UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 3, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Digital Solutions Director Alexander Pateshman gave a talk at the 11th Saint Petersburg International Innovations Forum, the bank’s press service reports. Pateshman presented his report at the forum session on finance technologies and the sector’s leading banks and their managers. The report dwelled on the current state of affairs and the global trends within the online banking industry. Pateshman also spoke about the UBRD’s successful experience with the development and launch of an up-to-date mobile

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2018. Ural Airlines will start operating its new Volgograd-Tashkent-Volgograd flight on December 11, 2018. Prices start from €137 (RUB 10,240) for a one-way ticket. According to the airline’s press service, the flight will get operated every Tuesday. Flight U6 2670 (Tashkent-Volgograd): departure 11:10 AM, arrival 1:45 PM; the flight is three hours and thirty-five minutes long. Flight U6 2669 (Volgograd-Tashkent): departure 5:35 AM, arrival 9:40 AM; the flight is three hours and five minutes long. ‘The airline keeps working to introduce more flights to and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2018. ChelPipe Group and ROSNANO’s Infrastructure & Education Programs Fund worked together to develop professional standards for the people involved in design and engineering support of nano-modified steel pipe production, the Group’s press service reports. The standards that set out the professional requirements for this branch of industry have been adopted by Russia’s Labor & Social Welfare Ministry. The new professional standards are applicable to employees of all Russian pipe manufacturers that deal in hi tech produce. The professional standards

UrBC, Moscow, November 30, 2018. Russia’s independent gas filling stations are now allowed to raise their retail fuel prices by 4% on top of what the filling stations owned by large oil and gas companies charge, RIA Novosti refers to participants of Vice Premier Dmitri Kozak’s recent session as stating. After a provision to freeze gasoline prices got signed on November 12, Kozak asked the Federal Antimonopoly Service and Russia’s Federal Tax Service to check things with the owners of stand-alone gas stations, with a special focus on stations that charge their customers prices that exceed the

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, November 30, 2018. Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Nikolai Tsukanov and Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky paid a visit to the construction sites of buildings and infrastructure facilities for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS Summits in Chelyabinsk, the Southern Urals Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. Plenipotentiary Representative Tsukanov, accompanied by Governor Dubrovsky, took a look at the construction site of the new terminal and airfield at Chelyabinsk

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 30, 2018. The share of overdue payments (no payments for thirty or more days past the payment date) on car loans came to 8.4% of Sverdlovsk Region’s respective market in the third quarter of 2018, down 0.4% on one year earlier, when the figure stood at 8.8%, the National Credit History Bureau refers to its research findings as indicating. In Russia on the whole, the share of overdue car loan repayments came to 8% in the third quarter of the year, down 1.5% on a year earlier, when the figure stood at 9.5%. According to the Bureau’s Director-General Alexander

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 29, 2018. Ural Airlines will start operating a new Yekaterinburg-Samarkand-Yekaterinburg flight on December 15, 2018. According to the air carrier’s press service, flight U6 2861/2862 will be operated every Saturday. Prices start from €161 and €133 for Yekaterinburg-Samarkand and Samarkand-Yekaterinburg flights, respectively; all fees included. ‘Samarkand, or ’Tamerlane’s Capital’, is famous for its unique masterpieces dating back to Asia’s ancient times, such as the turquoise-and-gold domes of mausoleums and madrasas, for example, or the mosaic-covered high-rise

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 29, 2018. MegaFon TV’s analysts came up with a user report for the year 2018. It appears that the subscribers to the service based in the Urals watch more TV than those living in the Far East, Siberia, or Central Russia. MegaFon Ural users have actually already spent a time equivalent of 14m full movies watching mobile television. TV series (with The Junior Team, Game of Thrones, and Ivanovy-Ivanovy at the top) proved the most popular genre thus far, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. This year’s releases Gogol. Terrbile Vengeance, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and

UrBC, Moscow, November 29, 2018. Russian businesses willing to advertise their products and services on Facebook will have to pay a 20% VAT starting January 2019. This applies to all advertising accounts that indicated Russia as their location, Facebook Ads Help Center informs. You’ll be charged VAT ‘regardless of whether you're purchasing Facebook ads for business or personal purposes,’ the company says. Facebook warns that users willing to keep advertising via Facebook will have to check their account settings for their company’s name, address, and tax reference number. ‘The specific

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 29, 2018. Urban renovation (mostly of metropolises) will be one of the key new topics at 100+ Forum Russia in Yekaterinburg, member of the Federation Council Arkadiy Chernetsky announced at a recent press conference. ‘We’ll dwell on things like preserving a city’s cultural and historic heritage within the locations that are expected to undergo redevelopment,’ Chernetsky said. According to Chernetsky, the forum’s agenda also covers topics like the use of automated systems, building information modeling (BIM), and robotic technologies for survey and construction

