UrBC, Moscow, May 8, 2019. The U.S. finance holding Morgan Stanley intends to stop operating in Russia’s banking sector in 2020, the company’s Russian unit’s annual report for the year 2018 states. According to the report, the Group chose to have its Russian unit restructured by having the bank go into liquidation, getting the banking license annulled, and having all the assets transferred to another company. Morgan Stanley will no longer be holding its banking, brokerage, and depositary activity licenses and will shut all of the respective business units down. The company intends to submit

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 8, 2019. West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s (EVRAZ ZSMK) medium-section mill department has produced 50,000,000,000 kg of rolled metal goods since the departments’ Mill 450 got launched, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. To celebrate this production achievement, a guided tour was coordinated for the department’s long-service employees and thank-you letters were presented to both the old-time and current workers at the department. ‘Mill 450 got launched in 1976 as one of the country’s largest rolling mills. The department now makes

UrBC, Moscow, May 7, 2019. The telecom company MegaFon and KARO movie theater chain are cooperating on a special offer this May: if you buy a movie ticket at karofilm.ru through May 29, 2019, you get a promo code to get a free subscription for MegaFon TV’s KARO package, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘When you buy your tickets to see Avengers: Endgame, you also get a thirty-day subscription to the TV package free of charge. Tickets to other movies will get you a seven-day subscription. Additionally, every subscriber to the package gets a 25% discount on any movie at KARO movie theaters (the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. The demand for acquiring services among the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s business customers is currently sky-rocketing: the number of terminal owners rose by 4.4 times in the first quarter of the year compared with one year earlier, while the transaction turnover increased by 3.5 times, the bank reports. These are the department stores, teaching/training centers, car part sellers, and travel agents which have been signing up for the service most actively lately. In geographical terms, the service is most popular with the UBRD’s business

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, May 7, 2019. After Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works’ (MMK) Industrial Park, Chelyabinsk Region Investment Development Agency, and Metallurgic Deoxidizers Plant signed a cooperation agreement six months previously, a new deoxidizers plant got built and launched in the park, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The plant is now operating in MMK Industrial Park in Magnitogorsk. Metallurgic Deoxidizers Plant invested RUB 70 million in the project, creating thirty new jobs. ‘The produce is absolutely unique, as it gets made with the plant’s own know-hows and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. 9,549 mortgage loans got issued in Sverdlovsk Region in January-March 2019 (total amount: RUB 19.159 billion), the Bank of Russia reports. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, this was 2.1% less than one year previously in ruble terms and 7.8% less in terms of unit sales. 3,494 mortgages got issued in Sverdlovsk Region in March 2019 (total amount: RUB 7.093 billion). This was slightly higher than in the previous month, when 3,481 mortgage loans (total amount: RUB 6.873 billion) got issued by local banks.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 7, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region came No.13 in the rating of Russia’s top thirty constituencies with the largest credit card limits. In January-March 2018, the credit card limit came to RUB 52,965 on average; a year later, the limit extended to RUB 54,051 (+2.1%). According to the National Credit History Bureau, the country’s average was RUB 55,600 in the first quarter of 2019 (up 11.6% on the first quarter of 2018, when the limit only came to RUB 48,000). As for other Russian constituencies, Moscow had the largest credit card limit in the first quarter of the year (RUB

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) updated the list of purchase categories that can result in 10% cashback paid into the UBRD Maximum card account. According to the bank’s press service, on May 1-31, 2019 Maximum card holders will get 10% in cashback for using their card to pay for the following: gardening and summerhouse appliances; rail tickets (including e-tickets) and intercity bus/coach tickets; gasoline at filling stations; goods and services purchased at fitness studios. Every other purchase type also gives you the usual 1%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2019. Two mining teams from Raspadskaya Coal Company’s Raspadskaya Mine have produced 1,000,000,000 kg of coal each since the beginning of the year. According to the company’s PR Department, Alexei Ivanov’s team and Rustam Muminov’s team (Sections 17 and 1) were both congratulated on their success by the company management. ‘These stoping teams are among Raspadskaya Coal Company’s best. Thanks to their compliance with the safety rules and great team spirit, the miners hit their target production figures every single month,’ the PR Department says. Alexei Ivanov’s

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s 5th charity race (aka Day Pyat!) will take place next to Sovremennik Concert Hall in Nizhniy Tagil on May 26. The race is part of a large-scale sports event, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Department reports. All the race participants have already signed up on the company website www.evraz-sport.ru. This year, the race will gather together 1,200 runners (including 400 children); the children will run a 1-kilometer race, the adults a 5-kilometer one. For the first time this year, fifty children with disabilities from Nizhniy

