May 17, 2013. The number of people who are not allowed to travel abroad because of their debts is growing every year. In 2009, 900 people were denied exit, in 2012 the figure rose to as many as 40,000 people. So far this year, 12,000 debtors were not allowed to leave Russia; their debts totaled to 7.5bn RUR altogether. The 12,000 figure comprises 2,500 people who don’t pay their children’s alimony; their debts amount to 0.5bn RUR. Also, about 4,000 peoples with unpaid loans were denied exit from the country; their debts come to 5bn RUR, Chief Court Officer of Sverdlovsk Region Sergey

May 16, 2013. Tankograd, a veterans’ club of Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ, a member of Uralvagonzavod Corporation), was declared the best in the Socio-Political Organizations category, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The plant club’s Chairman Eduard Sobolev was given an honorary certificate signed by the city manager of Chelyabinsk Sergey Davydov in the course of a solemn ceremony. In his thank-you speech, the head of Tankograd expressed his gratitude to the city for the high estimate of the veterans’ efforts in the field of the military-patriotic education of young

May 16, 2013. Sverdlovsk Railways’ freight turnover rose by 4.2% in April 2013 against April 2012 and amounted to 15.88bn ton-kilometers. The April shipments amounted to 10.9m tons, which was 0.5% less than in April 2012, Sverdlovsk Railways press service says. In the first ten days of May, a number of continuous production cycle enterprises from the metallurgical and O&G sector exceeded their target figures for shipments. What is more, an ad hoc counter planning team resumed its work on organizing cargo shipments for building socially important assets in the north of Ural Federal

May 16, 2013. A large delegation of Czech businesspeople, headed by Prime Minister Petr Nečas, is going to visit Sverdlovsk Region on May 28-29, 2013, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. This visit is done within the framework of the Czech Prime Minister’s business trips to a number of Russian Federation constituencies. The Mid-Urals was placed on the agenda due to its great industrial potential, the existing strong business ties between Russian and Czech enterprises, and also because of Yekaterinburg applying for EXPO 2020. Sverdlovsk Region

May 16, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government issued a decree on Tuesday that adopted the changes in the local program on the development of infrastructure, nano-industry, and innovations in Sverdlovsk Region; the program provides some subsidies on the loan interest rate payments for local enterprises this year. The total amount of subsidies for 2013 has been set at 300m RUR, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. Sverdlovsk Region Industry & Science Minister Vladislav Pinayev says 47 enterprises, which submitted 60 investment projects, have

May 16, 2013. The net profit of Gazprombank (calculated in accordance with the Russian Accounting Standards) dropped by over 4 times in the first quarter of 2013 and amounted to 4.991bn RUR against 20.485bn RUR a year earlier, the bank’s report states. Gazprombank’s assets reached 3.199 trillion RUR on April 1, 2013, which was 36% more than in the first quarter of 2012. The bank’s own capital rose by 2.6% since the beginning of this year and came to 357.45bn RUR. The private individuals’ deposits rose by 23.4% compared with Q1’12 and reached 312.35bn RUR. The non-finance organizations’

May 15, 2013. 33 graduates are going to work as interns at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant this year. The one-year internship’s primary goal is professional and social and psychological adjustment of former students and their getting practical and organizational skills as well as understanding their jobs’ specific nature and looking at their departments and the company’s scientific and production performance, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The interns get employed at the technological institute, the large nodes division, the mechanization & automation design

May 15, 2013. MegaFon announces some changes in the Ural branch management. Anna Belosheikina, the former head of MegaFon Ural IT Department, was appointed Director of MegaFon Ural’s Sverdlovsk Region division, the mobile carrier’s press service reports. In her new position, Ms Belosheikina is going to keep on implementing the company’s strategy aimed at technological leadership and building up on the Mid-Urals market share. Ms Belosheikina’s top priority as a director is to reinforce MegaFon’s status in Sverdlovsk Region as that of a reliable telecommunications provider who offers good

May 15, 2013. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s trade market is still one of the largest ones in Russia. Every year, our output keeps on growing, and in 2013 the region’s retail trade turnover is expected to reach about 1 trillion RUR,’ says the region’s Deputy Agriculture & Foods Minister Tatiana Popova. Sverdlovsk Region’s retail trade turnover came to 858.8bn RUR last year, which was 12.3% and 6.4% more than a year earlier in actual and comparable prices, respectively, Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Department reports. The region’s retail trade network currently comes

May 15, 2013. Yekaterinburg Leninsky District Court declared the person who masterminded a number of pyramid schemes, Alexei Kalinichenko, guilty of large-scale fraud (Article 159 (part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). The trader, who is accused of having stolen over 1bn RUR, got 7.5 years in prison, a UrBC observer reports from the court room. According to the investigative team, in 2003 Kalinichenko set up Livingston Investment, OOO Global Gaming Expo, and OOO UTG to borrow money from the unsuspecting customers, allegedly to use it for Forex interbank market trading. He promised

