UrBC, Moscow, March 20, 2019. It has been proposed that the so-called ‘mortgage break’ should apply to existing loans as well: such was the suggestion added to the Russian Parliament’s lower chamber’s decree on adopting the bill in the first reading. ‘The State Duma’s Financial Market Committee is to look into the possibility of extending the amendments discussed in the draft bill to the mortgage agreements signed before the said bill has come into effect,’ the decree says. The bill is expected to get considered by the Parliament on March 21. The idea is to introduce a grace period (up to six

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 20, 2019. 1,118,091 people flew with Ural Airlines in the first two months of 2019, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 8%, the air carrier’s press service reports. 598,157 people flew on the airline’s domestic flights, 209,242 people traveled internationally, and 310,692 people flew to and from the CIS member states. The airline operated 8,143 flights in January and February 2019 (up 5% on the year 2018), including 4,327 domestic flights, 1,436 international flights, and 2,380 flights to and from the CIS member states. The air carrier’s passenger

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2019. 31.7% less new housing got commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-February 2019 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. 57,900 m2 of new housing got commissioned in January 2019, including 39,000 m2 worth of private houses. The figures for February 2019 came to 110,500 m2 and 73,500 m2, respectively. If one looks at the private housing construction sector alone, the decrease in the number of new homes and the amount of newly commissioned square meters went down by as much as 41.1%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Retail Product Director Evgeny Shitikov was among the winners of the all-Russian Russia’s Leaders Contest for managers; the names of the 104 winners got announced in Sochi on March 17, the bank’s press service reports. The local rounds of the competition took place in all of the country’s federal districts in January and February 2019; following these rounds, all the contestants had to implement the social projects they had presented. As a result, three hundred people made it to the final round, with 104

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2019. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s Director-General Alexander Potapov admitted their innovative R1 tram might not be safe; the concept for the tram got developed at the plant a few years ago. ‘As a concept, the thing looks spectacular. As a tram, quite sadly, it doesn’t live up to the technological standards. In addition to the exterior parameters, there are the interior ones, which means production issues. Moreover, the tram leaves much to be desired in terms of safety characteristics: the front is skewed to make it look like the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2019. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev confirmed the old-age/social security pension increase coefficient that will come into effect on April 1. The paper to this effect is now available on the official legal information portal. The inflation readjustment coefficient comes to 1.02 for social pensions starting April 1, 2019, the paper states. Now about four million Russians are currently receiving their social pensions. These pensions will go up 2% on April 1 and will thus amount to RUB 9,266 a month on average.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 19, 2019. Four Sverdlovsk Region’s forestries got audited for compliance with the anti-bribery legislation; the investigation revealed a number of offenses, Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities’ press service reports. For one, the heads of local forestries in Verkhoturye, Kushva, Nizhniye Sergi, and Tura failed to inform their employer about the conflict of interests occasioned by them hiring their own family members. This is a violation of Article 10 of the Federal law No. 273-FZ On Combating Corruption (dated December 25, 2008). The prosecution

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 18, 2019. MMK Trading House got featured among Russia’s top hundred successful suppliers rating presented by the e-trading service B2B-Center. The center’s research involved ranking 406,000 companies all in all, MMK Trading House’s press service reports. The list of the most successful Russian suppliers of the year 2018 was created by a special computer algorithm and based on a number of criteria. The companies that made it to the top hundred had the highest winning-bid coefficient in their purchasing practices. They also competed in at least ten different auctions

UrBC, Moscow, March 18, 2019. The amount of money Russians deposit with the banks rose by 1.6% in February 2019, even with all the adjustments made for the exchange rate fluctuations, the Central Bank of Russia’s review of the banking sector of the Russian Federation in January and February 2019 (available on the bank’s website) indicates. According to the CBR, private customers kept placing a little more money with the banks in January and February 2019 than in the previous months. Interestingly, the increase in the amount of deposits in February completely made up for the seasonal outflow

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 18, 2019. The asking price of existing homes currently on offer in Yekaterinburg reached RUB 72,025 per m2 on average on March 11, 2019, rising by 0.5% in the last four weeks, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports. Prices also rose by 0.8% on homes on the outskirts of the city: the average asking price currently comes to RUB 52,699 per m2. The price of rooms in communal apartments have remained the same in the last four weeks, with the average asking price still at RUB 52,970 per m2. There are now 6.9% more homes in Ural Real Estate Chamber’s database than one month

