January 16, 2014. Ural Airlines start operating a daily flight from Ufa to Moscow and back on February 1, 2014. The price of a one-way ticket comes to 2,962 RUR (all the fees and charges included), the airline’s press service says. Passengers will be able to travel from the capital of Bashkortostan to Moscow in the evening: the departure time is 6:40 PM, the arrival time is 7:10 PM. The return flight will be operated at day time: the departure time is 1:15 PM, the arrival time is 5:20 PM. ‘This means that businesspeople will have an opportunity of planning their trips more flexibly and of

January 16, 2014. Lyudinovsky Diesel Locomotive Plant (LTZ, a member enterprise of Sinara Transport Machines), was certified for meeting the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) requirements, the company’s press service says. The certification procedure was carried out by the auditors from the international holding DQS GmbH, one of the global leaders on the market of examination of business processes and certification of management systems. The IRIS standards was developed at the initiative of the Association of the European Rail Industry (UNIFE). IRIS lays out the basic

January 16, 2014. OOO Avia Center issued 767 new plane tickets to customers who booked their tickets online via Eviterra.com and later had those tickets canceled, the agency’s press service reports. Customers whose departure dates were set before January 23, 2014 had their tickets restored. The tickets with departures set for later dates are being restored at the moment. Avia Center actually pointed out that there was no communication whatsoever between the customers of Eviterra.com and the employees of OOO Eviterra Travel. Now Eviterra Travel announced that complaints could be submitted

January 15, 2014. Coal shipments through Sverdlovsk Railways (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) dropped by 28.6% in 2013 and amounted to 0.8m tons. According to the company's press service, the shipments of buildings materials also declined by 11.2% (21.6m tons), those of ferrous metals decreased by 3.6% (10.9 m tons), those of scrap ferrous metals went down by 3.1% (2.7m tons), those of coke fell by 12.1% (1.2m tons), those of cement declined by 1.1% (2.3m tons), those of timber decreased by 6.7% (1.9m tons), those of chemicals and soda decreased by 7.3% (4m tons), and those of grains

January 15, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is now completing the launch of the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS). Over 10m RUR were allocated for the implementation of this project, the holding's press service reports. 'Russian Register, a certification body, has already conducted the first certification stage of Uralvagonzavod's business management system. At this stage, it is checked whether the company is ready to have its business management system certified against a dozen 'knock-out questions' - the answers can only be

January 15, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region was given the 82nd out of 83 positions in Russia's Environmental Rating 2013 drawn up by Green Patrol, an environmental NGO. Chelyabinsk Region was the only federal constituency where Green Patrol believes the environmental situation is even worse. In late 2012, Sverdlovsk Region was given the 81st position in the rating. Over the year, its socio-environmental, industrial-environmental, and consolidated indices got worse. According to the rating, Tambov Region is doing best of all in environmental respects.

January 15, 2014. Tenants and owners of several scores of buildings and other facilities on Yekaterinbnurg's cultural heritage list dismantled a number of outdoor advertising media from these buildings after they had been ordered to do so by the authorities, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Ministry's press service reports. For one, most of illegitimately installed billboards and banners were taken off an architectural set dating back to the fifties in Sverdlov St (Buildings 22, 34, 56, 58, and 62). The apartment blocks at 21/2 Malyshev St, G.V. Uvarov Tenement Building

January 15, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Ministry inspected 19,238 hectares worth of agricultural land in 2013, and it was detected that 1,918.1 hectares altogether were misused, the Ministry's press service reports. 863 hectares were misused in Kamensky District, 161.3 hectares were misused in Sysert District, 138 hectares were misused in Berezovsky, and 135 hectares, 18 hectares, and 678 hectares were misused in Beloyarsky, Gornouralsky, and Baikalovsky Districts, respectively. Following inspections by Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Ministry, rental contracts are now

January 13, 2014. Urban Transport Solutions/UTS, a member enterprise of Sinara Transport Machiens (Russia) and CAF Group (Spain) presented its new development – a prototype of a new carriage for Moscow Underground – at the 20th pavilion of the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Mocsow, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The new underground train can have 4 to 8 carriages attached to it and will be able to travel at up to 100 km/h; its passenger capacity is also very impressive. The carriages are provided with convenient exits, including those for people with disabilities. Interior navigation and

January 13, 2014. Vladimir Roshchupkin, the executive director of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation, was given the Russian Ministry of Emergencies award, the corporation’s press service reports. The corporation’s top official was given a commemorative medal of the Russian MoE called Marshall Vassily Chuikov on the eve of the New Year break ‘for flawless dedication to civil defense, prevention of and dealing with consequences of emergencies, high quality performance at work, and to celebrate the 81st anniversary of Civil Defense in Russia.’

