UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 29, 2018. You can now use MegaFon SIM cards to test the quality of drinking water in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk: the smart solutions have been applied within the telemetric quality control system of local water vending machines, the company press service reports. Now according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, over 60% of Russians are not really curious about the quality of potable water, and 84% of their respondents drink water from the tap. In Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, locals boil, filter, or desilt it first. Even these precautions might

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing more Yekaterinburg-Tbilisi flights. According to the air carrier’s press service, four flights a week will get operated from Yekaterinburg to Georgia’s capital starting November 4, 2018. The flights will be available every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Prices start from €54 (RUR 4,041*) for a one-way ticket. The flight is three hours and twenty minutes long. ‘Wintertime Georgia is a great place to go to both for mountain skiers and for those who love long walks along old streets. It makes a lot of sense to start

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 26, 2018. The 25th EuroBLECH 2018 Fair is taking place in Hannover, Germany; Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is contributing to this major event in the sheet metal treatment technology sector. ‘MMK takes part in EuroBLECH every other year, which is how often the fair gets held. The company stand features the plant’s wide product range and tech potential in the sheet metal making sector. MMK is currently No.1 on the respective Russian market,’ says the plant’s Information & PR Department. The highly durable and wear-resistant MAGSTRONG. steels are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2018. The Bank of Russia annulled UralTransBank’s license this week, the former’s website states. ‘This is to announce that the Bank of Russia annuls the banking license of Yekaterinburg-based PAO UralTransBank (Identification Number 812) starting October 25, 2018 (Bank of Russia’s Decree dated October 25, 2018/No. OD 2785),’ the website says. Now UralTransBank closed down more than a third of its retail branches in the last eight months; besides, the bank was on the Central Bank of Russia’s non-compliers list for eighteen months. Valeriy Zavodov, a business

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2018. Sverdlovsk State Academic Philharmonic canceled the closed meeting that was supposed to have covered a discussion on a new concert hall, political activist Dmitri Moskvin announced via his Facebook account. The news of the planned meeting transpired last week; it turned out only the so-called members of the ‘Friends of The Philharmonic League’ could sign up for it; the Philharmonic’s website explained this had to do with the limited number of people their auditorium could fit. ‘We do not wish to engage in the ‘open hearings’ format that we are being

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 26, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) won the 5th All-Russian Motivation Awards 2018 Contest in Innovations. The bank presented its General Meeting 2018/LifeUB: The Talk Show Project, the bank’s press service reports. The contest aims to bring into the limelight the best practices used for personnel motivation and to support the development of advanced personnel management technologies. Only the most progressive and out-of-the-ordinary projects on intangible employe incentives that were implemented by different companies competed in

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 25, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Sinosteel Equipment & Engineering Co (China) signed a memorandum of cooperation in order to have MMK’s coke and by-product process facilities upgraded, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports. The paper was signed by MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev and Sinosteel Equipment & Engineering Co., Ltd Chair of the BOD Lu Pengcheng. The two parties agreed to sign contracts for the construction of new facilities as part of MMK’s coke and by-product process departments’ reconstruction. Under the terms

UrBC, Moscow, October 25, 2018. 10,467 forged ruble bills were found within the Russian Federation’s banking system in the third quarter of 2018; this is 267 banknotes fewer than one year earlier, the Central Bank’s press service reports. 5,000-ruble bills get forged most often (7,616 bills got uncovered in the given period all in all); the number of forged 1,000-ruble bills is nearly three times smaller: 2,425. Added to this are 95 forged 2,000-ruble bills and 3 forged 200-ruble bills, as well as 37 counterfeit coins (4 10-ruble ones, 32 5-ruble ones, and 1 1-ruble one). As for foreign

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2018. About nine hundred more doctors are still needed in Sverdlovsk Region, the constituency’s Healthcare Minister Andrei Tsvetkov announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg on October 24, 2018. ‘These are both currently unfilled job openings and the potential replacements for doctors going into retirement,’ the minister said. According to Tsvetkov, locations in Sverdlovsk Region’s north suffer from medical staff shortage particularly badly. The Healthcare Ministry is now trying to make up for the shortage by hiring both local medical school graduates

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2018. Workers from EVRAZ Holding’s Ural and Siberia divisions are going to take part in the nationwide blue-collar job championship WorldSkills Hi Tech for the fifth time this year, the holding’s press service reports. The championship will be held at Yekaterinburg EXPO on October 24-28. EVRAZ’s team comprises 35 contestants and 33 experts for the judges’ panel. This year, the company representatives will compete in twelve different categories: Mechatronics, Welding, Wiring, Industrial Automation, Lab Chemical Testing, Sheet Metal Treatment, Nondestructive