UrBC, Moscow, November 29, 2018. The price of jet fuel rose by 10.6% (or RUB 5,240) on Yekaterinburg market in the last month and thus amounted to RUB 54,512 per 1,000 kg, Rosaviation’s website states. Russia’s least expensive jet fuel is currently sold at Ekimchan Airport, Amur Region: RUB 34,000; the most expensive one is sold at Tigil Airport, Kamchatka: RUB 86,500.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 28, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems’ Western Siberia branch coordinated a two-day skills contest for the company drivers. Four teams from Southern, Central, Eastern, and Yamalo-Nenetsky divisions of the branch took part in the competition, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. The contestants had to prove their knowledge of the traffic code and job safety regulations as well as their first aid skills; they also had to complete a number of wintertime autocross challenges on their KamAZ and GAZ trucks. The Eastern division’s team

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 28, 2018. Ural Airlines’ customers can now book a flight from Moscow to Kaliningrad and back at a discount, the air carrier’s press service reports. The offer holds for a round trip ticket for flights U6 167/168 and U6 627/628 to be operated through December 20, 2018. Prices start from RUB 5,850 for Promo tickets and from RUB 6,850 for Economy ones. The flights get operated daily. The tickets are available on the company website www.uralairlines.com, via Ural Airlines mobile app, over the phone +7-800-7700-262, or at any booking office. Ural Airlines also keep

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 28, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) saved RUB 53.6m in the third quarter of 2018 thanks to its workers’ improvement proposals. According to MMK’s Information & PR Department, their expert committees looked into 1,524 proposals in the third quarter. 1,015 of these (66% of all the papers submitted) got approved; a year earlier, the approval percentage was 58.5%. 28.02% of improvement proposals dwelled on job and industrial safety; 12.73% dealt in resource savings; 9.45% and 49.8% of proposals were dedicated to energy efficiency and other

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 28, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) reports a dramatic increase in the demand for acquiring services: the number of POS terminals rose by 31% in the ten months of 2018 compared with one year earlier, whereas the POS terminal turnover went up by 32%. These are mostly grocery stores and cafes/restaurants that keep applying for acquiring options most often. According to the bank’s press service, their special offer launched in May 2018 was the primary driving force behind this impressively soaring demand. At the beginning of the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 28, 2018. Ural Airlines will now be operating its Moscow-Navoi flights as often as three times a week. Flight U6 2129/2130 (Moscow (Russia)-Navoi (Uzbekistan)-Moscow) will be operated every Wednesday and Sunday starting December 16, 2018. The existing flight U6 2435/2436 is still available on Mondays. According to the airline’s press service, prices for Moscow-Navoi and Navoi-Moscow flights start from €126 and €133, respectively (Economy, one piece of luggage under 23 kg, one piece of cabin luggage under 5 kg, a meal and all fees included). All of Ural Airlines’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 27, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s Creative Office recently hosted the final round of Train Brain Student Case Championship. The first prize — two research grants — went to students of Software Engineering at Ural Federal University. Four other prize winners, UFU students as well, got paid internships at one of the bank’s IT or Analytics sub-departments. Finally, two more students (Ural Federal University and Ural State University of Economics) were invited to an additional interview; if these interviews go well, the students will be

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, November 27, 2018. A new waterworks facility got launched within Magnitogorsk Reservoir as part of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) recirculating water supply system upgrades, the company’s press service reports. The launching ceremony got attended by MMK members of the Supervisory Board and independent directors. The water gate got closed to stop the dumping of MMK’s manufacturing water into the water reservoir. ‘The recirculating water supply system upgrades, which involve extending our cooling reservoir, are among the most important water protection initiatives

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 27, 2018. EVRAZ Holding acquired a new large-hole drilling unit to make vertical holes up to 2.4 meters in diameter. This si the first time this equipment type will get used at a Russian coal-making enterprise; the unit will get launched at EVRAZ Raspadskaya Coal Company’s mines, the holding’s press service reports. Performance tests for the large-hole drilling technology are scheduled to take place at Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine. A pilot hole (diameter: 279 mm; depth: 500 m) will be made first. Next, a special widening unit will get attached to the drilling assembly

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 27, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new Rostov-on-Don-Tashkent-Rostov-on-Don flight starting December 11, 2018, the air carrier’s press service reports. The new flight will be operated from Platov Airport every Tuesday. Flight U6 2615: Departure (Rostov-on-Don): 3:20 PM — Arrival (Tashkent): 8:40 PM. The flight is three hours and forty minutes long. Flight U6 2616: Departure (Tashkent): 12 PM — Arrival (Rostov-on-Don): 1:50 PM. The flight is three hours and fifty minutes long. Prices start from €137 (one way, one piece of luggage under 23 kg, one piece of