UrBC, Moscow, May 22, 2019. Russians’ factual incomes are highly unlikely to go up this year, Russia’s Accounts Chamber’s analytical report on the federal budget/the state-run non-budget funds’ budget implementation in January-March 2019 states. ‘Both Urals oil prices and the ruble exchange rate kept going up throughout the first quarter of 2019. Inflation rate went up to 5.3% a year in March, industrial production output increased by 2.1%, and retail trade turnover increased by 1.8%. People’s factual disposable incomes, however, kept dropping (by 2.3%),’ the report indicates. According to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 22, 2019. Star Festival for student summer job teams will take place in District Akademicheskiy in Yekaterinburg on May 26, 2019. This year’s event is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the student summer job organizations in Russia, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. Some 1,300 festival participants will gather next to the student summer job teams’ monument in the center of Krasnolesye St-Pavel Shamanov St- Wilhelm de Gennin St quarter. The student summer job organizations first appeared in Sverdlovsk Region 56 years ago. There are more than 3,000

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Some two hundred people took part in Raspadskaya’s job counseling forum for high school, vocational school, and college students in Mezhdurechensk; the event was coordinated by EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company, their PR Department reports. Students from ten different schools in Mezhdurechensk, students of T. Gorbachev Kuzbass State Technical University’s local subsidiary, Mezhdurechensk Mining & Construction School, and Tom-Usinsky Energy & Transportation School all came to the forum. ‘The forum opened with a movie about Raspadskaya, one of Russia’s

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russia’s used car market amounted to 482,200 automobiles in April 2019, which exceeded the figures for April 2018 by 8.6%, Autostat reports. The Russian brand LADA remains the absolute market leader: more than 25% of used cars sold in April (123,000 units) were LADA makes. This is, in fact, 6.6% more than one year earlier. As for foreign-made cars, the Japanese brand Toyota, with 52,800 used cars sold last month (+4.8% on a year earlier), was No.1, followed by another Japanese brand Nissan (27,300 units, up 10.9% on a year earlier), and the Korean brands Hyundai

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May21, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s sheep and goat stock decreased by 4.1%, or 2,700 head of cattle in April 2019 compared with April 2018, that is, from 66,400 down to 63,700. The cattle stock also dropped by 0.8%, or 2,000 head of cattle, that is, from 266,300 down to 264,300, Sverdlovskstat reports. The overall number of cows declined by 0.5%, or 600 head of cattle (from 116,200 down to 115,600). Sverdlovsk Region’s pig stock rose by 3.1%, or 10,700 pigs (from 346,100 up to 356,800); the poultry stock rose by 0.7%, or 100 chickens/ducks (from 13,400 up to 13,500).

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russian employers owed their workers nearly RUB 2.9 billion in delayed wages and salaries as of early April 2019; approximately the same amount of wage arrears also got paid out in the first two months of the year, Interfax refers to Russian Vice Premier Tatiana Golikova as stating. ‘The Russian Government made a drop in wage arrears its special priority. According to our latest data, the overall amount of delayed wages and salaries reached RUB 2.9 billion on April 1, 2019. At the same time, RUB 2.9 billion got paid to 68,000 employees in January and February

UrBC, Moscow, May 21, 2019. Russia’s Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) sees no problem with a potential ban on selling alcohol to customers under 21 years of age, head of the service’s Control & Finance Department Vladimir Mishelovin told RNS. According to Mishelovin, as the service that protects fair competition, the FAS can see no threats to competition in this case. Should such a decision be made, the service sees no problem with this whatsoever. Mishelovin says the decision to prohibit the sale of alcohol to people under 21 should be taken on the national level after a large-scale

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2019. Nizhniy Tagil Children’s Art Center is working on the filming of The Magical Straw Shoes, a Russian folk tale, with support from EVRAZ Holding. The center’s filming project won a grant within the framework of EVRAZ Holding’s social investment program. The company allocated RUB 450,000 for the project. According to EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center, the filming appliances (studio lights, camera lenses, props and special effect fixtures, stage make up, and hard drives to store the footage) have already been purchased. ‘The movie itself will

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2019. Ural Airlines will be operating an extra Samara-Baku-Samara flights starting June 10; the existing Friday flights will get complemented with a Monday one, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from RUB 7,200 (Samara-Baku) and from RUB 9,800 (Baku-Samara). ‘The capital of Azerbaijan has something to offer to every member of your family. Travelers coming from Samara will be able to look at Baku’s Flame Towers, visit the Heydar Aliyev Center, go on a tour of Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, or try and solve the Mystery of the Maiden Tower. You can also

