UrBC, Moscow, February 1, 2019. The Bank of Russia purchased RUB 15.71 billion worth of foreign currency for the Finance Ministry on the home market, the bank’s website indicates. According to plan, the bank will spend RUB 265.8 billion on foreign currency purchases between January 15 and February 6 altogether, with the daily purchase amount at RUB 15.6 billion. The purchases are being made in order to offset the additional oil and gas revenues and add more reserves to the Russian National Wealth Fund.

UrBC, Moscow, February 1, 2019. The Russian Government adopted an anti-bribe literacy course for schools as part of this year’s National Anti-Bribe Plan. The course program is available on the legal information portal starting January 31. The full program concept is to be designed by the Education & Science Ministry and the Ministry of Enlightenment in the second quarter of 2019. They will also have to come up with a list of films educating the public about the perils of bribe-giving and bribe-taking; the list will get uploaded onto the Russian Electronic School Portal. Additionally, the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 31, 2019. EVRAZ Holding is currently working on an investment project to develop Coal Bed 29a of its Yesaulskaya Mine (estimated reserves: more than 10,000,000,000 kg of valuable GZh coking coal). The company intends to start developing the coal bed in the first quarter of 2020, which will require over RUB 1.5bn in investments, EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company reports. ‘Four stoping teams are now busy preparing Coalface 29-37 (total distance: 11.5 km). The miners are using a new set of equipment, including Russian-made combines and self-propelled

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 31, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently coordinating an online auction to find a contractor for a layout and design and project documentation on a museum/educational facility/park/sports facility in Magnitogorsk, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The auction is part of the company’s large-scale, multi-purpose urban development program (aka Prityazheniye) in the city’s south-western locations. The site for the would-be multifunctional park in Magnitogorsk belongs to MMK and is 357.3 hectares large. The plant has the town

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 31, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) launched its Heavy Mill Department sixty years ago this month. The plant’s Managing Director Alexei Kushnarev congratulated the department’s best workers and long-service employees on the special date. According to EVRAZ Holding Ural’s PR Department, work on the would-be heavy mill department began in 1957 as the nationwide Youth Communist League construction project. The very first product, a round shape (diameter: 90 mm) got made at the department as soon as January 25, 1959. EVRAZ NTMK’s Heavy

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 31, 2019. The number of appeal claims placed by Sverdlovsk Region’s locals against insurance companies rose by 35% in 2018 compared with the year 2017, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports. ‘The number of suits to do with personal and property insurance was noticeably on the increase: 1,235 cases got processed in 2017 and as many as 1,670 in 2018 (+35%),’ the press service says. Sverdlovsk Region Court looked into 19,923 civil lawsuits within the appeals procedures last year. The number of lawsuits to do with loan and housing disagreements also went up

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 31, 2019. Ural companies have sent their customers more than eighteen million ‘smart’ texts with MegaFon.Target over the last two years, MegaFon’s press service reports. ‘According to Deloitte’s recent survey findings, text messages are now 39% less popular in Russia. The Urals’ business community, however, goes against the national trend in that local companies keep sending increasingly more texts through targeted messaging services. The number of local businesses that started using smart text messaging increased by 1.5 times in the last twelve months,’ the press

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 30, 2019. MMK Group’s trade union is now coordinating a series of job safety seminars as part of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Safety Workshop. The training is targeted at the public authorized representatives for job safety and is meant to upgrade their professional qualifications in the field. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, these job safety trainings are, in fact, a regular occurrence, but a new, revised program has been designed by the Group’s trade union and teachers from Personal HR Center to ensure healthy and safe working

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 30, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is going to allocate RUB 300 million to re-house the victims of a gas leak explosion in an apartment building in Magnitogorsk on December 31, 2018, MMK Chair of the BOD Viktor Rashnikov says. It was reported earlier that MMK has already directed around RUB 100 million in support of certain victim categories as well as in donations to a special-purpose emergency donation account set up in aftermath of the tragedy. ‘Within an hour of the explosion, MMK professionals joined the rescue teams and helped with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2019. Ural Airlines introduce additional Irkutsk-Moscow (Domodedovo)-Irkutsk flights starting March 31, 2019. According to the air carrier’s press service, flight U6 16 (Irkutsk-Moscow) will get operated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; flight U6 15 (Moscow-Irkutsk) will get operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Prices start from RUB 10,599 (one way) and from RUB 17,693 (there and back). Special prices apply to group tickets. The departure and arrival slots are very convenient for passengers boarding in Irkutsk: there are plenty of connecting

