February 13, 2013. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev was elected Chairman of the Titanium Valley Special Economic Zone’s Supervisory Board on February 12. The same meeting resulted in electing Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary, the Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. Kuivashev’s candidacy was supported by all the Supervisory Board members present at the meeting. The attendees elected Sverdlovsk Region Vice Premier Alexei Orlov as the Deputy Chairman, while Director-General of the Titanium Valley Special Economic Zone Artemy Kyzlasov was elected Executive

February 13, 2013. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) keeps expanding into Tyumen Region. On February 11, the bank launched its fourth branch in Nefteyugansk, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region. The branch will offer its customers a full range of services for private individuals. This is actually the bank’s 13th branch in Tyumen Region, the bank’s press service says. The bank has already set up outlets in shopping centers in Tyumen, Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut, Langepas, and Noyabrsk. The UBRD is also going to open more branches in Surgut and Noyabrsk in late February as

February 13, 2013. Sravni.ru’s analysts drew up a rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of lending to private individuals as of February 1, 2013. Only three Sverdlovsk Region-based banks made it to the top twenty, including SKB-Bank, the lending institution’s press service reports. The volume of loans offered to private individuals exceeded 60.96bn RUR, which was 47.3% more than a year earlier. However, the speed at which the bank’s lending portfolio gained in volume did not affect its quality in any way: SKB-Bank can boast a less than 3% overdue debt ratio on its consumer loans, which is

February 13, 2013. On February 4, the customs officers of Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport detained 3,900 kg of watches and foreign perfumes from a supplier who was trying to import them to Russia from the UAE without any declarations, the press officer of Ural Customs Administration reports. It was discovered during the clearance control of a freight aircraft arriving to Yekaterinburg from Al Fujairah (UAE) that some of the cargo (185 items weighing a total of 3,900 kg) was not accompanied by the necessary transportation documents. It is reported that the supplier was trying to take watches

February 12, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) shipped its PK-65 loading truck to Khankala, Chechnya; this was done by order of the Federal Security Service’s Frontier Administration, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press officer reports. The enterprise delivered its mass-produced vehicle to the North Caucasus and, at the frontiersmen division’s request, fitted it with two replaceable scoops: one of them is meant for everyday operation, the other one for working with rock mass. The loader will be used in Khankala for the usual building and loading jobs.

February 12, 2013. Over a thousand workers from Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant joined the start of the traditional Ural Ski Race that was part of the 31st Open All-Russian Ski Track 2013 Race. Sputnik, a sports club, was presented by a team of professional sports players, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service says. Every year, the employees of Uralvagonzavod take part in the race which, as Sverdlovsk Region Prime Minister Denis Pasler says, is a very big event; moreover, the race attracts more and more participants every

February 12, 2013. Ural Airlines announces the launch of a special price on the Yekaterinburg-Rome-Yekaterinburg flights. The round trip tickets are now available for 10,800 RUR (including all the fees). The offer is valid through departure dates between March 3 and late May, excluding the May recess, the airline’s press service reports. The Yekaterinburg-Rome flight is operated every Sunday at the convenient day time via the comfortable Airbus 320 that offers a full range of services in both the economy and the business class sections. The attractively priced tickets are already available

February 12, 2013. ChTPZ Group increased the shipment volume of its pumping and compression pipes made of corrosion- and cold-resistant 18KhMFB (Cr1), 18X3MFB (Cr3), and 15X5MFBCh (Cr5) steels to 3,000 tons, the company’s press service reports. These corrosion- and cold-resistant steels were supplied to the largest Russian enterprises such as Rosneft, LUKoil, TNK BP, Slavneft, and Naryanmarneftegaz. It is reported that the unique steels with up to 3% chrome content (Cr1 and Cr3) are the ChTPZ experts’ own developments. The steel with the 5% chrome content (Cr5) has been developed in

February 12, 2013. In 2012, MegaFon subscribers were able to use 40,000,000 mobile services thanks to the carrier’s remote service system known as Service Guide, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. A personal e-account within Service Guide allows a MegaFon subscriber to make convenient payments, subscribe to extra services, choose the best payment plans, get automatic Internet settings onto their phones, and use other handy options. ‘We see an increasingly growing interest in remote services which allow a subscriber to get over 80% of the services offered at our retail outlets or help

February 11, 2013. Renowned sports players and Russian State Duma deputies — the Olympics free callisthenics champion Alina Kabayeva and the former world boxing champion in the super heavyweight category Nikolai Valuyev attended the closing ceremony of Ural Federal District’s Female Boxing Championship coordinated in Nizhniy Tagil by Natalia Ragozina. These honorary guests took part in the awarding ceremony and paid a visit to Uralvagonzavod’s famous armored vehicles museum, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press officer reports. The world professional female boxing

