UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 2, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko was elected Honorary Citizen of Nizhniy Tagil, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘We considered a number of candidates for the title, and Oleg Sienko proved to have contributed the most to the city’s wellbeing. He coped with the gargantuan task of bringing his company’s production output back to its pre-recession level, when Uralvagonzavod was known as a strong and powerful enterprise. He gave people a chance to regain their trust in the company and let the city feel that the corporation is a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2015. To make sure all the reconstruction and relocation jobs at Severny Bus Station have been completed in time for the World Cup, the repair jobs must begin in 2016 at the latest, head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob said while inspecting the city’s Zheleznodorozhny District. ‘Work must begin as soon as next year to make sure most of the jobs get done before the World Football Championship of 2018, when a great tourist inflow is to be expected,’ he said. Negotiations on the bus station have been in progress since 2013. The idea is to build a special

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2015. The terrorist act at one of the five-star hotels in Sousse, Tunisia, on June 26 is expected to have a negative impact on tourist traffic, feels director of Zima-Leto Tours Olga Gulyar. She says Tunisia-bound flights are operated from Yekaterinburg every ten days this year. The next flights are scheduled for June 29 and July 10, they haven’t been cancelled, and bookings are being made. However, not all of the plane tickets will actually get sold: a number of passengers have changed their minds about going to Tunisia within the last few days. ‘Tunisia used to

UrBC, Moscow, July 1, 2015. Residents of Yekaterinburg spend between 39% and 69% of their income at grocery stores, Nielsen analysts found out after surveying people in six Russian cities with the population of over 1m people, Izvestiya refers to their Nielsen Shopper Trends research as stating. In the six months of 2015, Russians found themselves having to spend more on food and to go grocery shopping more often. On average, 39% of Russian citizens spend a better part of their income of grocery items and everyday commodity goods. They tend to do grocery shopping at least ten times a month. A

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2015. ChTPZ Group’s warehouse facility Uraltrubostal delivered 10,000 kg of pipes to upgrade Polet Production Association which is developing a new generation of Angara carrier rockets, Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s press service reports. Now Polet is an Omsk-based subsidiary of Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Under the terms of the order, the warehouse supplied 10,000 kg of hot-worked pipes with various diameters. These will be used to upgrade Polet’s production lines to help convert these lines to modern technologies, including digital

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 1, 2015. Six employees of Plant 9 (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) received state awards for their valuable contribution to the design, production, and testing of Msta-S, the 152-mm SP howitzer 2S19 M2, the company press service reports. The proposal to award the workers was placed with the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu by head of the Defense Procurement Department Mikhail Osyko. The For Labour Valour Medals were given to the plant’s Deputy Director-General Vladimir Galkin, Head of Production Pavel Zalozhkov, and designers and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities have detected 2,300 instances of housing code violations since the start of the year, their press service reports. Over 300 people had to face disciplinary liability; 28 unlawful enactments were protested against; 520 claims were placed with general jurisdiction courts; 700 warrants were issued; some 200 people had to face administrative liability and five criminal lawsuits were instituted following an investigation. ‘It has been determined that town council representatives repeatedly violate the housing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2015. Yekaterinburg Council expects some 1m square meters worth of new housing to be commissioned by the end of the year, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Planning Alexander Vysokinskiy said at a press conference on June 26. ‘Developers are trying to avoid construction stoppages, since stopping the process comes at a higher cost than resuming it does,’ he explained. The official said sales were complicated on Yekaterinburg housing market at the moment, with government promising to back up only the new-home mortgages. Vysokinskiy stressed existing homes market needed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2015. Students of Pervouralsk Metallurgical School got their vocational secondary education certificates within the framework of ChTPZ Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Program, the Group’s press service reports. Certificates were given to 69 school-leavers, two of whom - Irina Glukhova, who specializes in metal processing under pressure, and Ilya Ivanov, who won WorldSkills championships in Mechatronics, graduated with honors. These students are now qualified electricians, mechanics, experts in metal processing under pressure, and casters. Each of them has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2015. ChTPZ Group took part in the All-Russian Industrial Personnel: Strategy 2030 Conference in Chelyabinsk on June 23-26, the company press service reports. The Group’s HR Director Svetlana Kuzminykh presented the company’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program and gave a report on how to introduce a dual education system and what benefits to expect from it. ‘ChTPZ Group has plenty of experience in the field. We have been working on our Future of White Metallurgy Program in cooperation with Sverdlovsk Region Government and Pervouralsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 29, 2015. A school student from Krasnoyarsk was awarded Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s special prize within the framework of the national science and design project school contest, the corporation’s press service reports. The awarding ceremony took place at one of the State Duma’s assembly halls. Yuri Pavlov, an eighth-grader from Krasnoyarsk, won in the Cozy World category, where contestants presented inventions that help to make this world a more comfortable place. Yuri presented his Hovercraft Rescue Robot. His proposal is to introduce remotely controlled rescue