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 25, 2018. Ural Airlines is launching its new flight from Zhukovsky, Moscow Region to Prague, Czechia and back on December 26, 2018; flight U6 751/752 will be operated every Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘The flights are offered within very convenient time slots: you leave Zhukovsky at 6:30 AM and arrive in Prague at 7:30 AM, so you’ll have a full day ahead of you to enjoy the city. On the way back, you leave Prague at 8:30 AM and arrive in Zhukovsky after three hours on board,’ the press service says. Prices

UrBC, Pervouralsk, October 24, 2018. ChelPipe Group is now one of the first Russian metallurgical enterprises to introduce an automated emission control system at the plant, the Group’s press service reports. The system has been launched at the Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ); it relies on the innovative research findings that allow for giving up on manual gauging completely and for getting 100% of data automatically. The project required around RUR 20m in investments. The equipment comprises a multi-component infrared gas analyzer, a gas flowmeter, and a dust analyzer. The system

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 24, 2018. Seventeen people took part in the recent public hearings relating to where to put up a new building for Sverdlovsk Philharmonic in Yekaterinburg; all the seventeen hearing participants voted against the proposed location; the ballot results were published on the town council’s website. ‘All the hearing and voting procedures have been carried out properly. It is not possible to take the voters’ opinion into account as far as not pulling down an apartment building at 40 Karl Liebknecht St is concerned, in case the town council goes through with the

UrBC, Moscow, October 24, 2018. The German car manufacturer BMW is calling off 1.6m automobiles worldwide as a possible fault has been found in their exhaust gas recirculation system, which might, in the worst-case scenario, lead to flame formation, Prime refers to Bayerischer Rundfunk as announcing. The call-off pertains to cars made between August 2010 and August 2017. It was determined in the course of an internal investigation that certain automobiles’ gas recirculation system may give off the glycol-based cooling agent, which, in combination with the black carbon residue and the high

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 24, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) presented its new mobile apps designed with the goal of optimizing the plant’s business processes at the 7th Annual Moscow Open Innovations Forum, the company press service reports. The Forum took place at Skolkovo Foundation’s campus on October 15-17 and was dedicated to digital economy. Nine MMK representatives took part in the forum altogether, including four heads of production departments who are currently studying on MMK Director-General’s School Industry 4.0 Program. Director of MMK-Informservis Vadim

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 24, 2018. The developer RSG-Akademicheskoye is coordinating a tender for a contractor to do the design and survey work relating to a prospective new embankment along the River Patrushikha in District Akademicheskiy’s Quarter 26, the company’s press service reports. The contractor the company decides upon will have to do all the engineering survey work and produce all the design documentation for the embankment along the River Patrushikha in District Akademicheskiy’s Quarter 26, Yekaterinburg. The opening bid has been set at RUR 3,530,617 (18% VAT included). The

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 23, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) directed RUR 13m to fund the trade union members’ children’s stays at countryside camps/resorts this year so far. According to the company press service, MMK has allocated RUR 2m more for the purpose this year compared with two years earlier. ‘The special program the trade union committee adopted early on in the year involves the trade union members/employees whose children go to summer camps during the school break. These workers get a subsidy of RUR 3,500 to co-fund their children’s summer travel,’ the press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 23, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) is now Russia’s first enterprise to launch the SAP ERP- and SAP APO PP/DS-based production planning system. The PPS adjusted the plant’s order-placing, production planning, and spare parts manufacturing processes and resulted in a 10% drop in the amount of warehouse stock, the holding’s press service reports. ‘The new system allows for more efficient tracking of new orders and for timely production planning and control. Orders and applications for new spare parts get entered into an

UrBC, Vladikavkaz, October 23, 2018. North Ossetia-Alanya’s public prosecution authorities are now investigating a fire outbreak at Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company’s ElectroZinc in Vladikavkaz. The investigation is meant to evaluate the actions taken by the people in charge at the plant, TASS reports. ‘An investigation is taking place to look into the fire; once it has been completed, an assessment of the plant’s management’s actions will be issued,’ a public prosecution authorities representative is quoted as telling TASS. The fire broke out at the plant’s electrolysis shop on

UrBC, Moscow, October 23, 2018. The number of Russians who booked a flight to Europe for the upcoming New Year break is down 17% this year compared with one year earlier; the share of Europe-bound passenger traffic declined from 16.1% to 13.3%, tutu.ru refers to its own research findings as indicating. The company looked into bookings made for December 15, 2018-January 15, 2019. ‘The prices for European flights have remained essentially the same, with the average amount down by 2% from RUR 25,677 to RUR 25,242 (round trip); the price of flying to other international destinations rose by 1% on