UrBC, Moscow, July 24, 2019. Russia’s migrant inflow reached a ten-year high in January-April 2019 and came to 98,000 people altogether. This looks anomalous, RIA Novosti refers to the Gaidar Institute and RANEPA’s report on the economic situation in Russia as indicating. According to the report, the net migration figures soared from 57,100 people in January-April 2018 to as many as 98,000 people in January-April 2019. All in all, 281,600 people came to Russia in January-April 2019, whereas only 177,300 people did so one year earlier. The number of people leaving the country has remained

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 24, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) held its fourth annual Supplier of The Year 2018 Contest this month; the goal is to acknowledge and encourage suppliers’ work and help them keep improving, the company’s press service says. MMK’s Director-General Pavel Shilyayev took part in the awarding ceremony at MMK’s Conference Hall. ‘Awarding the company’s best suppliers around Metallurgist’s Day has grown into a great tradition. We are working with more than 1,100 suppliers at the moment. A functional relationship with its suppliers is one of the key factors in

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. Western Union now limits the amount of money you can send from Russia to any country other than China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Vietnam to RUB 600,000 within thirty days in a row, RIA Novosti refers to the service’s contact center as stating. This is not the first time a limit on money transfers has been introduced within Western Union. Starting April 16, you can send no more than RUB 100,000 per transaction (within thirty days in a row) to China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Vietnam. The company representative explained back then the steps had been taken in order

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. There were 3,376 official auto dealers for light passenger vehicles operating in Russia as of mid-July, Autostat’s recent research findings indicate. The number of Russian auto dealers dropped by 74 in the last six months, as there were as many as 3,450 companies on the market in January 2019. The decrease has to do with the fact that 239 new dealer contracts were signed/renewed and 313 contracts got cancelled, Autostat explains.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2019. An average consumer loan issued on Sverdlovsk Region’s banking market reached RUB 190,953 on average in the second quarter of 2019, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 2.3%, the National Credit History Bureau’s research findings indicate. In Russia on the whole, the largest consumer loans got issued in Moscow (RUB 422,000 on average), Moscow Region (RUB 306,300), Saint Petersburg (RUB 297,300), Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region (RUB 276,000), and Leningrad Region (RUB 220,300) in the second quarter of 2019.

UrBC, Moscow, July 23, 2019. Not a single pond, lake, or river in Sverdlovsk Region meets the current sanitary standards, which makes swimming in those unsafe, TASS refers to Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor’s press service as stating on Friday. According to the press service, a pond, a lake, or a river must get certified by the sanitary and epidemiological authorities in order to get declared suitable for swimming and bathing in; also, the employee in charge of a particular water reservoir must do lab tests of the water samples on a regular basis. There are only two reservoirs

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 23, 2019. The new Sintering Plant 5 (estimated capacity: up to 5.5m tons a year) got launched at Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) this month. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the launching ceremony. According to the company’s press service, this plant is currently unique to Russia. The new sintering plant has the most advanced equipment and the latest technologies available to date and produces very high quality sinter. The launch of the new facility is expected to reduce the plant’s environmental impact considerably and ensure a dramatic improvement

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 23, 2019. A new entrance to Geologicheskaya Station (part of Yekaterinburg Underground) opened at Greenwich Shopping Mall in Yekaterinburg today. Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky and a young girl who happened to be waiting for her train on the platform completed the symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony together. ‘We are grateful to Obshchestvo Malysheva 73 for the considerable investment they have made in the city’s economy. Starting today, the entrance will get maintained by the town council. This is a project we have completed as partners; we agreed to this

UrBC, Moscow, July 22, 2019. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) says Google would have to pay a 700,000-ruble fine for failing to comply with the Russian legislation: the company did not remove unauthorized information (restricted-access data within the Russian Federation) from its search engine hits, Roskomnadzor’s press service reports. According to the service, their checks determined that Google search results still reveal more than 33% of web links banned by Roskomnadzor. A fine (RUB 700,000) was issued. The

UrBC, Moscow, July 22, 2019. Russia’s median monthly salary came to RUB 34,300 in April; the average monthly pay came to RUB 47,600, Rosstat’s report indicates. Within statistical reports, the median pay parameters get relied upon when there’s pronounced income inequality, with 50% of paid workers making more than the median income and the other 50% making less. The current discrepancy between the median and the average monthly pay varies by territory and fluctuates between 13% and 31%. According to Rosstat, the 10% best-paid workers make thirteen times more than the 10% lowest-paid ones:

