UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Retail Business Director Alexei Ovchinnikov resigned in order to focus on his own projects. He was succeeded in the position by the bank’s former E-Business Director Vadim Belopolsky, the UBRD’s website states. Vadim Belopolsky worked in managerial positions at Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisenbank, and VISA International earlier. He was responsible for the strategy of designing and developing digital banking products and online sales at the UBRD up to now. As the new Retail Business Director, Belopolsky will be in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 5, 2019. A person employed at OOO FORES’s TekhnoKeramika gets paid around RUB 39,800 a month in mean income (as of January-June 2019); this is nearly RUB 14,000 more than the mean monthly pay for Shadrinsk, where the plant is situated, FORES’s press service reports. The plant’s committee audited the company’s compliance with the Collective Agreement in mid-July. It was determined that the workers get paid on time and the annual paid leaves get provided. A number of workers also get extra seven days of paid leave for doing specific jobs/working in specific

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 2, 2019. The mean price of existing homes on Yekaterinburg market now comes to RUB 72,581 per m2, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s research findings indicate. These figures haven’t changed in the last four weeks. Centrally located apartments, however, grew 1.2% less expensive, homes in the city’s third and fourth priciest locations grew 0.3% less expensive, homes in the fifth priciest locations grew 0.2% less expensive, and homes in the second priciest locations grew 0.1% more expensive.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 2, 2019. An ad hoc work team has been set up to oversee the construction of the Universiade 2023 facilities in Yekaterinburg. The executive order on Founding the NGO Universiade 2023 Construction Directorate got issued during Sverdlovsk Region Government’s meeting on August 1, 2019. The name of the prospective chair of the organization hasn’t been made official yet. According to preliminary estimates, the Universiade 2023 facilities will cost about RUB 79bn to build. Most of the funding is expected to come from the Russian Federation’s budget.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 2, 2019. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky signed all the layout projects for a new tram line (from Akademik Sakharov Ave to Tatishchev St) yesterday, July 31, 2019, the town council’s Information Policy Department reports. The new tram line will go along Wilhelm de Gennin St, Serafima Deryabina St, and Tokarey St. A tram is expected to come every six minutes, with the overall passenger traffic of 2,000 people every hour. The part of the tram line from Akademik Sakharov Ave to Tatishchev St will be located in the southwest of Yekaterinburg, in Districts

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, August 2, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s Chair of the Board of Directors Alexander Fedorov took part in Governor of Chelyabinsk Region’s recent meeting with members of the local scientific community, heads of large enterprises, and public activists; the meeting was dedicated to environmental policy in the area. According to the Group’s press service, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Alexei Teksler proposed setting up an environmental council in Chelyabinsk Region. The council will be in charge of developing and introducing an environmental standard for the constituency and will also

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 2, 2019. Director-General at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Pavel Shilyayev took part in Chelyabinsk Region’s Environmental Council’s first meeting. The council got set up at the suggestion of Chelyabinsk Region’s Governor Alexei Teksler, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. Representatives of large local enterprises and environmental organizations as well as members of the expert community also took part in the meeting. The council’s primary task is to develop an environmental standard for the constituency. The council will

UrBC, Moscow, August 1, 2019. Capital investment within Russia dropped by 1.3% to 1.8% in 2019 Q2 against one year earlier, the Central Bank of Russia’s Economy: facts, assessments and comments issue states. It is reported that the investments have been going down as the government directed less to capital investment in 2019 Q2 than in the second quarter of 2018 (the decrease is estimated at 11.8% in April-May 2019).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 1, 2019. More than three million of Sverdlovsk Region’s capital construction facilities (CCFs) got preliminary cadastral appraisals, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s website states. ‘Before the end of the year, local estate owners will be able to check (and appeal against) the Land Registry Center’s appraisals; the appraisals are part of the nationwide switch to imputing property taxes based on a piece of estate’s cadastral value,’ the website says. The property tax regulations will change on January 1, 2020. Taxes will be imputed based on the property’s cadastral

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 1, 2019. The number of micro-loans issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based applicants rose by 2.5% in the second quarter of 2019 compared with one year earlier and thus reached 144,583, the National Credit History Bureau’s research findings indicate. In Russia on the whole, the number of loans issued by micro-financing organizations came to 4.54m in the second quarter of the year (down 1.2% on one year earlier). ‘The drop in the pay-day loans (the most popular micro-lending market segment) has to do with the micro-financing activity’s decreasing profitability. Quite a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 1, 2019. Ural Airlines started selling tickets for the airline’s new Perm-Prague flight; the first flight from Perm Airport to Czechia’s capital will get operated on September 18, 2019, the air carrier’s press service reports. The flights will be available both in the fall and the winter and will get operated on Airbus A320 planes. Perm-Prague flights will get operated twice a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays). Departure (Perm): 3:20 PM Arrival (Prague): 4:40 PM (duration: 4 hours 20 minutes) Departure (Prague): 7:05 AM Arrival (Perm): 2:05 PM (duration: 4 hours)