January 13, 2014. Ural Airlines announced a decrease in prices for Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv-Yekaterinburg flights. Starting January 12, 2014, all the round trip tickets will be ?52 cheaper, and all the one-way tickets will be ?26 cheaper, the airline’s press service reports. ‘Ural Airlines’ customers can travel to Israel at the most attractive prices: the airline is using the early and late booking options for round trip tickets. If you book two or less days before the flight, the ticket will come to ?256 (including all the fees and charges). If you plan ahead and book your tickets

January 13, 2014. Bank Koltso Urala came up with a preliminary financial report for 2013. According to the bank’s Economics & Business Planning Department’s Head Evgeny Aleksenko, the bank’s pre-tax profit exceeded 700m RUR last year, and the year’s profitability amounted to the impressive 28%. The bank’s net profit comes to some 555.5m RUR for the twelve months of 2013, the bank’s press service reports. Besides, the bank’s balance sheet total increased by 6bn RUR, which was more than 12% than a year earlier. Aleksenko says that in 2014, the bank will keep on implementing its strategy

January 13, 2014. MegaFon specialists blocked about 1 billion spam texts, including scams and other illegal content ones, in 2013. Thanks to the mobile operator’s efforts, customers were protected against annoying ads that are so criticized only too justly, the company’s press service says. ‘A detailed analysis of the customer queries has shown that our customers have been receiving a huge amount of messages related to advertising drugs, sexual services, financial schemes and other dubious or outright illegal kinds of texts alongside regular ads.’ ‘MegaFon experts block over 300,000 such

January 10, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Corporation carried a financial report drawn up in accordance with the IAS for 2010-2012 for the first time, the corporation's press service reports. The corporation members are positive that this is going to become an important step on the way to getting rated by the international agencies such as Fitch, Moody's, S&P in the first quarter of 2014 faster. This means the corporation will become more investment-attractive and get access to the market of more affordable financial resources. The three-year consolidated financial audit was conducted by

January 10, 2013. Uralcryomash, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation, made some profit for the first time over the last few years. The revenues of Nizhniy Tagil-based enterprise reached 2,372,63m RUR in the eleven months of 2013 alone, and the net profit came to 48.52m RUR, the corporation's press service reports. 'The results of this performance mean Uralcryomash will be able to carry production upgrades and improve the employees' working conditions. Last year, a flame metal-cutting unit was installed at the plant, for example. The unit is currently used for

January 10, 2013. Transport Machine-Building Design Office (KBTM, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod), looked into the preliminary results of 2013. Meeting the government defense order was one of the primary success indicators for this year: KBTM made three times more goods and did three times more work within this order last year than a year earlier, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service reports. The enterprise is now investing heavily in production upgrades. Some of the departments have been given new equipment for the first time since 1985. KBTM becoming Russia's only

January 10, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Corporation member enterprises launched a special New Year Campaign with festive events for employees and their children, Uralvagonzavod Corporation's press service reports. A show for children and adults was coordinated at I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture at the corporation's head plant in Nizhniy Tagil: there were 26 children's shows called A Trip to Lapland and 10 game shows in the palace square as well as 10 shows for the older spectators and a number of office parties. There were some 70 different events altogether. The best teams of

January 10, 2013. Yekaterinburg-based Uraltransmash, one of Uralvagonzavod Corporation's key divisions, finished the year off in a very impressive way: the company fulfilled the government defense order for the year 2013 as early as November, the corporation's press service reports. 'The target figures for civil goods output were also met: this year, Uraltransmash made and sold 51 trams. This is the largest figure since the time tram production was actually launched at the plant. All these trams were delivered to various Russian cities,' the message says. The 71-407 trams

January 10, 2013. Burevestnik Scientific Research Institute that is based in Nizhniy Novgorod and is a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation fulfilled the government defense order for 2013, the corporation's press service reports. The company managed to improve all of its performance indicators over the year. For one, the company's production output went up by 1.5 times in 2013 compared with 2012 and reached 4.5bn RUR (including an 10% increase in the R&D sector, a 73% increase in the mass production sector, and a 59% increase in exports). Sales actually doubled and amounted to

January 10, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Ulyanovsky Car Factory (UAZ) signed a cooperation agreement for 2014, MMK reports. Under this agreement, MMK is to deliver some 60,000,000 kg of rolled metal goods in 2014, which will fully cover the car factory’s flat rolled product needs. The range of products varies from hot- and cold-rolled goods to etched rolled goods to rolled goods with special coatings. The agreement also provides for a pricing formula that will correspond with the changes on the metal goods market. ‘Building up on its cooperation with the car making