February 19, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation and a group of companies headed by Zarechnaya Coal Company (of which a Mr. Nusenkis, a Russian entrepreneur, is a proprietor) announced they are about to set up a joint venture called Russian Industrial Corporation. The prospective JV will probably comprise some of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s assets; the corporation will also get some stakes in Zarechnaya Coal Company, Yurga Machine-Building Plant, Germany-based Esser, the Czech Republic-based T-machinery, U-Trans Transportation Company, and the Baltic Coal Terminal.

February 19, 2013. An agreement on setting up a joint venture was signed in Japan on February 18 within the framework of a visit by a a group of Sverdlovsk Region officials headed by Governor Evgeny Kuivashev, the Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. During the Governor’s meeting with the mayor of Kitakyushu, both parties expressed an interest in mutual cooperation. About fifty Japanese companies sent their representatives to the presentation on Sverdlovsk Region coordinated by the Russian delegates, and some of these representatives said they would like to have a private

February 19, 2013. It has been estimated that Yekaterinburg will need around 161.121bn RUR to prepare for the World Football Championship of 2018, the federal press center of an organization called Physical Education & Sports Development in the Russian Federation. This figure represents the funds that the federal and the regional budgets as well as a number of private investors are willing to provide. The sum was announced by Sverdlovsk Region authorities at a presentation dedicated to the concept for holding World Cup 2018 matches in Yekaterinburg. The project’s most money-consuming

February 18, 2013. Ural Airlines is launching a new scheduled flight from Moscow to Bishkek. The flight will be operated every Saturday starting February 23. The timetable has been designed in the most convenient way possible: the planes leave Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport at 10 AM and arrive in Bishkek at 4:05 PM; the return flight’s departure time is 5:05 PM, arrival time is 7:40PM; the flight lasts four and a half hours. The flight will be operated on the modern European concern Airbus’s aircraft, the airline’s press officer reports. Now Ural Airlines also offers scheduled flights bound for

February 18, 2013. The military vehicles manufactured by Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation arrived in the United Arab Emirates for IDEZ, the international defense exhibition. The features and potential of Terminator, the fire support combat vehicle, and of the upgraded T-90C painted a new color, as well as of some life-size samples and models from Uralvagonzavod’s special vehicles division will be displayed in Abu Dhabi on February 17-21, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service says. Uralvagonzavod is a regular participant at the prestigious

February 18, 2013. In 2012, 159bn RUR, or 72% of Sverdlovsk Region’s tax revenues, were paid by the enterprises involved in the basic economic activities (processing enterprises, retail and wholesale traders, the transportation industry, the real estate sector, and the electricity, natural gas, and water production and distribution segment), Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Tax Service reports. The processing enterprises paid 62bn RUR, thus providing 28% of all the tax revenues. The retail and wholesale trading businesses as well as the car mechanics and white goods repairing

February 18, 2013. A draft bill on doing away with the notion of roaming within Russia was considered at the State Duma’s Information Policies, IT, & Communications Committee on February 14. The mobile carriers do not think it impossible that, should the bill be adopted, the mobile communication rates might go up. The changes in the Communications Act are supposed to get rid of the payments charged for roaming within Russia. The carriers are expected to process the outside subscribers’ traffic through their own network, which will reduce the price of a phone call. Deputy Communications

February 18, 2013. Players from Sputnik hockey team (sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) paid a visit to an orphanage in the village of Yuzhakovo. This was part of the team’s charity event dubbed Soft Hockey. In January, Sputnik appealed to its supporters, asking them to bring some soft toys to the match and throw them onto the ice after the game finishes. The supporters were quick and enthusiastic to react, so an incredible amount of stuffed animals was donated. The first small batch was given to a kindergarten that the junior varsity team supports. Now, five

February 15, 2013. The occupational illness rate decreased by 28.3% in Sverdlovsk Region last year compared with a year earlier, the spokesperson for the regional division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) reports. According to the statistical data provided by the division, 512 instances of illnesses and poisoning were registered in the region in 2012. The total number of victims came to 480 people, including 98 women; 32 out of these fell ill twice or more often (including 4 women). This comes to 2.7 cases per every 10,000 instances of an illness. Also, the number of

February 15, 2013. After the Development Corporation’s pilot project on the construction of 12 up-to-date, energy-efficient boiler houses in the South Urals has been implemented successfully, the authorities are considering putting up six more boilers with the total capacity of 20 megawatts in Troitsk, the company’s press service reports. This initiative was put forth by the town council. The proposal was considered at a meeting which the Development Corporation’s representatives attended as well. Troitsk town council officials explain that they are now busy replacing the obsolete and

