December 20, 2012. MegaFon is going to install an ice MegaMoney-Box next to Yekaterinburg’s largest skating rink GlavYelka; this structure is meant for collecting donations for children who are ill, and anyone can donate money from now to January 19, MegaFon’s press service reports. All the money collected in this way will be used for preventing and curing child cancer and for rehabilitation of the young cancer patients through the charity fund called ‘We Are Together’. MegFon subscribers can also help the children any time by simply sending a text message to 000777. One text message costs

December 19, 2012. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation held the final tour of the Person of the Year competition. ‘All in all, over 40 people took part in the contest, and the best ten candidates made it to the final tour,’ the corporation’s press service reports. Throughout the year, Uralvagonzavod kept on supporting the region-wide project dubbed ‘Glory to the Man of Labor!’ In 2012, 132 professional skills contests in 42 categories were held. Some 1,300 Uralvagonzavod employees, all of them under 35, took part in the events. The corporation’s management says these

December 19, 2012. ‘Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s Special Vehicles Division filled the state defense procurement order for 2012 in full and well ahead of deadline,’ the corporation’s press service reports. The corporation’s defense procurement order consisted of several sets of tasks, the most important ones being the delivery of new vehicles to the Russian Armed Forces and large-scale modernization of the T-72B tanks. The servicing of the army ammunitions and military and special vehicles by the company workers was another important task. The year 2012 was special

December 19, 2012. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is about to start the shipments of rolled metal products meant for the production of bodies of nuclear-powered submarines, the company reports. An interregional committee comprising Prometey Design Bureau, some building companies, and a number of design offices approved of the manufacturing of this produce. The approval applies to MMK’ entire technological chain for the production of special steel for the bodies of these nuclear submarines, including the oxygen converter shop, the Mill 500, the thermal treatment section, and the

December 19, 2012. The international building and finishing materials hypermarket Leroy Merlin opened its outlet in Yekaterinburg today. This retailer is actually a member of Auchan Group. This is currently one of the largest stores in Yekaterinburg: its area comes to 20,600 sq m. The new building supplies hypermarket offers its customers finishing and building materials, sanitary fixtures, floor tiles, lighting fixtures, household goods, and much else besides.

December 19, 2012. 33 mutual investment funds presented by the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development at the SuperMIFmarket improved their performance between December 1, 2011 and December 1, 2012. ‘Non-specialized funds, retirement funds, and natural gas and oil funds proved the most profitable over one year,’ the bank’s press service reports. Three mutual investment funds’ profitability ratio was over 11%; these are ‘Volkhonka Bonds Fund’ managed by the Bank of Moscow Management Company (12.1%), VTB Treasury Fund (11.73%), and Uralsib Conservative Fund (11.28%). At the same time,

December 18, 2012. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) will supply over 50 vehicles to the firefighting stations of Rosleskhoz. ’34 tractors will be shipped to the Urals and Siberia,’ Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service says. What is more, some shipments will also be made to the distant Magadan Region. All of the vehicles are fitted with the special detachable equipment that is used for making protective forest strips and for protecting the vehicles against falling trees. Under the order placed by Perm territory, 3 bulldozers are fitted with radio stations. The

December 18, 2012. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development announces it is to pay the dividends for the nine months of 2012, the bank’s press service reports. The decision was taken at the shareholder meeting on December 12, 2012. The company is to pay a total of 300,436,300.2 RUR in terms of share dividends; this money will be transferred into shareholders’ accounts (0.3 RUR per one ordinary registered share of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development). The payments will be made through February 11, 2013. ‘The bank kept on growing rapidly and developing in the year 2012.

December 18, 2012. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court has put off the hearing of Russian Magnesium’s bankruptcy case once again, the court’s website reports. Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court’s website announced in September that Asbest-based Russian Magnesium had applied for insolvency. The company’s authorized capital comes t o 85.6m RUR. The company’s shares belong to Solimag (50% plus 2 shares), Minmet Financing Company SA (2 shares), Uralasbest (25% minus 8 shares), and Sverdlovsk Region Government (25% plus 4 shares).

