UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2019. Ural Airlines introduce two new direct flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Montpellier and Bordeaux. According to the air carrier’s press service, Moscow-Bordeaux flights will be available every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday starting June 1; Moscow-Montpellier flights will be available every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday starting June 2. You can now choose your personalized France experience: the Atlantic or the Mediterranean. Prices start from RUB 4,573 (one way) for cabin-luggage-only ticket type (introduced on February 1). ‘Bordeaux is often

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 19, 2019. EVRAZ Holding and the Moscow-based Gruppa Tovarishchei Production Studio are going to create a children’s movie called A Danger-Free Town. The movie will focus on safety rules applicable in urban environments and will be run on the Russian television channel Carousel International and other children’s channels starting in May. According to EVRAZ Holding Ural’s PR Department, the production team will start working on the thirty-minute film in the Urals this April. Students of Nizhniy Tagil and Kachkanar acting schools will be featured in the movie along

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 18, 2019. Ural Airlines will start operating their usual summer flights from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok to Krasnodar at the end of May, the air carrier’s press service reports. Khabarovsk-Krasnodar and Krasnodar-Khabarovsk flights (via Irkutsk) will become available on Tuesdays and Mondays, respectively, starting May 21. Vladivostok-Krasnodar and Krasnodar-Vladivostok flights (via Novosibirsk) will become available on Saturdays and Fridays, respectively, starting May 25. ‘These flights are part of the airline’s summer sale program, so you can book your tickets

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 18, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems is putting up new supports for the electric mains involved in Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s power transfer system. ‘The supports are getting replaced at a marshy section of our 220-kilowatt Beloyarskaya-Mramornaya Main following a diagnostic examination of the power facility. The renovation is expected to make the power transfer from the nuclear plant to Sverdlovsk Region and Chelyabinsk Region’s power grids even more reliable,’ says FGC UES Ural PR & Media Group. The company is replacing the old,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 18, 2019. The number of smartphones which their owners get insured against mechanical or water damage and other accidents doubled at MegaFon Ural’s retail outlets last year. On average, one insurance policy got issued every hour, the company’s press service says. Smartphones tend to get damaged mechanically after getting dropped on the floor, getting hit against something hard, or getting smashed by something heavy falling on top of them: these are the problems eight out of ten customers complain about. Water inside a smartphone is the second most popular

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 18, 2019. KORTROS Group keeps introducing the latest technologies available in the construction industry and thus contributes greatly to modern urban development. Russia’s Construction Ministry, National Competence Centre for Smart Cities, and KORTROS Group signed an agreement on February 14 to use the Group’s solutions in the National Smart City Project, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The agreement was signed by President of KORTROS Group Veniamin Golubitsky and Head of National Competence Centre for Smart Cities Oksana Demchenko. ‘Our Smart Flat

UrBC, Moscow, February 18, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s shareholder Andrei Komarov took part in the plenary session (Success Factors: Ideas, People, Skills) of Russian Investment Forum in Sochi. The session was chaired by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, the Group’s press service reports. Government officials, experts, and members of the business community, including Governor of Perm Territory Maxim Reshetnikov, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives’ Director-General Svetlana Chupsheva, and Rector of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO Marat Atnashev, talked about their plans to work on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 15, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region Government and the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) agreed to work together on the National Digital Economy Program; the agreement to this effect was signed at Russian Investment Forum in Sochi on February 14, the bank’s press service reports. Under the terms of the agreement, the bank will cooperate with Sverdlovsk Region’s authorities to develop and launch advanced technologies in production sector, social welfare sector, and urban development sector; for one, the UBRD will contribute to the creation of certain

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, February 15, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s shareholder Andrei Komarov took part in Tatarstan’s Industry & Trade Ministry and Tatarstan’s Economy Ministry’s recent joint meeting upon President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov’s invitation. Komarov made a report on the Group’s experience of setting up a continuous professional development system within the framework of a public-private partnership program, the Group’s press service reports. Andrei Komarov spoke about the current performance of and development plans for Tatarstan’s College of The Future, an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 15, 2019. EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) chose the suppliers to deliver the equipment required for its Blast Furnace 6 upgrades, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. ‘We signed a number of contracts for the delivery of technological equipment and automation appliances for the furnace. The blast furnace is expected to get re-launched in October 2020. The entire retooling project will require $150m in investments,’ the Center says. The better part of the tech equipment will get supplied by PAUL WURTH S.A., the global leader

