UrBC, Moscow, November 2, 2018. 8,847 applications for insurance compensation (total amount: RUR 1,094,239,588) have been submitted to Ingosstrakh Insurance by Nathalie Tours’ customers as of October 29, 2018. According to the insurance company’s press service, they have received 8,679 applications stemming from their contract with OOO Panorama Tour (total amount: RUR 1,079,957,784) and 168 applications stemming from their contract with Nathalie Travel Agent’s (total amount: RUR 14,281,803). ‘Ingosstrakh made all the insurance payments due to Panorama Tour’s customers. The compositions were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 1, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering their customers discounts on Yekaterinburg-Prague-Yekaterinburg flights around New Year, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from RUR 9,775 (one way, all fees included); the flights will be operated between December 25, 2018 and January 11, 2019. ‘Prague is a city that strikes its visitors with its inimitable European charm any time of the year; the place is particularly enchanting, however, around the winter’s holiday season. Christmas markets open in Prague Castle, Wenceslas Square, and Old Town Square as

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, November 1, 2018. Vysota 239 Department of ChelPipe Group’s Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant produced exactly 4,000,000,000 kg of large-diameter pipes between the day it was launched back in 2010 and October 31, 2018, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky attended the solemn ceremony of welding that day’s special batch of LDPs, as did the department’s best workers and students on the Group’s Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program. ‘Chelyabinsk Region Government decided a few years ago that ChelPipe Group

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 1, 2018. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region keeps working to introduce more fish in Beloyarsky Reservoir: 30,000 young bigheads got released into the pond on October 29, 2018, the station’s press service reports. The plan is to place 269,000 young specimens of Aristichthys nobilis into the pond before the end of the year altogether. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station has been releasing fish into the reservoir since 2010. 269,000 specimens got released last year alone. The fish get placed into the pond based on the estimates and

UrBC, Moscow, November 1, 2018. The damage done by the pyramid scheme Cashbery might amount to as much as RUR 3bn, TASS refers to head of the Bank of Russia’s Fraud Prevention Department Valeriy Lyakh as stating. ‘RUR 1bn worth of damage is a conservative estimate. According to experts, however, the actual damage might amount to RUR 1-3bn,’ Lyakh said in answer to a question. Now the Bank of Russia placed its files on a number of Russian and foreign businesses acting under the umbrella brand Cashbery with the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in late September;

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 1, 2018. 338,59 loans (total amount: RUR 71.22bn) got issued in Sverdlovsk Region in the third quarter of 2018 (up 46% on a year earlier). This makes Sverdlovsk Region Russia’s No.3 constituency in terms of loan-issuing activity, United Credit History Bureau reports. The overall money amount of consumer loans that are over RUR 100,000 large and over 2 years long rose by 61% in Sverdlovsk Region last year and reached RUR 34.97bn. The average loan amount in this category comes to RUR 329,000. The overall money amount of consumer loans that are under RUR 100,000

UrBC, Moscow, October 31, 2018. Russia’s Finance Ministry won’t have the ‘luxury tax’ adjusted after all, Minister Anton Siluanov said on Channel 1 Pozner Show this week. ‘They often say we should tax the wealthier people more. As things are, we have done that already: owners now pay higher property tax on luxury apartments and condos, automobiles, yachts, and so on,’ Siluanov said. According to Siluanov, a progressive tax system ‘has its plus and minus sides.’ ‘We understand the well-off to be clever enough to find a way around the progressive tax; for one thing, these people may choose to

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 31, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is now among the winners of the All-Russian Competitive Purchases Leader Contest as the Best Business Process Upgrade Project, MMK’s PR Department reports. ‘188 Russian companies active in every sector of the national economy took part in the contest. The winners got selected by a community board of seventy independent experts. This year, MMK presented its project on Supply Chain Transformation With External Experts’ Help. This is the largest-scale upgrades project implemented by the company in the purchasing

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 31, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s team was one of the top three finalists at WorldSkills Hi Tech Championship in terms of the number of prize medals: the team won two gold ones, five silver ones, and three bronze ones. Team players from EVRAZ Holdings West Siberian Metallurgical Plant (ZSMK) won prizes in eight categories out of twelve, the Holding’s PR Department reports. ‘The junior team also did very well. Contestants from Novokuznetsk-based Meridian Children’s Tech Arts Center Grigory Chekushin and Makar Mukhin both won silver; seventh-grade students of Nizhniy Tagil

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 31, 2018. ChelPipe Group’s team won ten medals in the 5th All-Russian WorldSkills Hi Tech Blue-Collar Job Championship, the Group’s press service reports. Senior Expert Artem Rogozinnikov and electric gas welder Maxim Koryakin won gold in both the national and international rounds of the competition in Industrial Robotics and Reverse Engineering, respectively. Silver in Industrial Mechanics & Assembly went to Nikolay Permin. ChelPipe Group’s employees also won five bronze medals in Welding Technologies, Industrial Automation, and Composite Technologies. ‘The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 31, 2018. Rosatom Corporation presented its new industrial 3D printer at a recent exhibition in Moscow; the printer is expected to get manufactured in Rosatom’s plant in Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. Representatives of Rosatom Corporation, Russia’s Industry & Trade Ministry, and the Urals’ leading industrial enterprises all contributed to the presentation at the Additive Technologies Scientific & Production Consortium session. First Deputy Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexei Orlov commented on the importance of