February 15, 2013. 350 Sverdlovsk Region-based volunteers who are going to take part in the World Summer Student Olympics 2013 in Kazan and in the Intercontinental Ski Jumping Cup in Nizhniy Tagil this March have already undergone the necessary training. The said sports events are to become a rehearsal of the 22nd Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi in the winter of 2014f for some of the volunteers from the Urals, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s volunteer center has completed yet another stage of preparing its team for

February 15, 2013. Oblkommunenergo invested more than 7m RUR in the capital repairs of electric plants in Polevskoy District this winter. These figures do not include the spending on production programs and technological hookup, the enterprise’s press service says. So far, the 0.4 kilowatt overhead transmission lines in Proletarskaya St and Mira St in Zyuzelsky and in Kirov St and Naberezhnaya St in Kenchurka have been repaired. The company is also repairing the o.4 kilowatt lines in the town of Polevskoy itself, namely, in Uralskaya St, Volodarskaya St, Lomonosov St, Pobeda St, Turgenev St,

February 15, 2013. The trade union of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant made a gift to all of its workers. All the employees who are also the trade union members are now entitled to the benefits offered within the Trade Union+ discounts and benefits scheme that allows them to get an up to 12% discount in quite a few stores and entertainment venues in Nizhniy Tagil. Uralvagonzavod’s trade union is actually the largest organization of such kind in Russia’s defense industry. Every trade union member (of whom there are a total of 25,000 people) was given a

February 14, 2013. The collective agreement that is currently used at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) was estimated very highly by a trilateral committee comprising some regional government officials, the trade union federation representatives, and PromAss (an employers’ organization) executives, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. This collective agreement was declared one of the best in the course of the regional scale competition. At the end of the contest, Chelyabinsk Region Economic Development Minister Elena Murzina awarded the enterprise’s

February 14, 2013. Uralvagonzavod’s railway carriage assembly line is now fitted with the American Lincolns – 60 U.S.-manufactured welding machines that were delivered onto Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant within the framework of a large-scale technical upgrades program. All in all, 120 welding units are used in this department, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service says. A half of all the new machines has already been installed and used. The sets will have become fully integrated into the production process by this summer,

February 14, 2013. Ural Airlines is introducing a new service: checking in online. Online check-in is now available via the passengers support service and is a convenient option that allows a passenger who travels without any luggage to check in for Ural Airlines flights and book the seat they want without setting foot outsides their home or office. The new service comes with the Customer Support experts’ advice; these employees are ready to help a passenger go through all the stages of checking in online. To use their help, a passenger needs to call the toll-free number 8-800-2000-262 (free

February 14, 2013. This January, the flights operated by Moskoviya, VIM Avia, and Rusline were delayed much more often than others, Rosaviation reports. For one, Moskoviya delayed 18.9% of its flights (31 out of 164 flights operated in January), VIM Avia delayed 14.32% of its flights (64 out of 447 flights operated in January), and Rusline delayed 13.78% of its flights (145 out of 1,052 flights operated in January). These air carriers are followed by I Fly, which delayed 12.15% of its flights (26 out of 214 flights operated in January), Alrosa, which delayed 12.14% of its flights (42 out of

February 14, 2013. Mikheevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise, which is under construction at the moment, has already become one of Chelyabinsk Region’s major employers. About 700 people are currently working on building the enterprise. Once the business has been launched, about 680 new jobs for both white- and blue-collar workers will be created, the press officer of Russian Copper Company (RMK) reports. By February 1, Mikheevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise has already taken on 169 employees: miners, preparators, energy sector workers, geologists, mineral surveyors,

Tatar National Cultural Autonomy of Sverdlovsk region, governed bythe elected chairman M.M.Sharafulin, has finished the organization of expert group to develop the concept of counteraction to national strife provocation. This theme is of high actuality in the region and is traditionally associated with the religious radical extremist activities. Therefore, speaking of settling interethnic conflicts, education and tolerant religious interpretation are considered to be the first measures. Formation of the expert anti-terrorist group took autonomy managementover four years. It includes

February 13, 2013. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation was declared the best charity provider of the year in Nizhniy Tagil in 2012 in the Industrial Enterprises category, Uralvagonzavod’s press service reports. This is the second time the corporation has won the award: in 2011, the plant was also given the same deserving title. All in all, 99 different municipal organizations and enterprises competed for the title, but only 11 of them were actually awarded the Charity Provider diplomas in various categories. All in all, Uralvagonzavod donated over 250m RUR to charity last