September 17, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil hosted its traditional seminar on product quality enhancement, the corporation’s press service reports. The seminar was attended by representatives of railway carriage assembly, metallurgical, and mechanical assembly production departments, divisions, and administrations, as well as by workers of tool-making departments, non-standardized equipment production departments, and repair depots. Heads of quality control departments and production engineering offices and quality management system and business management

September 17, 2014. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob informed Sverdlovsk Region Government of the plans relating to preparations for the Urals’ capital’s 300th anniversary. According to the city council’s press service, Yakob pointed out in his report that 23% of expenses were to be covered with funds from the national budget, 35% would be covered with funds from Sverdlovsk Region’s budget, 17% would be backed up by the city budget, and 25% of the money would flow in from non-budget sources. The planning period ranges between three and ten years and evolves along several

September 17, 2014. ChTPZ Group is taking part in the 21st International Research-to-Practice Conference Pipes 2014 that is held at the Russian Scientific Research Pipe Industry Institute in Chelyabinsk on September 16-18, the Group’s press service reports. On the first day of the conference, ChTPZ Group’s Managing Director Valentin Tazetdinov made a report on how the innovative potential of rolled stock manufacturers could be useful for the fuel and energy sector’s strategic projects. ‘Thanks to the current implementation of Russia’s major oil and gas projects and, therefore, thanks to

September 17, 2014. Bank24.ru’s banking license entitling the bank to perform banking transactions was annulled by order of the Bank of Russia, the regulatory body’s website states. The decision to use this weapon of last resort, namely, to annul the bank’s license, was taken by the Bank of Russia because the lending institution did not meet the federal laws regulating banking activity or the normative acts of the Bank of Russia; Bank24.ru had also repeatedly violated the requirements set out in Article 7 (excluding paragraph 3 of Article 7) of the Federal Law On Countering Money-Laundering

September 16, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Corporation is adopting the car manufacturers' best practices to promote its TMV 2 railway carriage shunter on the Russian market. The corporation reports that, starting from September, Russian companies which would like to get more information about this new machine's technical and operational characteristics can borrow this TMV 2 for a two-week trial and actually use it on their production site. The machine comes with Uralvagonzavod Corporation's operation and maintenance team, whose members will train a

September 16, 2014. Employees of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ-Uraltrac, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) took part in a track-and-field race dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the company's trade union, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service reports. About a hundred workers from the tractor plant's different divisions joined the race. There were quite a few young people at the start line. The event coordinators, who categorized contestants into age groups, even had to have the younger employees run in several installments, as they wouldn't fit

September 16, 2014. The Swedish company Ericsson supplied and set up all the equipment necessary for the LTE infrastructure for MOTIV Group, a telecommunications provider. The company also offered the carrier a solution aimed at improving the use of frequency content, that is, frequency refarming, and at upgrading MOTIV's existing GSM network, the telecommunications provider's press service reports. The GSM network could be refarmed within the 1,800 megahertz range, which will result in the more efficient use of the carrier's frequency resources and provide data transfer

September 16, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Court supported the ruling pronounced by Yekaterinburg Leninsky District Court regarding the temporary closing of McDonald’s restaurant at 8E Vosmoye Marta St, the court's press service reports. However, McDonald’s now has the legal right to appeal to Leninsky Court asking for the early termination of the administrative punishment (that is, the temporary closing) since all the violations detected have been eliminated. The fast food chain outlet in Vosmoye Marta St was closed on August 26 because Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the

September 16, 2014. In August 2014, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was given the 10th position in the rating of Russia's top fifty retail banks in terms of customers' estimates, the bank's press service reports. Under Prime Information Agency's methods, how much a bank is talked about in the social media is the most important criterion that indicates an interest customers have in this bank. The UBRD was on top of the list in terms of how many times it was referred to, since it was mentioned in the social media 2.5 times more often in August than in the

September 15, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Government’s debt remained at 32.7bn RUR on September 1, 2014, the documents uploaded on the local Finance Ministry’s website indicate. The figure is actually the same as the one recorded on August 1, 2014. Incidentally, Sverdlovsk Region Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko announced recently that the constituency’s debt might grow bigger by the end of the year, while the budget deficit in 2015 will ‘reach its utmost limits’.