UrBC, Moscow, March 18, 2019. Russia’s banking sector’s profits amounted to RUB 445 billion in January and February 2019 compared with RUB 178 billion in the first two months of 2018, the Central Bank of Russia’s review of the banking sector of the Russian Federation in January and February 2019 (available on the bank’s website) indicates. According to the CBR, profit-making banks continue to make up the majority of the banking sector’s players, with 350 banks making RUB 481 billion in accumulated profits in the first two months of the year; this amounts to 73% of all the banks operating in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 18, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s employers (excluding small businesses) owed their workers RUB 36.8 million in wage arrears and delayed pay as of March 1, 2019. According to Sverdlovskstat, this was 1.6% (RUB 0.6 million) less than one month earlier.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2019. Oleg Popkov got appointed the Director of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) Yekaterinburg division, the bank’s press service reports. ‘A division is now a new structural unit at the UBRD. All of the parts of Russia where the bank operates have been divided into nine different divisions, the key change being that the company now switches from a centralized management system (with every branch reporting directly to the headquarters) to a local management one (based on the specific size, type, and location of the business),’ the press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2019. Yekaterinburg, Surgut, and Tyumen are currently the Urals’ top three markets for online cash desk transactions. According to telecom analysts, every one in three MegaFon SIM cards installed in an online cash desk gets used within Sverdlovsk Region, MegaFon’s press service reports. Courier delivery services are switching to online settlements and smart terminals faster than other businesses this year. Companies operating in the retail and wholesale trade sector are using more Internet traffic to send their data to the fiscal authorities than any other

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2019. Over a hundred managers and experts at Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant took part in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s seminar on Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) program, the plant’s press service reports. The seminar on OSART methodology was coordinated in Zarechny by the IAEA’s Peter Tarren, who talked about the OSART procedure and the guidelines for nuclear site inspections. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant is now scheduled to undergo the review in 2021. This is one of the programs the IAEA coordinates in order to assess nuclear industry

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) looked into its customers’ spending behavior on March 4-10, 2019, comparing it with people’s debit and credit card spending within a regular week (January 21-27), the bank’s press service reports. The bank’s analysts looked into the ways their customers spent money in Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Perm, Saint Petersburg, Tyumen, Ufa, and Chelyabinsk. It turns out people spent RUB 15.2 million on flowers, cosmetics, jewelry, cards, balloons, and gift wrapping in the International Women’s Day

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 15, 2019. ChelPipe Group recently launched an experimental site to develop ChelPipe Prime threaded joints; this hi tech produce is meant to meet the customers’ growing demands occasioned by increasingly more difficult conditions of oil and gas production. The new experimental site is located at ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s (PNTZ) Finishing Center for OCTGs. The project required RUB 50 million in investments. The company is now working on prototypes of premium threaded joints, testing their technological and operational properties as early as the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2019. EVRAZ Holding recently purchased the self-propelled drilling unit Epiroc T3W for its member enterprise Raspadskaya Coal Company. The gets used to drill gas exhaust wells from the surface. According to the company’s press service, the unit is currently being used at Uskovskaya Mine and will later get transferred to Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine. By customer’s order, the equipment manufacturer improved the design of the unit by mounting it on an all-wheel drive tractor to ensure easier transportation and by adding a welding machine to make repair and maintenance

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 14, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) sold 9,029,000,000 kg of ready metal goods to customers on the home market (including the CIS member states) last year, which exceeded the figures for one year earlier by 6%. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, this is the second best result in the last five years (the sales peaked in 2014, when the company sold 9,588,000,000 kg of goods to its customers). The plant currently sells 79% of its produce on the home market. ‘In geographical terms, the Urals remain our key market, given MMK’s location;

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 14, 2019. Ural Airlines are introducing their new Samara-Baku-Samara flight on April 5, 2019. Direct flights U6 2777/2778 will get operated on the modern and comfortable Airbus liners every Friday. The air carrier says the flights will get operated in the following time slots: Departure (Samara): 1:10 PM; Arrival (Baku): 3:45 PM; Departure (Baku): 4:45 PM; Arrival (Samara): 7:10 PM. Prices start from RUB 7,250/€97 (one way, all fees included). ‘There’s something for every member of your family to enjoy in Azerbaijan’s capital. You can take a look at Baku’s Flame