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2015. A photo exhibition called To Remember Is to Live opened at Uralvagonzavod Corporation/UVZ Museum. Glory Square in Nizhniy Tagil serves as the central focus of all the photographs on display, the corporation’s press service reports. The better part of this photo archive was collected and digitalized by Nikolai Mitin. There are fifty photographs in the exhibition: works by Mashinostroitel news photographers Vladimir Mikheyenko and Lyudmila Ivanova from various time periods and by head of local Tourist Photographer Club Vladimir Mitin. ‘The exhibition opens in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2015. Two young managers from LEPSE (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) were awarded certificates under the president managerial training program, the corporation’s press service reports. The solemn awarding ceremony took place at Kirov Region Government’s office. The certificates were given out by Head of Kirov Region Government Administration Alexander Kutergin, who stressed that in the seventeen years from the moment it started, the program proved an effective instrument of government recruitment policy. 41 workers from Kirov Region were given

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2015. ChTPZ Group Training Center looked into performance results of its Ural Engineering School Program that has been offered at local schools throughout the year, the Group’s press service reports. ‘The goal is to offer school students job orientation advice and enhance their awareness of the options they have, especially in terms of vocational education offered on our Future of White Metallurgy Project,’ the press service says. For one, guided tours of the training center and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s production departments proved very popular. Around a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2015. The average price per square meter on Yekaterinburg existing homes market came to 74,178 RUR on June 22. This is 0.9% less than four weeks ago and 2.7% less than at the beginning of the year, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Prices went down in nearly all of the market segments expect for the centrally located apartments, for which prices rose by 0.6% in the course of last month. Homes in the city’s most expensive area are now sold for 99,973 RUR per m2, whereas those in the least expensive locations on the outskirts are now 2.7% cheaper and are offered

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 26, 2015. Gosexpertiza, a state-run expert body, approved of Yekaterinburg Central Stadium reconstruction project. The reconstruction will have to be completed in time for the World Cup 2018, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s press service refers to the constituency’s First Deputy Building & Infrastructure Development Minister Alexei Krupkin as saying. Krupkin said the project documentation and the engineering survey findings for the sports arena got a full approval. ‘The project documentation has actually been approved, which means Sport Engineering, the customer

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works launched its photo exhibition “Steel Heart of Russia” on 25 June 2015 at the Russian Federation’s Trade Mission. The exhibition includes over 30 photographs by recognised Magnitogorsk photographers, and has toured Brussels, Luxembourg and Malta. Built in the early 1930s in the Southern Urals, the mill became one an icon of Soviet Russia’s industrialisation. Western countries dubbed the mill a «Russian miracle» – it was built almost by hand in record time. By the end of the 1930s it was the largest metallurgic enterprise not only in the country, but also in

UrBC, Moscow, June 25, 2015. Russia’s Central Bank expects zero growth on the ruble lending market this year, RIA Novosti refers to the bank’s Financial Stability Director Sergey Moiseyev as saying. ‘If we look at how many ruble loans get issued to businesses, the overall volume tends to rise by 5.5% a year; however, compared to the situation in 2008 and 2009, corporate loan books appear to have a negative balance in annual terms,’ he said at a press conference.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2015. Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) experts subjected 670 food samples from Japanese cuisine restaurants (sushi, sushi rolls, salads, and other foods) to lab tests; 106 samples (15.6%) turned out unsatisfactory in terms of microbiological parameters, the agency’s Sverdlovsk Region division reports. In 2014, 1,797 such samples were tested altogether, with 302 samples (16.8%) turning out unsatisfactory. This was the worst result among all the priority food items. The most common problems are trading in foods that do not meet normative quality

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 25, 2015. The number of the unemployed in Sverdlovsk Region has by now exceeded the number of people living in certain local towns. According to the Labor & Employment Department, there are currently 32,743 people without jobs in the Mid-Urals. The overall unemployment rate thus stands at 6.6% (up 5% on June 1, 2014). Incidentally, some of Sverdlovsk Region-based towns have a comparable number of inhabitants: the populations of Zarechny, Kushva, and Bogdanovitch, for example, come to 27,000, 29,000, and 29,000 people, respectively. Russia’s Labor Minister Maxim