UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 10, 2015. 145 employees of Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company) got new apartments in the suburban area Berezovaya Roshcha 2, the company press service reports. This residential district comprises four low-rise apartment buildings (72 apartments) and a number of town houses with 109 apartments altogether. The total area of new housing comes to 16,000 m2. This project is part of a public-private partnership supported by Sverdlovsk Region Government (which funded the construction of all the engineering and road infrastructure). The

UrBC, Nizhniy Tagil, August 10, 2015. Chief Metallurgist of Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) Alexei Smirnov was selected as Engineer of the Year 2014 in the national contest. He was one among the contest’s fifteen finalists, the corporation’s press service reports. Smirnov has worked at Plant 9 since 2011; he supervises all the thermal treatment departments as well as the development and introduction of progressive and competent design documentation. He is also in charge of analyzing current technological processes in order to cut down on the labor-intensity,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. 149.4bn RUR worth of taxes were paid to the Russian Federation budget by Sverdlovsk Region's residents and businesses in the seven months of 2015; this was 13.6% more than a year earlier, the local division of Russia's Federal Tax Service reports. 43.7bn RUR were directed to the federal budget (up 7.7bn RUR, or 21.3%, on last year). Most of this federal budget income (39bn RUR, or 89.2% of the overall amount) stemmed from VAT payments (covering domestic goods, work, and services and imported goods). This figure was 7bn RUR, or 22%, more than a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. The food embargo has meant Yekaterinburg restaurateurs are faced with shortage of good quality butter for making their pastries. For one, Andrei Semenov, the owner of Podsolnukhi, a cafe specializing in pies, was unable to find a single good quality Russian butter brand. 'Our bakers have tried EVERY SINGLE brand of Russian 82% butter, and none are good enough. I believe the ingredients our honorable dairy manufacturers use are not the ones that the packaging claims there are there,' Semenov posted in his social network account. 'It says

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. 720 construction permits (totaling in area to 2,000m2) have been issued by Yekaterinburg Council's Architecture, Urban Development & Land Use Department since the beginning of the year, the city council's press service reports. Deputy Mayor for Capital Construction & Land Use Sergey Myamin announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg that the council had agreed on twelve housing projects (1.259m m2 of new housing), with ninety-nine more proposals relating to all kinds of urban development still under consideration. There are currently

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. ChTPZ Group supplied around 11,000,000 kg of large-diameter pipes for Yamal SPG, a joint project on the development of Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye natural gas deposit in Yamal Peninsula worked on by Novatek, the Chinese company CNPC, and France's Total. The Group's pipes will be used to construct the first section of the pipeline network, from the well proper to the gathering station, the company press service reports. The Group is Russia's first company to start manufacturing non-standard, single-joint arc-welded pipes of relatively small diameter

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 7, 2015. Omsktransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) gave overhauls and upgrades to eighteen T 72B3 tanks in 2014-2015 to make them fit for competing in Tank Biathlon Championship. Twelve out of these eighteen tanks are going to be used directly in the championship, while six more are set aside as the reserve. Based on the results of the drawing procedure, the Russian national tank biathlon team hit the road on its red-colored tanks during the second round of the contest. The championship comprised several different stages: individual, sprint,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. OOO Elmash/UETM might be declared insolvent soon, as an application to this extent was submitted to Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court on August 3, 2015. The plaintiff is Moscow-based OOO LLK International; it is not clear how big the creditor’s claim is. An investigation by prosecution authorities in May revealed that UETM and its related enterprise Energomash Uralelectrotyazhmash owed their workers 73m RUR worth of wages.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. The prices of food items went up by 20.3% in Sverdlovsk Region between July 2014 and July 2015 (the figures do not account for strong drinks), Sverdlovskstat reports. Alcohol items grew 11.2% more expensive in the course of a year. Non-food items grew 13.3% more expensive, while the price of services went up by 15.8%. Sverdlovsk Region’s overall inflation rate was estimated at 16% between July 2014 and July 2015. Compared with June 2015, however, food items were 0.1% cheaper in July.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. 3.3m passengers traveled with Sverdlovsk Railways in July 2015, which was 1.6% less than a year earlier. This figure included 2.4m commuters and 0.9m long-distance travelers, the company press service reports. Sverdlovsk Railways’ passenger turnover amounted to 1,032,500,000 passenger-kilometers, which was 5.3% less than a year earlier. As for the year on the whole, 18m passengers have departed from Sverdlovsk Railways’ stations since the beginning of the year (down 2% on January-July 2014), including 13.3m commuters and 4.7m long-distance travelers. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. The overall amount of current loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region’s residents reached 1.4bn RUR on July 1, 2015, the National Credit History Bureau reports. Out of the overall amount, consumer loans come to 865m RUR and micro-loans come to 546m RUR. According to the Bureau, banks and micro-financing institutions have lent the local borrowers 50.89bn RUR by July 1, up 29.4% on the first quarter of the year. Consumer loans amounted to 26.88bn RUR, with the average loan amount at 32,500 RUR, while micro-loans amounted to 24bn, with the average amount at 14,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 6, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s metallurgical facilities are now going to use new, additive technologies, the company press service reports. For one, a modern 3D printer with ABS plastic printing options was launched at the Digital Technologies Sector. The 3D Fortus 400mc unit can create precise and long-lasting parts even of larger sizes. The system is fit to produce parts ranging in size from 355x254x254 mm to 406x355x406 mm through gluing and can be used to make three-dimensional prototypes and any kinds of models and parts and demonstration aids as well

