UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2019. The Walk of Finance opened in Yekaterinburg’s District Akademichesky on the eve of the Russian Finance Ministry’s 100th anniversary. We planted some willow trees here last fall; the trees are quite small just now, but we hope they’ll eventually grow into a large, beautiful canopy that will protect the walkers from the summer heat. We’d like this to be more than just an alley: this is meant as a landmark and a venue for all sorts of financial literacy events, Vice Governor of Sverdlovsk Region and Sverdlovsk Region Finance Minister Galina Kulachenko said at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 30, 2019. OOO FORES’s Asbest branch is working to upgrade the plant’s dust-exhaust facilities. According to the company’s press service, the introduction of extra cyclone dust collectors and three sock filters on the rotary drum dryer will make the entire appliance’s performance much more reliable. The addition of a second stage to the de-dusting process and the expansion of filtering facilities helped reduce the filters’ overall workload and provided the necessary reserve. What is more, there’s now considerably less dust at workplaces,’ says Director at OOO FORES’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 29, 2019. ChelPipe Group and MetalloInvest held a coordination meeting on the premises of the latter’s member enterprise Ural Steel. The two companies’ managers and experts talked about the pricing policy, the quality, and the delivery terms for the rolled steel ChelPipe Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) needs to make large-diameter pipes, the company’s press service says. Ural Steel is currently one of ChelPipe Group’s strategic sheet metal suppliers. In 2018, the company supplied 270,000,000 kg of metal goods to ChelPipe, with more than 220,000,000

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 29, 2019. OOO FORES intends to direct RUB 100m to job safety and industrial safety projects this year; this is part of the company’s Collective Agreement. Besides, more than RUB 4.6m will get allocated for employee healthcare programs (more than RUB 6m if you account for preliminary checkups and examinations by psychiatrists), the company’s press service reports. Nearly 150 people working for FORES, including 44 employees approaching retirement age, will be able to stay at three local sanatoriums this year. Preretirement-age employees get catered for in accordance

UrBC, Moscow, July 29, 2019. On 26 July 2019, the Bank of Russia Board of Directors decided to cut the key rate by 25 bp to 7.25% per annum. Inflation slowdown is continuing. At the same time, inflation expectations remain elevated. Russian economy’s growth rate is coming in lower than the Bank of Russia’s expectations. Weak economic activity, along with temporary factors, limits inflation risks over the short-term horizon. According to the Bank of Russia’s forecast, taking into account the pursued monetary policy, annual inflation will return to 4% in early 2020,’ the recent press release on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 29, 2019. There were 612 travel agents in Sverdlovsk Region last year, including 35 companies also acting as tour operators (5.7%) and 6 companies acting solely as tour operators (1%), Sverdlovskstat reports. 170,700 package tours got sold to Sverdlovsk Region-based customers in 2018 (total value: RUB 13.8bn), which was 11.1% less than one year previously. The mean price of a package tour came to RUB 80,700 (up 11% against the year 2017). Russian nationals purchased 117,100 international tours from the local agents last year (compared with 139,200 tours in 2017);

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 29, 2019. Chelyabinsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is currently looking into a complaint placed by a local resident regarding the growing retail bread and pastry prices on offer at Pyaterochka and Magnit supermarket chains, the division’s press service reports. Now the prices are rising for the bread made by AO Pervy Khlebokombinat, which holds a 50% share of Chelyabinsk Region’s wholesale bread market. According to the information the FAS’s Chelyabinsk Region division obtained in December 2018, the manufacturer was going to increase its

UrBC, Moscow, July 26, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Executive Order On Cancelling Certain Special Economic Measures Against the Turkish Republic; the order is now available at pravo.gov.ru. Under the terms of the order, the agreement on the Russian and Turkish nationals’ travel to and from the two countries which Russian Federation Government and the Turkish Republic Government signed on May 12, 2010 partially comes into effect again. The agreement was halted on January 1, 2016 in terms of how freely Turkish nationals with regular travel passports could come to Russia;

UrBC, Moscow, July 26, 2019. Businesses are not happy with the commission fees Russia’s Central Bank intends to charge for its express payment system transactions (0.2% to 0.7% of the transaction amount). This means large retail companies might refuse to join the Central Bank’s network, Vedomosti refers to the Retail Traders Association's (ACORT) and the Online Traders Association's (AKIT) letter to Head of Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina as stating. Retail traders expect the express payment system (which allows retail customers to pay by scanning a QR code with their smartphone

