UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 16, 2019. Metallurg Foundation, a charity organization that gets primarily funded by Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), was declared to meet the Silver Standard in the course of the All-Russian Donors’ Forum Annual Report Contest (aka Starting Point). According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the contest gets coordinated by the Donors’ Forum with support from Russia’s Economic Development Ministry and Presidential Grants for Civil Society Development Foundation and in cooperation with the Social Information Agency and Blagosfera Center. This year,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Yekaterinburg-based cardholders/customers of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) made RUB 1.7 billion worth of transactions between December 30, 2018 and January 8, 2019; this is 53% more than last winter break, the bank’s press service reports. Just like one year earlier, the better part of the money got directed to card-to-card transfers; the overall amount (RUB 256.7 million) is comparable with last year’s figures (RUB 253.3 million). The cards were also used heavily at supermarkets (RUB 15.9 million in 2018-2019 compared with

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 15, 2019. MMK Group’s asset MMK METIZ recently got audited and re-certified for compliance with the new rail industry standard ISO/TS 22163:2017. The company is now one of Russia’s first metal goods makers to get certified for the standard. According to MMK METIZ’s press service, it took the representatives of German-based certification authority DQS’s Russian branch a week to conduct a full audit of the company’s management system and test it for compliance with the ISO/TS 22163:2017 standard; the new standard comes to replace the earlier one known as IRIS. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Koltsovo Customs’ officers did not let a batch of fake Cartier jewelry get smuggled into Russia. According to Ural Customs’ press service, a passenger on Beijing-Yekaterinburg flight was bringing with him sixteen cardboard boxes with six rings and sixteen bracelets in them, all bearing Cartier engravings. The overall weight was estimated at slightly under a kilogram. The customs officers confiscated the jewelry, had it examined by experts, and checked with the trademark owner. A Cartier representative estimated the damage to the brand at RUB 6.5m. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. Fifty young employees of EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant (EVRAZ NTMK) received corporate awards in the Best Young Team and Youth Award Laureate contests, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s Corporate Relations Center reports. Ten EVRAZ NTMK workers (blast furnace keepers, repair technicians, mill rollers, engineers, foremen, and so on) received the Youth Award Laureate awards. All of them proved very active in the plant’s social events and professional skill competitions and submitted and launched quite a few improvement proposals. The Best Young Team

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 15, 2019. More than nine million people flew with Ural Airlines last year. According to the air carrier’s press service, Ural Airlines offered their services to 9,000579 passengers (up 13% on the year 2017), including 4,894,305 passengers on domestic flights, 2,283,595 passengers on international flights, and 1,822,679 passengers on flights to and from the CIS member states. The airline operated 61,634 flights in 2018 all in all (+11% on a year earlier), including 33,917 domestic flights, 14,766 international flights, and 12,951 flights to and from the CIS member

UrBC, Moscow, January 14, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to buy RUB 265.8bn worth of foreign currency between January 15 and February 6, 2019, the ministry reports. ‘The overall amount of money directed to making foreign currency purchases comes to RUB 265.8bn. The purchasing transactions will be made on January 15-February 6, 2019, which means the daily amount will come to the foreign currency equivalent of RUB 15.6bn’ the Finance Ministry’s website indicates. Russia’s federal budget is expected to get an additional RUB 220.6bn from the oil and gas revenues in January 2019, which

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, January 14, 2019. MMK Group’s mutual benefit fund’s turnover came to more than one billion rubles in 2018; the money only comes from the borrowing parties’ fees, which means any loan is interest-free. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, the mutual benefit fund has over 21,000 members at the moment, that is, almost every one in two trade union members. More than 17,000 members applied for a loan in 2018. Eligible to apply are the borrowers who have been the members of the mutual benefit fund for at least three months. The loan amount also depends on the

UrBC, Moscow, January 14, 2019. The Bank of Russia issued a warrant aimed at the management of JPMorgan’s Russian branch as the bank failed to comply with the Russian anti-money-laundering legislation, the former’s website states. The warrant has to do with the administrative offense as described in Article 15.27 of Russia’s Administrative Offense Code (Failure to Comply with the Legal Requirements on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 14, 2019. Rosatom/Atomenergomash’s asset SverdNIIkhimmash landed a contract with Atomstroyexport for the design, production, and delivery of the equipment for treatment of non-recyclable components for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant’s Power-Generating Unit 1, the company’s press service reports. The contract amounts to more than RUB 1.5bn; the appliances are scheduled to get delivered in the fall of 2020, with the startup and commissioning scheduled for 2023. ‘SverdNIIkhimmash has plenty of successful experience in the field of supplying and commissioning the said