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region-based wholesale traders sold RUB 386.1 billion worth of goods in the first quarter of 2019, which was 11.7% less than in the first quarter of 2018, Sverdlovskstat reports. According to Sverdlovskstat, 37.3% of the sector’s overall turnover stemmed from small enterprises. In January-March 2019, wholesale traders (excluding small enterprises and companies with under 15 employees) sold 2.6 times more fish and fish products, 2.4 times more bread and baked goods, 2 times more canned fish, 1.9 times more salt and sugar, 1.8 times more pasta and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, May 6, 2019. Officers from Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Federal Security Service had an adulterated vodka and cognac shop closed down in Izmodenovo, District Beloyarsky, the division’s press service reports. The shop was rented by a Georgia native and contained more than 4,000 kg of alcohol-based liquids in 8,639 glass bottles labeled as vodka and cognac (Neft, Gold, Arbatskaya, Derbent, Königsberg, and Bacardí); there were also some 10,000+ empty bottles found on the site, ready to get filled, alongside boxfuls of wine corks and measuring appliances. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 30, 2019. Ural Electrochemical Combine and CentroTech (both of which are parts of Rosatom’s TVEL in Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region) set up Ural Industrial Cluster, a non-profit association, the combine’s press service reports. Ural Electrochemical Combine’s Deputy Director-General for Non-Nuclear Business Development Oleg Yelistratov was elected the association’s President. Ural Electrochemical Combine’s Director-General Alexander Belousov, Deputy DG Valeriy Denisov, CentroTech’s Director-General Ilya Kavelashvili, and CentroTech’s Deputy DG Alexander Stikhin became

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 30, 2019. Ural Airlines’ flight attendants won gold as Best Team at the 4th International SKYSERVICE 2019 Forum. According to the air carrier’s press service, the national and international airlines’ representatives spent two days on ISPY training workshop, both learning the theory and practicing. The judges’ panel assessed Ural Airlines’ team’s professional skills very highly and awarded gold medals to the team. Ural Airlines’ flight attendant Anastasia Solovieva also became Miss Online in the Sky Lady 2019 beauty pageant after receiving the maximum online vote.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 30, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s corporate loan book (small and medium enterprises) rose by 45% in the course of 2018, the UBRD’s press service refers to Expert RA as stating. The bank came 13th in the all-Russian bank rating on January 1, 2019 (the corporate loan book being the main criterion). The UBRD issued 39.3% more loans in 2018 than in the year 2017 and came 21st in the all-Russian rating in this respect; this was also nine rating positions higher than one year earlier. The bank issues loans to retail traders most often, through

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 30, 2019. Ural Airlines now offer Air Express+Plane Ticket Pack to passengers flying to Moscow; Air Express is the train service from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and Sheremetyevo Airport to the city center. According to the air carrier’s press service, you can book your Air Express ticket when booking your flight to Moscow (one way/round trip). Passengers can select Standard, Preliminary, There & Back, Double, or Group ticket type. The new service’s main advantage is that you can process both ticket purchases in a single order and pay by credit card at once,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 30, 2019. EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) Rail & Beam Department got launched seventy years ago this month, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Communications Center reports. 73,000,000,000 kg of goods have been made at the department since the day of the launch. To celebrate the occasion, the company’s best department workers and former, long-service employees got awarded and congratulated on the special date. ‘The construction of the department began during the Great Patriotic War; this was designed to be a very sophisticated production facility

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant’s (EVRAZ ZSMK) Converter Shop 2 got launched forty-five years ago today; to celebrate the occasion, a special steel-melting session involving Igor Korzhov’s team and a number of old-service employees who took part in the shop’s very first melting operation took place at the plant this month, EVRAZ Holding Siberia’s Corporate Communications Center reports. There are currently two converter units (320,000 kg) operating at the shop. In 2017, one of the units got replaced with a newer version, and the other one

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 29, 2019. The number of existing homes currently on offer in Yekaterinburg has been going up by 120 to 130 apartments a week for the last two months. The overall number rose by 7.3% in the last four weeks and came to 8,330 homes, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. The number of homes on the outskirts of the city that are now for sale also went up by 6.2%, or 690 apartments. The number of rooms in communal apartments that are now advertised increased by 1.9%, or 1,470 rooms, in the last four weeks as well. It currently takes about slightly under four months to make a

UrBC, Moscow, April 29, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree regarding the criteria for evaluating the Russian governors’ and the local executive bodies’ performance. The paper is now available online at pravo.gov.ru. There’s a list of fifteen assessment criteria: — the level of trust the locals have in the government, — how many high-performing jobs there are in the non-budget sector, — the number of small and medium enterprises in the area (including sole traders and the self-employed), — labor productivity levels in the non-primary sectors of economy, — the scale of real