UrBC, Moscow, May 20, 2019. Both private borrowers and financing organizations might find themselves trapped through over-intensive consumer lending currently unfolding on the Russian market, Bank of Russia’s First Deputy Head Dmitri Tulin said at the State Duma Finance Market Committee’s recent meeting. According to Interfax, Tulin believes that while an increase in consumer lending is a natural process that shouldn't get artificially restrained, the speed of the said process is starting to look alarming. There’s a possibility that this could leave both the customers and the banks

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 20, 2019. Yekaterinburg’s Shopping Index Watcom (an online update on how many people come to shopping malls and supermarket chains every week) rose by 1.3% during the first May break and by 7% during the second one, Watcom Group’s research findings indicate. ‘Week 19 of last year was a nice and warm one, so quite a few people spent their days in the countryside. This year, the rainy weather might have contributed to the increased shopping mall traffic. In Moscow, for example, our Shopping Index only rose by 1% during the first May break and dropped by 3.6% during the

UrBC, Moscow, May 20, 2019. Russia’s Communications Ministry turned down the Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies’ initiative to charge a 20% customs duty on every purchase Russians make at international online stores, Izvestia reports. According to the Russian Government’s analytical center’s calculations, a 20% customs duty would result in growing prices and in RUB 121 billion a year in extra tax burden for the Russian shoppers. The proposed initiative will most likely result in an increased end user burden, given the expected rise in the price of an imported item; even if the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2019. MegaFon opened a new store in Yekaterinburg featuring smart gadgets and interactive product demonstration, the company’s press service reports. The new shop can be found in Greenwich Mall at 46 Vosmoye Marta St. Visitors can have direct access to the advanced devices that you can test, hold in your hands, use to take a few sample pictures, unlock to take a look at the user interface, and compare with similar items in an online store. Sales assistants in the store can also help you get a bank card, set up your personal MegaFon account online, and register

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2019. 2,477,597 people flew with Ural Airlines in January-April 2019 (+8% on a year earlier); 1,258,815 passengers went on the airline’s domestic flights and 1,218,782 passengers traveled internationally. According to the air carrier’s press service, the airline operated 17,674 flights in the first four months of the year (+5% on the year 2018), including 9,059 domestic flights and 8,615 international flights. The passenger turnover rose by 10% and reached 6,117,793,000 passenger-kilometers. 696,515 people flew with Ural Airlines in April 2019, which exceeded the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s West Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s major power station is currently being upgraded, with gradual replacement of electric filters responsible for removing ash particles (the byproduct of coal-burning) from smoke gases, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. ‘The upgraded filters ensure high-quality (98.5%) filtering of smoke gases and reduce our ash emissions by 3,000,000 kg a year. Investing in filter upgrades is one of EVRAZ West Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s top priority environmental programs. So far, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region recently came sixteenth in the national rating of average car loan amount issued by banks in a given constituency. In February 2019, Sverdlovsk Region-based banks issued RUB 748,485 per car loan on average; a month later, the figure decreased by 6.8%. Sverdlovsk Region also came sixth (out of forty) in terms of the number of newly issued car loans; 2,775 car loans got issued in the constituency in March 2019 (+40% on February, when the number was 1,982). In Russia on the whole, the average car loan amount came to RUB 729,200 in March 2019,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 17, 2019. Every one in ten people in Sverdlovsk Region lives below poverty line, Svedlovskstat reports. According to the preliminary data available for 2018, there are currently 419,700 people in the constituency (9.7% of the total population count) wth incomes below living wage. In 2017, the figure was 424,300 (9.8%).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2019. The 8th International Made in Steel 2019 Exhibition opened in Milan this week; Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is taking part in the event. According to the company’s Information & PR Department, the exhibition takes place on May 14-16. The focus of the exhibition is steel-making equipment, machines, and tools; technologies, spare parts and components, and services for the companies in the metal treatment sector; and innovative solutions in the field of industrial automation and robotics. ‘Italy has long been MMK’s leading trade partner in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Yesaulskaya Mine was founded thirty-five years ago this month, EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s PR Department reports. Yesaulskaya was one of the last mines to get launched in the USSR. The construction began within 20 km of Novokuznetsk in 1979; in May 1984, the mine got launched for industrial use. The miners started producing at least 1,000,000,000 kg of coal a year in 1997; only two years later, the smallest annual output reached 2,000,000,000 kg. Yesaulskaya miners set up the local production record-setting teams’ movement in 1999 and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 16, 2019. Workers from ChelPipe Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe), Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ), SOT, ETERNO, Alnas, and Izhneftemash all took part in the clean-up days in their respective towns. ‘More than 3,500 ‘white-coated metallurgists’ helped clean up 150 hectares of parks and streets in the towns where the Group operates. Students on ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program, activists from the NGO Gorod Pervykh, and employees of the Group’s social infrastructure facilities also took part in the