March 12, 2014. MegaFon informs all the supporters that its popular sports app called WATCH+ will still be available during the winter Paralympics in Sochi. Over 600,000 users downloaded the app during the Olympics, and now WATCH+ can be used to keep track of all the events of the Paralympics online, MegaFon's press service reports. WATCH+ was immensely popular during the winter Olympics. Not only did it make it to the top few free apps at AppStore and GooglePlay, but it also was the confident second most popular app in the Sports category throughout most of the Olympics. The number of

March 12, 2014. The final fights and the solemn closing ceremony of Russia's female boxing championship for juniors competing for Natalia Ragozina Prize took place at Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation sports club. Natalia Ragozina is the world's absolute boxing champion among professional players and Deserved Master of Sports. According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service, the second Natalia Ragozina Prize championship in Nizhniy Tagil this year became a high-profile event, rising from the local to the national level. Throughout the championship,

March 11, 2014. UC RUSAL managed to reach an agreement with Sberbank on refinancing of its $5bn loan, Vedomosti refers to the holding representative as reporting. The three-year $4.6bn loan was issued to UC RUSAL by Sberbank in August 2010 in order to refinance the former’s debt to Foreign Economic Bank, which, in its turn, offered the money so that RUSAL could pay a pool of foreign creditors. Otherwise the holding might have lost the controlling shareholding in Nornickel, which was the guarantee for the loan.

March 11, 2014. Ural Airlines is launching a new flight from Krasnodar to Moscow and back. According to the air carrier’s press service, the new flight will operated between March 31, 2014 and September 23, 2014. Prices for a one-way ticket start from 2,485 RUR (excluding all the fees and charges). ‘Residents of Krasnodar will be able to fly to the Russian capital on Monday, Tuesday, or Saturday. The return flights are operated, respectively, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Once at Moscow airports, passengers from Krasnodar can always use the convenient connecting flights the airline

March 11, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation enterprises congratulated their female employees on Women’s Day The corporation’s press service reports the women workers were congratulated in Volchansk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, and other cities where the holding’s enterprises are based. ‘As for the corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil, the final round of the annual Woman of The Year contest was solemnly held the other day. In 2014, the contest involved 73 workers, who competed in three categories: Woman Professional, Woman Leader, and Woman Destiny.

March 11, 2014. Over 300 9th form students (potential school-leavers) of Pervouralsk came to ChTPZ Group’s Training Center on the premises of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) on its Open Doors Day. According to PNTZ press service, following a guided tour of the plant the visitors could see for themselves what the center has to offer. Specially for their guests, the teachers came up with the tasks that could be completed in the special labs. ‘We saw a small-scale model of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant and we were shown how these pipe-rolling mills work. It was interesting to experiment with

March 11, 2014. METCOMBANK and Visa are launching a new special offer dubbed ‘Anyone Can Win with a Visa,’ the bank’s press service says. To join in the special offer, one needs to use their Visa card issued by METCOMBANK to pay for at least 1,000 RUR worth of shopping between March 15 and April 30 and register at visafifa.ru. Every participant is granted an opportunity to win one of 1,000 guaranteed prizes with Visa and FIFA logos or a trip to the World Football Championship in Brazil. ‘To win the trip to FIFA 2014 in Brazil, one also needs to take part in a creative competition and

March 07, 2014. The volume of coal handled by Sverdlovsk Railways decreased by 51.7% in February 2014 compared with February 2013 and amounted to 28,300 tons, the company's press service reports. The shipment of building materials dropped by 14.6% down to 1,500m kg, that of ferrous metals declined by 8.3% down to 800,000,000 kg, that of ferrous metal scrap decreased by 10% down to 200,000,000 kg, that of iron and manganese ore declined by 7.6% down to 1,000m kg, that of cement declined by 10.3% down to 200,000,000 kg, that of timber declined by 9.7% down to 200,000,000 kg, and that of

March 07, 2014. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) is about to complete the shipment of a large batch of spare parts for bulldozers to Uzbekistan in March 2014, the corporation's press service reports. Early in the year, a carriage full of spare parts for the Uzbek consumers who routinely use ChTZ bulldozers for stripping operations (among other things) was already shipped to this Central Asian country. A large batch with joints, motor parts, and running gear will ensure quality maintenance and operation of the

March 07, 2014. As of January 1, 2014, there are 115 lending institutions in Sverdlovsk Region that are allowed to perform banking transactions, including 16 Sverdlovsk Region-based commercial banks, 36 subsidiaries of such banks, 61 subsidiaries of lending institutions whose HQ are in other federal constituencies, and 2 subsidiaries of Sberbank of Russia's Ural branch, the Economics Ministry's press service says. Sverdlovsk Region-based banks operate 32 subsidiaries outside their federal constituency. All in all, the number of bank branches located in Sverdlovsk Region rose by 50