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 15, 2019. Chair of the Board at Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) Andrei Murov signed an agreement with Russian Copper Company’s ore-mining division at Russian Investment Forum (RIF 2019) this week. Under the terms of the contract, RCC’s gold/copper/porphyry Malmyzhsky Deposit should get connected to the Unified National Power Grid, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. The agreement also sets out the terms for the two parties to work together to ensure reliable power supply to Russian Copper Company’s existing facilities and

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, February 15, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) extended the bank guarantees available to its Chelyabinsk-based partner company GiraffeCranes (GIRAFFE) to RUB 448 million. According to the bank’s press service, they are willing to back up the company’s obligations towards Rosatom State Corporation (GiraffeCranes must supply a number of unique cranes to the construction site of Kurskaya Nuclear Power Plant 2 in Kurchatovsky, Kursk Region). The cranes will be used to put up the walls of power-generating units in the reactor section of the plant.

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, February 14, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)-supported Metallurg Charity Foundation coordinated the Board’s meeting this month. The Board adopted the program for the year and the budget plan for 2019, MMK’s press service reports. The foundation got established three decades ago last year; Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works has remained the organization’s primary benefactor the whole time. The foundation focuses on supporting old-age pensioners, families with three or more children, families with children with disabilities, and so on. This year, Metallurg

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 14, 2019. Ural Airlines are now selling tickets for direct and scheduled Zhukovsky-Nice-Zhukovsky flights (operation begins May 1, 2019), the air carrier’s press service reports. Flight U6797/6798 will be available twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Departure (Zhukovsky): 8:35 AM, Departure (Nice): 5:25 PM. Prices start from RUB 4,549 (one way), which is arguably the lowest price available for this connection. ‘Nice has been popular with Russian travelers since the middle of the nineteenth century. The city’s mediterranean climate is perfect in any

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 14, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s pipe-manufacturing member enterprises Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant sold 1,920,000,000 kg of pipes to their customers last year, which was 3.6% less than in the year 2017, the Group’s press service reports. ‘The slight drop in sales has to do with the fact that we’d completed all of our shipments of large-diameter pipes to Nord Stream 2,’ the Group explains. ChelPipe Group’s Russian market sales rose by 1.2% in 2018 and came to 1,420,000,000 kg. The company shipped 430,700,000 LDPs to customers in

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 14, 2019. MegaFon’s telecom engineers expanded the ISP’s 4G coverage by an extra 70 meters in Yekaterinburg, which sped up the local users’ Internet connection by 1.5 times, the company’s press service reports. ‘Kuibyshev St, Lenin Ave, Malyshev St, Vosmoye Marta St, Moskovskaya St, and Mashinostroiteley St are now mobile congestion-free. Both local users and visitors to Yekaterinburg can now enjoy ‘speeding’ online even during the rush hours,’ the press service says. The improvements were made possible due to the launch os LTE 1 800 at the telecom company’s base

UrBC, Moscow, February 14, 2019. The Central Bank of Russia adjusted its forecast of the annual trend inflation rate from 5.4% in December 2018 to 5.61% in January 2019, the bank’s website states. According to the trend inflation assessment methodology, the forecast can get adjusted every now and then in response to temporary factors affecting price dynamics, the bank explains. Among such temporary factors is the VAT increase, for example, which results in increase in prices of goods and services that are used as the basis for assessing the trend inflation. This is the primary factor behind

UrBC, Moscow, February 13, 2019. Russia’s net capital outflow reached $10.4bn in January 2019, Central Bank of Russia’s data indicate. A year earlier, the figure was estimated at $7.1bn. It is reported that the ‘surplus in the current account of the balance of payments stipulated a certain slowing of net lending of the rest of the world by the private sector’ in January compared with the last quarter of 2018. ‘In January 2019 balance on private sector’s financial transactions was estimated by the Bank of Russia at $10.4 billion,’ the bank’s website states. The net capital outflow from the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2019. The new Consul-General of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Yekaterinburg Richard Dewell assumed office this week, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Yekaterinburg representation reports. The British Consulate-General Ekaterinburg, now headed by Richard Dewell, caters to applicants based in all of Ural Federal District’s constituencies, Perm Territory, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, and Orenburg Region. Prior to this new appointment, Consul Dewell was Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; he also

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, February 13, 2019. Students on ChelPipe Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Training Program are taking part in the 7th WorldSkills Russia blue-collar skills championship in Sverdlovsk Region on February 11-15, 2019, the Group’s press service reports. Twenty would-be ‘white-coated metallurgists’ are competing in eight categories: Reverse Engineering, Industrial Robotics, Prototyping, CAD Engineering, NC Mill Turning, Industrial Automation, Industrial Mechanics and Assembly, and Wiring. The championship gets hosted by fifteen different sites, including ChelPipe