UrBC, Moscow, July 26, 2019. MegaFon comes up with ever more cyber threat protection solutions and has recently launched its Database Protection Service. According to the telecom company’s press service, MegaFon’s cyber-security solutions are aimed at a variety of customers, smartphone owners as well as large companies with extensive digital communication networks. The new database protection solution is based on Garda BD. The software prevents security leakage and ensures data protection by automatically blocking any attempt to access the database spreadsheets without proper authorization.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2019. OOO FORES’s Sukhoi Log branch intends to invest RUB 2m in a new children’s playground in Fabrika, near Sukhoi Log, the company’s press service reports. The 625-square-meter playground will get set up next to 2A and 4A Energetikov St in Fabrika’s most densely populated district with plenty of apartment buildings, the press service says. According to FORES representatives, the new playground will have sports/play appliances, a merry-go-round, pull-up bars, dodecahedron playground climbers, park benches, a sandbox, and two rocking units. There will be a strip

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 26, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) automobile department completed its stage of the company’s charity relay race by supporting Kolosok Kindergarten in Novopanshino; the adjustage department is now taking over, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. It took NTMK workers six months to complete their project at the kindergarten in Novopanshino: they removed the fire-prone flooring on the ground floor of the building, installed six new exit doors, and put up three new gazebos and two sandboxes. The

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 25, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) heavy-plate Mill 5000 got launched ten years ago this month. The mill has produced more than 10,000,000,000 kg of hot-rolled goods since then, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin contributed to the mill’s solemn launching ceremony back then. Putin spoke very appreciatively of the mill which proved one of MMK’s largest investment projects in decades and aimed to meet the Russian oil and gas sector’s needs first. Putin congratulated the plant’s owners,

UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2019. 91.12% of voters agreed to the sale of Reftinskaya Power Station to Siberian Generation Company’s KuzbassEnergo for at least RUB 21bn (VAT not included) at Enel Russia’s extraordinary general meeting this month, the company’s press service reports. ‘The subject matter relating to the sale of Reftinskaya Power Station comprises movable and immovable assets, coal/raw stuff stock, and spare parts. The transfer of ownership to KuzbassEnergo must occur within eighteen months of the purchase and sale transaction coming into effect, provided that the transaction has

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 25, 2019. Russians living in Sverdlovsk Region consume 30% more meat than the annual amount recommended by the health authorities, head of Yekaterinburg Medical & Research Center for Disease Prevention and Healthcare for Industrial Workers’ Food Hygiene & Produce Quality/Food Safety Department Tatiana Mazhayeva said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. While the recommended amount comes to 73 kg of meat a year, a Sverdlovsk Region resident living in the city consumes 78 kg of meat a year and someone living in Sverdlovsk Region’s countryside consumes 88 kg

UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2019. Winners of the company’s Labor Dynasty Contest got selected at ChelPipe Group’s member enterprises, the Group’s press service reports. ‘Eligible to apply for the completion are families with a hundred years or more of accumulated work record at the Group’s member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and/or Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ). This year, five families submitted their applications, describing their achievements and providing presentations that got assessed by a panel of jurors (including the company’s managers, trade union officials,

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 25, 2019. The environmental program adopted by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) helped improve the quality of air in Magnitogorsk greatly, MMK’s Information, PR & Advertising Department reports. ‘Magnitogorsk got taken off the list of Russian cities with extremely high air pollution rate in 2018, a report by the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgidromet) states. Thanks to MMK’s large-scale environmental program, the town’s air pollution index will drop down to Low by 2025,’ the company says. Now Magnitogorsk got taken

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2019. China’s Consul-General in Yekaterinburg Geng Liping’s term in office has come to an end, so the official is leaving after nearly three years at the consulate, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. During her last work meeting with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev, Liping commented on the highly professional interregional dialogue Sverdlovsk Region and China managed to establish; she also stressed that she personally liked the area very much. According to Liping, she found working in the Urals very comfortable and very

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 24, 2019. The asking prices on Yekaterinburg’s existing home market currently come to RUB 72,611 per m2 on average, Ural Real Estate Chamber’s research indicates. The mean asking price rose by 0.2% in the last four weeks. ‘The number of homes on offer has remained almost the same as earlier and now comes to 8,870 apartments/rooms/houses. The number of homes in the suburbs/countryside dropped by 1.2%. The number of rooms on offer at the moment rose by 0.3%. It now takes slightly longer than earlier to sell a place (a little over four moths),’ the report states.

UrBC, Moscow, July 24, 2019. The most typical pay a worker in Russia gets is RUB 23,500 a month as of April 2019, Izvestia reports. This is the so-called modal income (i.e. the one that occurs most often) for Russians in the workforce. 15% to 20% of all Russia-based workers in gainful employment made this much in April 2019. Most of the experts the newspaper turned to for comment agree that this is the figure that reflects the people’s actual income levels best (unlike the mean income figures that the government officials like so much: RUB 47,700 in April 2019, according to the Federal State