to pay a total of 566m RUR in wages and salaries. We took some steps, and 471m RUR were paid to 20,500 employees as a result,’ Kravtsov said. According to the official, the overall amount of wage arrears currently comes to 286m RUR, most of which is the money owed by 15 insolvent companies. Among the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2015. ETERNO, a joint venture set up by ChTPZ Group and Rosnano Corporation, got certified by Gazprom and Transneft. Prior to the certification audit, ETERNO came up with three types of specifications that meet the customers’ requirements: TU 1469-001 and TU 1469-003 for Dn500 to Dn1,400 pipeline fittings for main and upstream pipelines with service pressure 11.8 Megapascals and 9.8 Megapascals, respectively (for Gazprom) and TU 1469-002 for Dn530 to Dn1,220 pipeline fittings for main and upstream pipelines with service pressure up to 14.0 Megapascals (for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2015. Uralvagonzavod is hosting the Ready for Labor and Defense (GTO) sports competition for the second time this year. 626 workers (353 sportsmen and 272 sportswomen) from eighty-three divisions of the company took part in the event. 'Our employees first competed for GTO badges in 2014. We see restoration of company traditions, attracting more people into amateur and professional sports, and promotion of a healthier lifestyle as the main goals of this championship,' the company press service says. This year, team competitions were introduced for the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2015. Metcombank's Academic District Membership Card Project has been around for exactly three years now, the bank's press service reports. The project was launched on September 30, the date when Yekaterinburg's new district was founded. 'We thought a socially beneficial project that can help save time and money would prove the best present for all the locals,' says Metcombank Deputy Chair of the Board Nina Batalova. Over 5,000 have got themselves a card so far. The card offers discounts on housing and telecommunications bills and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2015. Employees of UVZ Corporation's member enterprises met in Zvezdny Camp for their Literary Weekend last week, the company press service reports. First, there was the Eight Elegant Presents Contest, where eight teams had to act out extracts from well-known literary works. The next day, there was a sports competition and an educational workshop held by UVZ Corporate University faculty members. The weekend's agenda also featured a Literary Quarters section, where teams had to feature a character from a book or some authors. Finally, there was a round

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2015. ChTPZ Group Training Center hosted one of the first rounds of WorldSkills Hi-Tech, a hi tech blue-collar jobs contest, the company press service reports. 22 young workers competed for the prizes; the contestants work at the three enterprises that are part of the Group's pipe-manufacturing and O&G divisions. There were six competition categories all in all: Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics, NP Milling, NP Turning, Welding, and Wiring. The judges' panel decided on the following winners: Alexander Ilynykh won the first prize in Mobile Robotics,

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 5, 2015. SOT, a member enterprise of Rimera Group, delivered a set of 1.5DN pressed bends to its key customer for the first time. The first batch of this new product type was complemented with six 530mm stamp-welded bends (turn angle 90°) made of K52 steel in compliance with the TU 1469-027-74238272-2011 standards. According to the company press service, the bends are meant for Transneft Prikamye, which will use them to build excess pressure protectors at Lopatino oil pumping station in Samara Region. SOT was able to manufacture the necessary 1.5DN pressed bends due

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2015. The Russian national currency is expected to grow a bit stronger in October, says Bank Koltso Urala's Foreign Currency Transactions Director Igor Nesterovitch. According to Nesterovitch, stable oil prices and not having to make large foreign debt repayments will serve as supporting factors. 'Oil prices might get stabilized at $50 to $55 for a while, which will make a positive impact on our national currency. If prices stop at over $50, the ruble exchange rate is likely to fluctuate between 62 and 66 RUR per US dollar and between 69 and 74 RUR

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 2, 2015. First private bankruptcy claims started to arrive in Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court; the exact amount is not clear yet, a source inside the court told UrBC. ‘We have already received first claims, an ad hoc committee was set up to process these. Statistical records on personal bankruptcy cases are also expected to be kept,’ the source said. Private bankruptcy legislation came into effect in Russia on October 1, 2015. Under the new law, an arbitration court might institute bankruptcy proceedings for a private individual if their debt exceeds 500,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 2, 2015. Yekaterinburg housing prices decreased by 5% in the nine months of this year so far, with prices on the existing homes market dropping by 1% to 2% every week, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. As of September 28, 2015, the average asking price came to 72,436 RUR per m2 on the existing homes market. The market demand remains only moderate, even though customers are still very active. As a result, the market supply has gone up by 47.5% since February. There are currently over 11,500 apartments and 1,860 rooms in communal apartments on sale through estate

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 2, 2015 Sakhalin-Energy and Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK, one of the world’s leading OCTG manufacturers, signed a memorandum on partnership. Under the terms of the document, TMK will make pipes with TMK premium threaded joints for Sakhalin-Energy’s needs. TMK press service reports the two parties intend to work as partners and find ways of mutually beneficial collaboration in what concerns getting pipes with premium threaded joints certified for the Sakhalin 2 Project. Under this memorandum, the pipe manufacturer’s TMK UP premium threaded joints for casing pipes

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 2, 2015. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) delivered a set of eight swamp-marching bulldozers to one of Lukoil’s daughter companies in Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous District. According to the corporation’s press service, the plant and its dealer Neftespetstrans (which sells the plant’s vehicles and spare parts to customers in Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Districts) won Lukoil’s tender for the order. ‘The customer decided on the trusted and well-reputed B10MB with a mechanical transmission, D180 engine,

UrBC, Moscow, October 1, 2015. The trade turnover between Russia and Italy dropped by 36% in the first half of 2015, Interfax refers to Chairman of State Duma Sergei Naryshkin as saying. Naryshkin said the Russian and Italian parliaments reopened their dialogue once again. ‘I must say we are truly sorry Italy decided to impose the so-called anti-Russian sanctions, I say ‘so-called’ because these stemmed, in fact, from a unilateral decision not supported by the UN Security Council, so we cannot consider them legitimate,’ the official said. According to Naryshkin, all this has been affecting

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 1, 2015. The number of private individuals who might actually fit all the requirements set forth in the private bankruptcy law (this one comes into force on October 1, 2015) has gone up by 1.5 times since the beginning of the year and now comes to 460,000 people, National Bureau of Credit History reports. The figure indicates the number of people with debts of over 500,000 RUR that haven’t been paid for over ninety days. There were no more than 300,000 such people in Russia last December. The Bureau feels the increase has been due to Russia’s current economic