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2019. OOO FORES and Job Safety Research Institute (NII OT) completed the first stage of their long-term joint project to reduce on-site noise in the company’s Sukhoi Log branch, FORES’s press service reports. ‘We started collaborating with the company eighteen months ago. We inspected production sites first, making noise level measurements both directly next to the mills and in the entire production shop,’ says the institute’s Deputy Director for Research Stanislav Belinsky. FORES representatives say a number of perforated plates got installed at Line 5 of their

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2019. Coffee houses, deli stores, and fast food restaurants are the businesses in the catering segment where the demand for banks’ acquiring services is the highest, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s analysts say after looking into their customer base for the first half of 2019. According to the UBRD’s data, the share of companies in the said segment came to 7.2% of all customers signing acquiring contracts as of July 1, 2019. In 2017, their share only came to 5.5%. ‘Coffee-to-go and street food venues, as well as fast food cafes, are now very

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 22, 2019. Twenty-eight employees of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and MMK Group with three or more children - and their families - received vouchers for a family car at Metallurg Arena in Magnitogorsk, the company’s press service reports. The company’s management decided last fall that they would help families with five or more children buy a family car. According to the Group’s press service, this support program is currently unique in the Russian industrial sector. Twenty-eight families where one or both parents work for MMK Group entered the program on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2019. The construction of tram links connecting Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy to the city’s central locations and Solnechny to Vtorchermet will begin next year, the town council’s website says. A temporary ring road with a final stop in Preobrazhensky Park and a tram line along Wilhelm de Gennin St, Serafima Deryabina St, and Volgogradskaya St (total lengh: 4 km) will get built first. The line will then gent extended to Tatishchev St and will reach 6.7 km in length. The plan necessitates a number of major changes in the urban motorway network in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s member enterprises are getting ready to celebrate the white-coated metallurgists’ most important day of the year on July 19-20, 2019, the Group’s press service reports. More than 10,000 employees at ChelPipe, their families, and former workers will all take part in the traditional Metallurgist’s Day festivities in Chelyabinsk and Pervouralsk. This year’s theme - Shine all the time, for ever shine - is borrowed from Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poem on the love of labor and social responsibility and is fully in sync with the Group’s corporate

UrBC, Moscow, July 19, 2019. Three employees of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) received government awards; the executive order to this effect was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin; the awards were given out by Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Tsukanov in the course of a solemn ceremony, the holding’s press service reports. Managing Director of EVRAZ Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) and EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise (KGOK) Alexei Kushnarev

UrBC, Moscow, July 19, 2019. MegaFon now offers its customers SmartUtilities, a solution that relies on the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) standard, the telecom company’s press service reports. The solution can control electric power, heating, natural gas, and water spending within a given home/building. SmartUtilities will be useful for electric power, heating power, and water suppliers, management companies, and housing developers. SmartUtilities is fully compatible with the popular systems 1C and GIS ZhKH, ensures automated collection of data (without the need for actual human

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2019. OOO FORES won the EcoBestAWard 2019, the prize given out for the best products and practices in the environment and resource-saving segment, the company’s press service reports. The company’s Cloud Filter Project was chosen as the Project of The Year. The awarding ceremony took place at Eco Life Fest in Moscow’s Izmaylovsky Park on July 13. The project relies on FORES’s rapidly advancing gas-filtering technologies. ‘There are about 200 up-to-date sock filters operating at the company’s plants at the moment. These filters trap over 99% of all the dust, which

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 18, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) launched its first polymeric coating unit fifteen years ago this month and its second polymeric coating unit ten years ago this month, the company’s press service reports. ‘MMK is one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of rolled metal goods with polymeric coatings. The company sold 559,000,000 kg of this produce last year alone, with 90% of it (500,000,000 kg) going to customers on the home market. We saw a large increase in sales after Lysva Metallurgical Plant joined MMK Group in 2017,’ the press service says. The

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, July 18, 2019. According to the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD), a mortgage loan issued in Chelyabinsk Region comes to RUB 1.5m on average (judging by the data of Chelyabinsk Region-based borrowers with mortgages as of June 1, 2019). ‘It turns out that a Chelyabinsk Region-based successful mortgage applicant is, on average, 39 years old. Interestingly, there are slightly more female applicants than male ones (the ratio is 52: 48). People with families take out mortgage loans more often than other categories of applicants, and their mortgages are on