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 14, 2019. MegaFon Ural’s mobile traffic increased by 1.5 times on December 31, 2018 compared with one year earlier, the company’s press service reports. Local users mostly spent time on WhatsApp and Viber and grew very active after 6 PM on December 31; more than 70% of the company’s mobile traffic got delivered through 4G network; the amount of video content also rose by 3.5 times. ‘There’s no need to wait out to make your voice call or send an image or a video through a messenger app after midnight: the network is quite prepared to handle any amount of traffic,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2019. Ural Airlines are offering their customers reduced-price tickets for Yekaterinburg-Rome and Yekaterinburg-Paris flights. According to the air carrier’s press service, the offer applies to flights to be operated between January 10, 2019 and April 20, 2019. Prices start from RUB 16,000 for Yekaterinburg-Rome-Yekaterinburg flights, from RUB 10,000 for Yekaterinburg-Rome ones, from RUB 13,200 for Rome-Yekaterinburg ones, from 16,000 for Yekaterinburg-Paris-Yekaterinburg ones, from RUB 10,000 for Yekaterinburg-Paris ones, and from RUB 14,000 for

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities report that Sverdlovsk Philharmonic has already purchased eleven apartments at 40 Karl Liebknecht St (the building that would need to get pulled down to make room for the new concert hall). The authorities’ statement is now available on the Facebook page created by the apartment building’s supporters. Now Sverdlovsk Region Construction Ministry announced on September 25, 2018 that they had decided on the architectural concept of the philharmonic’s new concert hall. The winning concept was proposed by

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2019. Sverdlovsk Region division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state-regulated consumer rights watchdog) is willing to offer legal advice to drivers who were forced to stay in Koltsovo Airport’s parking lot for longer than the free-of-charge fifteen minutes and thus had to pay extra in parking fees, the division reports in answer to UrBC’s recent query. ‘Under the terms of Russia’s Civil Code (Article 401, Paragraph 1), a person is generally liable for failing to meet certain requirements, through either premeditation or negligence, except for the cases where the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 11, 2019. RSG-Akademicheskoye is coordinating a tender to find a contractor for the would-be storm water drainage infrastructure in Quarter 26 of Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy, the developer’s press service reports. Under the terms of the contract, the winning bidder will have to put up the entire storm water drainage system in Quarter 26 (Blocks 26.1, 26.5, 26.7, and 26.9), District Akademicheskiy, Yekaterinburg between the date the contract gets signed and July 2019. The opening bid comes to RUB 20,775,358 (20% VAT included). Applicants can submit

UrBC, Moscow, January 11, 2019. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service warns that antimonopoly investigations are under way to look into the bank’s faulty policies, namely, the cases when terms and conditions get worse for already existing deposit contracts, the FAS and Central Bank declare in their joint statement. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has been faced with quite a few cases when banks adopt unscrupulous practices to attract private customers’ funds onto their deposits. Some banks, for example, would offer higher interest rates on fixed-term deposits and would then take a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2019. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) extended its special offer on an enhanced annual interest deposit for another month: the offer now holds through January 31, 2019. The decision was made due to the outstanding demand for the bank’s new product, the bank’s press service reports. The deposit in question is one of the UBRD’s most profit-yielding banking products. The annual interest rate can reach as much as 8.5%; the deposit period starts from 210 days, with the interest either paid into your bank card account or added to the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2019. Ural Airlines are offering their customers reduced-price tickets for Moscow-Larnaca-Moscow flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from RUB 3,120/€40 (one way, one piece of luggage under 10 kg included) for Promo tickets on Moscow-Larnaca flights; from RUB 4,368/€56 (one way, one piece of luggage under 10 kg included) for Promo tickets on Larnaca-Moscow flights; and from RUB 6,084/€78 (round trip, one piece of luggage under 10 kg included) for Promo tickets on Moscow-Larnaca-Moscow flights. As for Economy tickets, prices start from

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 10, 2019. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Mine (Raspadskaya Coal Company’s flagship quality coal-making asset) was launched forty-five years ago this month. According to the company’s press service, a solemn ceremony took place at Raspadsky Culture Palace, with additional festivities for the workers on the site itself the day before. The plant’s 376 best workers and long-service employees received federal, local, municipal, and company awards. An ad hoc medal was designed in celebration of the special date and given to two hundred miners in the course of a solemn

UrBC, Moscow, January 10, 2019. Russian Post Unitary Enterprise can now charge customs duties on the Russians’ online purchases, and do so remotely. The duty-free limit has been halved since January 1 and now comes to €500 for all purchases made within one month’s time. According to Kommersant, a pilot project takes off on January 1 to enable Russian Post to charge customs duties on online purchases from abroad remotely. It hasn’t so far been explained what retailer businesses will be involved, but the expectation is that all the major market players will join the project eventually. Under