February 11, 2013. MMK Metalurji, a member of MMK Group, produced 68% more steel in 2012 than in 2011. All in all, 790,000 tons of steel were made at MMK’s Turkish production site last year. MMK Metalurji raised its sales both on the home market and outside Turkey. For one, 25% more galvanized rolled stock was exported from Turkey in 2012 than a year earlier. ‘Given the current economic situation in Europe, this is great success,’ MMK Metalurji Sales Director Mehmet Cakmur said in his interview to the Turkish specialized magazine Steel Orbis. Last year, MMK Metalurji managed to attract more

February 11, 2013. As of January 1, 2013, all the municipal enterprises and organizations based in Sverdlovsk Region owed 160m RUR to SverdlovEnergoSbyt (against 120m RUR a year earlier), the energy supplier’s press service reports. The company’s analysts say that the town of Ivdel turned out to have the greatest debt at the start of 2013 (16.5m RUR, which is 114 times more than at the beginning of 2012); this town is followed by Talitsa, with its 8.1m RUR worth of unpaid electricity bills (this is 1.35m RUR more than a year earlier), Bogdanovitch, with its 7.1m RUR worth of debts, Tugulym,

February 11, 2013. A number of employees from the German company DMG Russland (a member of Gildemeister AG) are going to take part in the Innorpom exhibition once again this year; they will give some master classes using their machinery. The 60-sq-m pavilion will house a live demonstration of spare parts treatment, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports. Gildemeister is a major manufacturer of innovational hi tech machines and one of the global leaders. Its wide product range also covers software and energy solutions. According to Sverdlovsk Region Minister

February 11, 2013. Ural Airlines took a very visible part in the special events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of civil aviation in Russia, the airline’s press office reports. For one thing, the company prepared something special for its long-service employees, coordinated a solemn reception Sverdlovsk Region government officials and business community representatives, and is planning to take part in the All-Russian RosAviaExpo exhibition on Moscow as well as in the awarding ceremony for the aviation industry’s best employees in the State Kremlin Palace. To celebrate the anniversary, Ural

February 8, 2013. MegaFon increased its Radar service’s potential by offering its subscribers web interface access to the service. The location of a MegaFon subscriber that one is interested in can now be traced not only via a mobile app or an MMS but also via a special website, the company’s press service reports. Radar is an easy way to find out about the location of your children, friends, parents or loved ones without having to bother them with untimely phone calls. Thanks to the service’s new options, tracking the location and movements of the nearest and dearest is getting ever more

February 8, 2013. Yekaterinburg had 570 sq m worth of office space per 1,000 residents at the end of last year (these data are valid for Class A and B office buildings). In this respect, Yekaterinburg is a little ahead of Saint Petersburg, where there is 530 sq m worth of office space per 1,000 residents, but is still quite behind Moscow, where there is 1,200 sq m worth of office space per 1,000 residents, Ural-Germes reports. According to this consulting company’s Director-General Alexander Zasukhin, this mostly has to do with the raw materials-oriented nature of the Russian economy. ‘In

February 8, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government and the regional towns’ mayors are to present their proposals on locating an industrial park in Severny Administrative District in addition to creating a similar site in Krasnoturinsk. This is what Governor Evgeny Kuivashev asked the officials for at an offsite meeting of the regional government’s presidium in Severouralsk, Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. Now on Monday, the Governor held a meeting dedicated to creating industrial parks in the region, and as a result, the region’s Government and the Mid-Urals Development

February 8, 2013. 130m RUR will be allocated from Yekaterinburg budget to buy new tramways in 2014, the official city portal states. The new trams will be purchased in preparation for the World Cup 2018. Renovating the fleet of local trams is expected to take several years. It has not been decided yet just what the technical specifications and the price of the trams should be. Yekaterinburg actually used to get only 3 to 4 new trams a year. All in all, the city has got 243 new buses, 20 trams, 18 trolley-buses, and 8 new underground carriages in the last six years.

February 8, 2013. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev said at a meeting with the employees of Sevuralboksitruda on February 6 that the regional authorities intended to give all kinds of support to the creation of a developed social sphere in Severouralsk, the Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. The Governor pointed out that the town’s primary enterprise’s long-term development plans mean both the local industry and the region’s aluminum sector in general can be quite confident about their future. The company is currently implementing a project that is unique to

February 7, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) is to supply three bulldozers to the state-run Chukotka Airports, the corporation’s press officer reports. It is reported that the vehicles have already been manufactured, but they will only be delivered in the spring so that the bulldozers could arrive in the Far Eastern port by the time the sailing season starts. From there, these will be taken to their final destinations. The B-10M bulldozers will be used at the airports in Chukotka’s smack villages where only air travel is