March 07, 2014. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) will deliver a batch of large-diameter pipes to Gazprom in March-June 2014 to put up the second extension of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta natural gas pipeline, the company's press service says. The shipment will thus come to more than 45,000,000 kg and the contract is worth over 4bn RUR. LDPs with the diameter of 1,420mm and wall width of 23mm and 27.7mm are made of K65 (X80) strength grade steel and have an outer and inner three-layer corrosion-resistant coating; the operational pressure is 11.8 megapscals (120 arm). All of these LDPs will

March 07, 2014. Ural Airlines are now offering a preliminary booking option for the flights from the Far East to the European part of Russia and back that are partly covered for by the government. This is done within the framework of the state program on making air travel more affordable for the Russians living in the Far East; the departure dates run from April 1, 2014 to October 31, 2014, the airline's press service says. Under this program, specially priced tickets can be obtained by Russian citizens under 23, females over 55 and males over 60, people with disabilities and those who

March 6, 2014. An administration representative got killed while looking into the circumstances of a recent accident at Cheremukhovskaya-Glubokaya Mine. The company employee looked at the scene of the earlier accident, slipped and fell down from an 11-meter height, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia's Investigative Committee says. 'It was detected that the victim, a representative of Cheremukhovskaya-Glubokaya Mine management, was among the inquiry team members who looked into the accident on March 3, 2014, the same day the accident happened,' the committee reports. The

March 6, 2014. A solemn opening ceremony of Russia's Junior Female Boxing Championship took place at the sports club of Uralvagonzavod. The championship is dedicated to Natalia Ragozina, the world's absolute boxing champion among professional players and Deserved Master of Sports. Uralvagonzavod acted as the general sponsor of the event as it did in 2013. According to the corporation's press service, 294 young women from eight Russian Federation constituencies are going to compete in the championship. Sports women from Chelyabinsk, Altai, Kemerov, and Penza Regions, and from

March 6, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Business Support Fund held a meeting to adopt new ways of supporting SMEs in 2014. This year, the main innovation will consist in a gradual switch from subsidies to mechanisms that could provide a certain ROI. The fund will keep on issuing preferential term loans through its partner banks to finance investment projects and will keep on acting as a guarantor on the businesspeople's bank loans, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region's Information Policies Department says. In 2014, 488m RUR will be directed to equipment upgrades (172.8m RUR will come from

March 6, 2014. Motiv Telecommunications Group is going to launch 4G network in Yekaterinburg before the end of this year. The carrier is also considering the possibility of launching this new-generation network in a few other cities where the company operates, Motiv representative said at a round table discussion today. The discussion was dedicated to the development of mobile network and the Internet connection in Sverdlovsk Region. 'Before the end of this year, we are are planning on launching our fourth-generation data transfer network in a few large cities in the area where we

March 6, 2014. Ural Airlines has taken part in the international exhibition ITB 2014 once again. The event opened in Berlin today, the airline's press service says. The air carrier presented its services at the stand of Cologne Bonn Airport. Visitors to the fair will be able to get some information on the company, on the flights it operates to Germany and other parts of Europe, and on the additional services it can render its passengers. During the exhibition days, Ural Airlines will hold talks with the European tour operators who are interested in cooperating with the air carrier as

March 5, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation will invest over 1.78bn RUR in environmental projects in Nizhniy Tagil, where the corporation's head plant is located. 'We have been working on this for a number of years now, the corporation's head plant implemented 16 environmental protection projects last year, and the plant spent 54.2m RU R on this. Among the largest projects were the reconstruction of filtering facilities with replacement of obsolete technologies for the new ones. This will both improve the environmental situation and provide

March 5, 2014. Ural Airlines announced a sale on business class tickets for Yekaterinburg-Dubai flight, the airline's press service says. 'Those who like pampering themselves with enjoyable business class trips, the price of a one-way ticket will only come to €828 (including all the fees and charges), and if you buy a round trip ticket, the price will only come to €1,657. We would also like to point out that special prices are also offered on economy class tickets for this flight. If you book more than 30 but less than 60 days before the flight, the price will be €337, if you book

March 5, 2014. Local developers are planning to commission 1m sq m worth of housing in Yekaterinburg this year, the city council's press service reports. 'As a result of commissioning norms growing stricter, the developers' planning periods extended from six months to three years. This is why, starting in 2014, Yekaterinburg Council started working systematically towards making the cooperation mechanism between developers and engineering infrastructure companies more efficient in the new reality,' the message says. The municipal water conduit company and YekaterinburgGaz