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Yekaterinburg road maintenance authorities got 27,580 m2 of roads and highways repaired in July2015, the city council reports. Additionally, 6,980 m2 of pavements were repaired as well. Yekaterinburg Council’s Urban Development Committee reports that municipal funds were used to get 127,000 m2 of roads repaired between May 25 and July 31. Repair teams are also working to repair and replace curb stone and asphalt in Krasny Lane, Bratya Bykovy St, Yeremin St, Chelyuskintsy St, Bolshakov St, Moskovskaya St, Serov St, Sheinkman St, Narodnaya Volya St, Belinsky

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. The Ural subscribers’ unpaid telephone bills now amount to as much as 2.5bn RUR against 2.1bn RUR a year earlier, the National Collection Service reports. Users based in Yekaterinburg owe their telecommunications suppliers 490m RUR out of these 2.5bn RUR. As for the country on the whole, the overall amount of unpaid bills came to 28.7bn RUR in the first half of the year; this figure is expected to rise to 31.8bn RUR by the end of 2015. Most of these debts are to mobile providers (25.7bn RUR), the rest being unpaid landline bills (1.5bn RUR), and Internet

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. 1.06m people traveled to Sverdlovsk Region last year, which was 100,000 people less than in the year 2013, Rostourism’s website states. Sverdlovsk Region got 981,900 visitors from other parts of Russia (against 1,055,100 people in 2013) and 83,800 international travelers (against 92,000 people in 2013). As for Ural Federal District, 2.78m people came on a visit (against 2.98m a year earlier), while the number of visitors from abroad increased from 161,900 people in 2013 to 167,700 people last year. Also, while Sverdlovsk Region got fewer international

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Sputnik Hockey Club is going to give out one Hyundai Solaris as a lottery prize for the team’s supporters who buy a Supreme Hockey League Championship season ticket for 2015/2016, the corporation’s press service reports. The season ticket costs 4,000 RUR and grants entry to twenty-five home games where the Nizhniy Tagil team will play against their rivals at V.K. Sotnikov Ice Sports Palace. Other prizes include TV sets (one for each of the home games), with winners selected at random based on their entry ticket number. This

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation is going to feature all of its latest developments (including the self-propelled howitzer 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV and tanks T15 and T14) at the 10th Russia Arms Expo Exhibition, the event coordinators report. The Russian Defense Ministry’s Procurement Department agreed to the exhibits being displayed on a guarded and cordoned site. 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV, the Russian 152-mm SP howitzer, was designed by Burevestnik, the Nizhniy Novgorod-based scientific research institute. The howitzer is meant for destruction of short-range nuclear

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s prosecution authorities carried out a number of special-purpose inspections which resulted in the closing down of thirty-five casinos operating illegally outside the specially designated areas; additionally, twenty payment kiosks were detected that had hidden gambling options in them, their press service reports. Following the courts’ rulings, 671 pieces of gambling equipment, including 553 slot machines, were declared public property and then destroyed. 74 claims were placed by prosecutors with the general jurisdiction courts; two

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. Two new hotels, the Hilton at 9A Lenin Ave, and the Ogni Yekaterinburga Hotel at 108 Belinsky St, will get commissioned in Yekaterinburg in time for the city’s 292nd anniversary. The city council’s press service reports both buildings are nearly complete, so the hotels are expected to welcome their first guests very soon. There are currently 111 hotels operating in Yekaterinburg; the average occupancy rate comes to 52%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 4, 2015. According to the United Cities and Local Governments World Organization, Yekaterinburg is one of the top three internationally active cities, the city council’s press service reports. The Top3 rating was presented at the organization’s Eurasian sector’s General Assembly in Kazan. The three winners among the larger cities are: Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, and Nizhniy Novgorod. Yakutsk, Stavropol, and Tiraspol are the top three medium-sized cities, while Yelabuga, Magadan, and Bugulma proved the top three smaller cities. Kazakhstan’s capital Astana was