May 15, 2013. Slightly over 138,000 residents of Sverdlovsk Region registered with the state services web portal, which makes the region Russia’s No.4 among all the federal constituencies in terms of the number of registered state services portal users, Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Department reports. The local residents are actually growing more active in their use of the portal that tries to react to their queries on the basis of ‘only one clerk principle. At the moment, 63 different e-services are available in the region, and by the end of the year, locals

May 14, 2013. In the first three months of 2013, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s basic performance indicators went on growing. The bank’s assets have gone up by 8.3% since the beginning of the year and exceeded 154bn RUR on April 1, 2013 (against 142bn RUR on January 1, 2013), the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s own fund increased by 5.9% (from 12.9bn RUR to 13.6bn RUR) in the first quarter of 2013.At the same time, the N1 figures came to 10.79% while the minimum requirements come to 10%. The UBRD’s net profit came to 320.2m RUR (against 164.3m RUR on January 1,

May 14, 2013. Russian citizens are now paying their loans off less frequently than before. Banks’ customers have not made a single payment on nearly 600,000 loans, and the number of such loans rose by 15% in the first quarter of 2013, Rossiyskaya Gazeta refers to the National Credit History Bureau as saying. The number of loans that banks haven’t received a single back-payment on started to rise as early as the second quarter of 2012, and the Bureau believes this number is prone to keep growing. The organizations feels this has to do with the fact that banks are now dealing with the more

May 14, 2013. A visiting session of ad hoc work team set up to monitor the implementation of the Russian Federation President’s decree in Alapayevsk will take place on May 15. The meeting will be dedicated to plans to create more jobs in Eastern Administrative District, Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Administration reports. The region’s Economics Ministry says 34 applications regarding the creation and modernization of 4,190 new jobs have already been placed with them. Most of the applications came from Alapayevsk and Irbit. For one, these are Alapayevsk Mechanic

May 14, 2013. Ural Airlines’ fleet of vehicles got a new addition on May 8: the company bought yet another Airbus 320 with 156 passenger seats. The aircraft arrived in Yekaterinburg from Iordania, where it had been used by a local air carrier. At the moment, Ural Airlines operates a total of 28 planes (19 A320 ones and 9 A321 ones). This year, the airline is planning to buy four more plane, the air carrier’s press service reports. Ural Airlines launched its fleet renovation program in 2006, and the company has been buying new aircraft on a yearly basis since then. The European concern

May 14, 2013. In the first quarter of 2013, Sverdlovsk Region’s fiscal authorities imposed 2,7bn RUR worth of additional taxes to be paid to the Russian Federation’s consolidated budget in the course of their inspections, the press officer of the Federal Tax Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division reports. According to the division’s estimates, the total amount of additionally imposed taxes increased by 91.5m RUR (or 4%) in the first quarter of 2013 against a year earlier. Most of these additionally imposed taxes were value-added tax (61%, or 1.628bn RUR), corporation tax (16%, or 430.5m RUR),

May 13, 2013. Some solemn ceremonies took place at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s enterprises on the eve of Victory Day, the 68th anniversary of winning the Great Patriotic War. The war veterans and homefront workers were congratulated on the event in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, Nizhniy Tagil, Omsk, Saint Petersburg, Volchansk, and other cities where the corporation’s enterprises are located. Each of these companies made a great contribution to the victory in the war at the time, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The congratulations and words of gratitude were addressed

May 13, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government ruled that a number of automated weather monitoring terminals should be installed on the biggest highways to enhance the road traffic safety. The terminals provide relevant data on the current weather conditions as well as the condition of the road surface and help make efficient decisions on road-building or fixing, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. According to experts from the region’s Highway Administration, the system is a multi-functional one and allows not only for collecting data on weather and

May 13, 2013. Rosstat (the Federal State Statistics Service) recently carried a report on the inflation rate in April 2013. According to the Service, inflation rate in Russia came to 0.5% last month and to 2.4% since the beginning of the year, Bank Koltso Urala’s press service reports. According to the data provided by Rosstat, the food prices rose by 0.7% last month, the prices of non-food items increased by 0.4%, and the price of services went up by 0.5%. The food prices rose due to the traditional seasonal increase in the price of imported fruits and vegetables and also because of the last

May 13, 2013. Thanks to support from Sverdlovsk Region Government, 3, 436 Great Patriotic War veterans living in the area received a one-time allowance to have their homes remodeled, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. In 2011, some changes were made to the local Social Support to Sverdlovsk Region War Veterans Act dated November 25, 2004 (190-OZ); these changes provided for incidental 100,000-rouble allowances to the Great Patriotic War veterans to have their dwellings remodeled or repaired. Over 3,400 veterans have been given the subsidy since