September 15, 2014. Polymetal bought a 100% stake in Severo-Kaluginskoye deposit in Sverdlovsk Region in the course of reorganizing Ural-Polymetal, a joint venture, the company’s official statement goes. Prior to the deal, Polymetal used to own a 49.99% shareholding in the JV. The company’s financial report stated that the asset had zero balance sheet value after it was written off in 2013 following a downfall in metal prices. ‘Under the terms of the reorganization agreement, Ural-Polymetal was divided and stopped operating, while its assets and liabilities were distributed among the

September 15, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation presented its produce at First Azerbaijan International Defense Industry Exhibition ADEX 2014 in Baku. According to the corporation’s press service, the Director-General Oleg Sienko presented Terminator 2, BMPT 72 fire support vehicle for tanks, to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilkham Aliev, who paid a visit to the exhibition. The vehicle is meant for all-aspect ballistic protection. The B10M bulldozer made by ChTZ-Uraltrac was also displayed at the exhibition. This machine is meant for a wide range of tasks

September 15, 2014. 17,000 taxpayers submitted tax declarations in 2014 that stated a personal income of over 1m RUR; this is 4% more than a year earlier, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service’s press service reports. ’16,000 private individuals stated their income was between 1m RUR and 10m RUR (up 4% on last year), 612 people stated their income was between 10m RUR and 100m RUR (down 9% on last year), 92 taxpayers stated their income was between 100m RUR and 500m RUR (15% more than a year earlier), and 27 private individuals stated their income was over 500m RUR

September 15, 2014. United Machine-Building Plants (OMZ) raised its holding in Uralmashzavod’s capital from 2.8% to 46.65% of shares, Prime reports. The transaction was processed on September 1, the day when Gazprombank Asset Management, which used to own a 43.86% stake in the business, ceased being a shareholder in Uralmashzavod. Thus Gazprombank handed its shareholding in its entirety over to United Machine-Building Plants. Now Uralmashzavod’s net loss amounted to 854.391m RUR in the first half of 2014, the issuer’s official statement goes. The company’s revenues dropped from 2,646,333,000

September 12, 2014. Experts from Bank Koltso Urala’s plastic card commission-based services department announced the statistics on the card use during the vacation season. The analysis of customers’ plastic card transactions indicates that July proved the ‘busiest’ month for travelers, the bank’s press service says. ‘The number and sums of commission-based transactions of Bank Koltso Urala’s cardholders rose by nearly a quarter (23%) in July 2014 compared with June. There was a certain decline in August, yet the figure still stood at the impressive 18%,’ says the department’s head Irina

September 12, 2014. Burevestnik Central Scientific Research Institute (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) presented Nizhniy Novgorod Machines & Defense Industry Museum with three samples of artillery armament and new standers with information on the samples’ performance characteristics, the corporation’s press service says. ‘We gave our Victory Park three samples of artillery armament: the 120mm self-propelled artillery piece 2S23 Nona-SVK (Burevestnik took part in the creation and development of the piece), the 120mm mortar 2B11 devised by our designers, and the 122m

September 12, 2014. Sinara Development (a member enterprise of Sinara Group) announced it starts selling apartments in Bukatin Lug, a new residential area in Krasnoslobodsk, a satellite town of Volgograd. Sinara Group’s press service reports the project is actually a public-private partnership that is supported by Volgograd Region Government and the Housing Development Fund. The construction permit was issued to developer on August 11, 2014. All the building jobs are being completed in strict accordance with the schedule, and by now, the ground work for six apartment buildings has been done.

September 12, 2014. The introduction of new transport fare discount schemes for residents on social benefits packages will not affect the regular cost of a public transport ride for the rest of the passengers, Yekaterinburg Council’s press service refers to Chairman of Transport, Traffic, and Road Network Development Committee Alexei Kurlykov as saying. Kurlykov conducted a Q&A session where local residents could ask their questions over the phone; the questions were related to how they could vote for the discount scheme they like. Yekaterinburg residents also suggested that the discount

September 12, 2014. Head of Yekaterinburg Council Alexander Yakob took part in the reopening ceremony of Yekaterinburg Dairy Plant 1 on August 11. The plant specializes in baby food production. Yakob pointed out that the renovated plant will be able to rely on its own resources when making dairy foods for babies and children. Thanks to this, it will be possible to go on with the import replacement program. ‘Following a reconstruction, Yekaterinburg Dairy Plant 1 turned into a modern baby food-producing facility that meets all the highest international quality standards. It is also unique in

September 11, 2014. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will become available for purchase at MegaFon’s offices on September 26, the telecommunications provider reports. Starting from September 19, the carrier’s customers can pre-order their iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones via shop.megafon.ru. MegaFon will make sure the new phones support the 4G+/LTE networks. ‘iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus represent the most prominent upgrade in the history of iPhone. The two new models have outstanding high resolution displays (4.7 and 5.5 inches, respectively),’MegaFon says. In addition to the innovative