UrBC, Moscow, October 30, 2018. The share of Russians who cannot afford to buy as many clothes as they would like, travel as much as they would like, or spend as much money on entertainment as they would like rose from 17% in 2014 to 25% in 2018, Romir Holding’s press service refers to the company’s own research findings as indicating. Only 16% of survey respondents in the 60+ age group admitted giving up on new clothes and travel was their way of dealing with rising prices, compared with 33% of respondents in the under-24 age group. Overall, about 29% of respondents with medium-sized incomes

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 30, 2018. A time capsule placed by employees of Magnitogorsk Metal Goods/Metallurgical Plant (MMK METIZ) fifty years ago got unearthed in Magnitogorsk, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works’ press service reports. The time capsule contained a message from Komsomol members who worked at Magnitogorsk Metal Goods/Metallurgical Plant at the time, addressed to the future generations. Komsomol got established exactly fifty years prior to 1968, and 103 people got invited to the official unearthing ceremony in celebration of the organization’s 100th anniversary over the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 30, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Moscow to Salzburg, Austria. Domodedovo-Salzburg-Domodedovo flights will be operated every Saturday between December 29, 2018 and March 30, 2019, the air carrier’s press service reports. There will be two extra flights during New Year break: U6 3537/3538 on Wednesday, January 2, 2019 and Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Prices start from €78 (RUR 5,230) for Promo tickets (one way); from €90 (RUR 6,815) for Economy tickets (one way, one piece of luggage and one set of skis included); from €168 (RUR 12,706) for

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 30, 2018. Magnitogorsk Council coordinated yet another contest on this year’s best furnished business premises. MMK Group’s member enterprises made it to the list of finalists as usual, the Group’s press service reports. The results of this year’s competition were announced at the town council meeting by Head of Magnitogorsk Capital Construction & Urban Improvements Alexander Pechkarev. ‘This is the 11th time we are holding this contest now. The contestants submitted their leaflets on how their companies’ management and staff approach and contribute to urban

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 30, 2018. GR Director at ChelPipe Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) Alexander Khanin received a thank-you letter from Pervouralsk Department of Education this week. The letter, signed by the department’s head Yelena Yugfeld, states that Alexander Khanin has been awarded for his long-standing, proactive cooperation with and contribution to the town’s education system. ‘Our concerted efforts to raise and educate the younger generations are invaluable to our home town’s development and prosperity,’ the letter says. Now Commander-in-Chief of the Russian

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 29, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Raspadskaya Coal Company recently designed a virtual tour of the mining companies’ filtering facilities, the holding’s press service reports. The up-to-date 3D program won the gold medal at the 2nd Siberian Environmental Forum. The virtual tour gives the user a full picture of every single stage at which mining water gets filtered. The 360-degree videos of Yerunakovskaya 8 Mine’s and Uskovskaya Mine’s advanced filtering facilities allow a VR headset user to visit all the locations, learn about the tech processes, and get acquainted with

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 29, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is currently Russia’s only ferrous metallurgical enterprise to make it to the rating of top ten environmentally aware and proactive companies; the rating is carried by the TV channel Zhivaya Planeta and the MOMRI every six months, MMK’s press service reports. Based on its environmental initiatives in the first half of 2018, MMK went two positions up in the rating and was listed as the country’s seventh most environmentally aware business. There are 33 oil and gas companies and metallurgical enterprises in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 29, 2018. 18 employees of ChelPipe Group’s pipe-manufacturing and oilfield service divisions are competing in the 5th All-Russian WorldSkills Hi Tech blue-collar job championship this year, the company press service reports. Now the 5th All-Russian WorldSkills Hi Tech Championship is taking place in Yekaterinburg EXPO on October 24-28, 2018. The Group’s ‘white-coated metallurgists’ are contesting in eleven different categories, including Mechatronics, Industrial Robotics, Reverse Engineering, and Welding. ‘ChelPipe Group is a regular participant in WorldSkills

UrBC, Moscow, October 29, 2018. According to the Russian banks’ reports as of October 1, 2018, Russian nationals kept withdrawing their dollar savings ($662m) as well as their ruble savings (RU 141bn) from Russian banks throughout September. Most of the money fled from the banks mentioned in the U.S. anti-Russia package that included a proposal to ban foreign currency transactions, Kommersant reports. Sberbank’s foreign currency deposits shrank by over $901m in the course of last month; those of VTB dropped by $95m; those of Sovcombank by $55m. Some of these funds got transferred to Russian