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, August 1, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) won in the 16th Highly Socially Efficient Mining & Metallurgical Sector Enterprise Contest in Youth Projects, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. Fifty enterprises from twenty different parts of Russia that are all members of fourteen metallurgical holdings and, among them, employ 40% of Russia’s mining and metallurgical workers took part in the contest all in all. Based on the Russian Government’s recommendation, the winners will go on to compete for the status of Russia’s Highly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2019. DeloBank App (SKB-Bank’s new banking service for businesses) topped MarksWebb’s recent rating, the bank’s press service reports. MarksWebb’s analysts looked into mobile apps of seventeen Russian banks that are iOS- and Android-friendly and rated them on the basis of the functions available, efficiency, and user-friendliness (the target users being heads of small enterprises and sole traders),’ the press services says. DeloBank’s mobile app came first both in the rating of iOS- and Android-friendly apps for sole traders and in the rating of iOS- and

UrBC, Moscow, July 31, 2019. Russia’s poverty rate increased from 13.9% to 14.3% in the first quarter of 2019, Rosstat’s recent report indicates. According to Rosstat, 20.9m Russians had incomes below the living wage (RUB 10,753 as set by the Labor Ministry) in early 2019. 14.3% of Russians (20.9m people) had incomes below the living wage in the first quarter of 2019. The calculations were based on the Labor Ministry’s living wage standards for the first quarter of the year (RUB 10,753) and the income assessment techniques adjusted in March 2019. Now in the first quarter of 2018, if an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region residents factual disposable incomes (adjusted against the consumer price index) dropped by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2019 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. People’s nominal incomes amounted to RUB 434.5bn all in all in the first quarter of the year (RUB 33,556 a month per capita). One year previously, the figures were RUB 415.3bn and RUB 32,005, respectively. At the same time, the monthly living wage came to RUB 10,922 per capita in Sverdlovsk Region in the first quarter of 2019 (RUB 11,678 for working-age locals,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2019. Rosatom’s/Rosenergoatom’s Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region, invested RUB 274,807,000 in environmental protection programs last year, the plant’s annual environmental report for 2018 indicates. The presentation of the report took place in Reporters’ Club in Yekaterinburg, with a number of environmental experts, members of the Public Chamber, and reporters working for the area’s leading media all present. Talks were given by experts from the plant’s Environmental Protection Department, Nuclear Safety & Reliability

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 31, 2019. The number of credit card applications the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development received in the last week of July increased that received in the last week of June by 70%, the bank’s press service reports. Thinking outside the box and making the most of life are the principles we live by as a business. While other banks are only starting to extend their CC grace periods to three months, we are revolutionizing the market by offering everyone a credit card and eight months without having to worry about interest payments. This is a total paradigm

UrBC, Moscow, July 30, 2019. 59% of Russians are not prepared to get an electronic passport issued for them, even though as many as 85% are familiar with the idea, TASS refers to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center’s survey findings as indicating. 22% of respondents don’t feel this type of ID would be reliable another 8% are wary of possible database glitches; 4% of those surveyed feel pessimistic about the e-passport because of the possible data leaks and the risk of losing the passport itself. Finally, 3% of respondents say the ID is not universally suitable for everyone and

UrBC, Moscow, July 30, 2019. People who’ve lost their money/prospective home in a housing building co-operative scheme might get offered apartments in completed or nearly completed buildings instead, RIA Novosti refers to Russia’s Vice Premier Vitaly Mutko as saying. According to Mutko, the government is only starting to think over the mechanisms needed to make this work; a change is the existing legislation is necessary, which could be made possible during the Parliament’s upcoming session in the fall. The proposal would serve as the third possible solution to the problem, in addition to

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 30, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently hosting an experience-sharing workshop for the coke and by-product process department workers from Russia’s metallurgical enterprises, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. MMK’s Coke & By-Product Process Department is now open to forty-one delegates from nine Russian companies: Severstal, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), Altai-Koks, West-Siberian Metal Plant (EVRAZ ZSMK), Nizhny Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK), Koks, Mechel-Koks, Ural Steel, and Gubakhinskiy Koks. The workshop