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2019. Rosatom/TVEL Corporation’s Novouralsk-based member enterprise CentroTech Scientific & Production Association is now working on polymeric containers for mechanical and climatic damage-proof transportation of TVEL Corporation’s Chepetsky Mechanical Plant’s zirconium-based products, Ural Electrochemical Combine’s press service reports. CentroTech only uses the most up-to-date equipment meant for processing of polymeric and composite materials to make the containers, relies on a unique combination of various materials in the different layers of a

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 29, 2019. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) hot-roll Mill 2000 set yet another output record last year, when 6,200,000,000 kg of hot-rolled goods got produced in the course of twelve months, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The previous record got set at the end of 2016, when the year’s output figure reached 5,948,000,000 kg of hot-rolled produce. In 2018, the figure was 6,200,000,000 kg. ‘The plant’s most productive rolling mill is located at Sheet-Rolling Department 10. The mill is one of Russia’s most powerful and advanced units. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2019. RSG-Akademicheskoye is coordinating a tender to find a designer for a set of apartment buildings with a number of built-in and/or attached common housing premises and underground parking lots (Blocks 12.1 and 12.6 in District Akademicheskiy’s Quarter 12), the developer’s press service reports. The winning bidder will get a contract to design a building information model for Blocks 12.1 and 12.6 in Quarter 12, as well as to draw/design the project documentation on the said Blocks 12.1 and 12.6 based on their engineering survey work. The drawing and the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) intends to spent RUB 1.9 billion on repairing its electric power facilities in Western Siberia this year. According to the company’s Western Siberia division’s press service, the repairs are meant to ensure more reliable power supply to end users in Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region, where over 3.6 million people live. ‘Thirteen power equipment units, 167 switches, and 751 disconnecting devices will get repaired at our 220-kilowatt and 500-kilowatt

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2019. RSG-Akademicheskoye is coordinating a tender to find a contractor for repair jobs on apartment buildings, commercial property, parking lots, and common housing facilities, the developer’s press service reports. The contractor will have to come up with cost estimates for the said repair jobs on apartment buildings, commercial property, parking lots, and common housing facilities, and to complete these within the time slot between the date the contract gets signed and the deadline for meeting all of the contractual obligations. The opening bid has been set

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for transportation are now investigating the case of Rossiya Air Company’s airplane colliding with a special-purpose vehicle at Koltsovo Airport. ‘The rear part of the aircraft fuselage unit got damaged as a result. There were no passengers or crew members on board at the time. Passengers on the flight reached their destination point on a backup plane. Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s division is also doing a preliminary inquest of the case at Koltsovo Airport,’ Ural Public Prosecution Authorities

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2019. Ural Airlines are now launching a sale on their Moscow-Kaliningrad-Moscow flights: prices start from RUB 6,170 (round trip) through March 31, 2019, the air carrier’s press service reports. You can book your flight on the company website www.uralairlines.com, on Ural Airlines mobile app, over the phone +7-800-7700-262, or at any booking office. The price of state-subsidized tickets for Saint Petersburg-Kaliningrad-Saint Petersburg and Moscow-Kaliningrad-Moscow flights is now also lower: RUB 2,000 (one way) for adults and RUB 1,500 (one way) for children

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 28, 2019. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems (FGC UES) had its 220-kilowatt electric mains in Knyazhevo-Zavodoukovsk section in Tyumen Region reconstructed, FGC UES Western Siberia’s press service reports. The mains got reinforced with four new supports that came to replace the worn-out ones. This 220-kilowatt Knyazhevo-Zavodoukovsk Main is located between Tyumen Region’s District Yalutorovosky and District Zavodoukovsky and is involved in power transit from Tyumen Heat & Power Station 2 to the south of Tyumen Region. Special-purpose off-road vehicles

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, January 28, 2019. ChelPipe Group’s warehouse depot supplied 174,000 kg of large-diameter pipes for the fourth bridge across the Ob in Novosibirsk. According to the Group’s press service, the LDPs will be used to relocate the engineering infrastructure from the bridge construction site in Ippodromskaya St. The pipes were made at Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe). The shipment comprises electrically welded, longitudinal pipes (diameter: 530 mm to 1,220 mm; layer thickness: 10 mm to 12 mm) made from improved 17G1S steel. The entire batch got shipped to customer in two

UrBC, Moscow, January 28, 2019. The Bank of Russia intends to resume making foreign currency purchases (postponed in 2018) on the domestic market starting February 1, 2019, the bank’s website states. The purchases will be made in roughly equal installments throughout the next thirty-six months, which will increase the daily purchase amount by RUB 2.8 billion. ‘The Bank of Russia reserves the right to stop making the foreign currency purchases on the home market in case there arise threats to the country’s financial stability,’ the website says.