December 18, 2012. ‘Starting January 1, 2013, a patent taxation system will come into effect in Sverdlovsk Region. One has to announce switching to the new system no later than ten days before the action is taken,’ Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Tax Service’s website reports. The law relieves the tax burden imposed on the taxpayers by the Regional Act six years. For one, a patent to rent some real estate is now two times cheaper in Yekaterinburg and five times cheaper in other regional towns. The regional authorities hope that this will help the illegal landlords go legal, so this

December 18, 2012. 11 new prospective areas suitable for the commercial estate development have been added to the city map within the framework of a strategic project called Yekaterinburg’s Shopping Points. As a result, the total number of ‘shopping points’ that are located in the capital of the Mid-Urals rose to 79. Yekaterinburg Council reports that among the areas in whose development they will invest most heavily will be the promising ones within the radius of the Mid-Way Ring Road such as Academic, Kalinovsky, and Shuvakish Districts. The new commercial estate will be put up in

December 17, 2012. Governor Evgeny Kuivashev’s visit to Saint Petersburg on December 14 as head of Sverdlovsk Region delegation will be mainly dedicated to the prospects of interregional cooperation and promoting the Mid-Urals enterprises’ produce onto the North-Western markets of Russia, Governor’s PR Department reports. According to the regional government’s Vice Premier Alexei Orlov, Sverdlovsk Region and Saint Petersburg have been doing business together for a long time, and a cooperation agreement was signed as early as 2001. However, this agreement does not seem to be working

December 17, 2012. Sverdlovsk Region Government Vice Premier Alexander Petrov took part in the events dedicated to the founder of Electrokhimpribor and the special-regime town of Lesnoy Dmitri Vassilyev’s 110th birthday, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Administration reports. ‘We are planning to devise a multi-faceted development plan for Lesnoy, just like we did for Novouralsk in cooperation with Rosatom Corporation and TVEL. We have already got some expertise in developing a nuclear enterprise through production diversification,’ Petrov said. He added that a

December 17, 2012. The 15h conference of Uralvagonzavod youth organization took place at the corporation’s head plant. The agenda of the conference covered things like a summary of the organization’s performance in 2012 and electing the new committee and chair. Alexei Gilmutdinov was thus elected as the youth organization’s chair, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press officer reports. Youth projects are one of the plant’s social policy priorities. Uralvagonzavod employs 13,459 people under 35, which is 45% of all the staff. In 2012, the number of young workers rose by

December 17, 2012. On Monday, December 17, the foundation of the lower drive end for the passenger cable way will be laid in Arkhyz. The second cable way is being built within the framework of the project on expanding the infrastructure of a tourist resort called Arkhyz-1650; this is an all-year ski resort and a pilot project by the North Caucasian Tourist Cluster, Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The launch of the station was split into two stages: first, the foundation for all the machinery was laid, and the drive end was assembled next to the installation site. Later, two cranes with the

December 17, 2012. Urals Electric Grids, a subsidiary of Federal Grid Company UES, is taking extra measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply to end users because of a harsh drop in the temperature, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. The anomalously low temperatures result in greater power consumption, which means a much more noticeable workload on the power supply system. This is why, to make sure the system keeps functioning in this period, the company equipment is to work in the high alert regime. At the moment the company is keeping avert

JSC «Severskiy Granitny Karier» is in the process of strategy decision making. Recently there has been the rearrangement of the share capital. At the moment of factory transference the former owners had provided the main technological process and initiation of production. Now in the plans of new shareholders is continuing of a large-scale modernization, the second processing chain introduction and the field Severskoe-2 elaboration. According to a source closed to the JSC «Severskiy Granitny Karier» managing company, a tender for the supply of crushing and sorting complex to organize the

December 14, 2012. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) will soon deliver a customized B-12 bulldozer to the border patrol division of Russia’s Federal Security Service, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Specially for the border patrol officers, the bulldozer was fitted with wider-than-usual caterpillar wheels. The tractor with a trident-shaped ripper will be shipped to one of the divisions on the Northern Caucasus and will be used for fortifying the border and the posts. The Chelyabinsk tractor manufactures have already supplied their khaki colored vehicles to the border patrol

December 14, 2012. The 1,000-ton-strong machine is meant for cutting bar sections and can produce between 600 and 800 ingots with the diameter range 80-170mm per shift. The new shearing press cost about 12m RUR; it was manufactured by the German firm Erfurt, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The foundry shop is already using a few shearing presses produced by the same company. The 315-to 1,000-ton ones have been ‘the weakest link’ so far, as they were made in the 70s and the 80s, grew totally obsolete, and needed repairing almost every week. Quite often, workers had to

December 14, 2012. The rating agency Expert RA came up with the 17th rating of Russian federal constituencies’ investment appeal for 2011-2012. Moscow Region, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar Territory, and Tatarstan kept their top positions in the rating and their levels of A12. These constituencies have some of the highest potential indices and some of the lowest risk level figures, the agency reports. ‘The rating is indicative of the takeoff of the third wave of the constituencies’ investment appeal growth, which is characterized by three parameters: proximity to economic centers,