UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 17, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index (IPI) dropped by 7.5% in September 2018 compared with one month earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The IPI went down by 8.5% in the processing industry sector, including a 28.1% decrease in the drinks industry, a 34.1% drop in the textile industry, and a 22.4% drop in the pharmaceuticals production sector. The IPI also went down by 11.9% in the sector for production and distribution of electric power. Compared with September 2017, however, Sverdlovsk Region’s IPI rose by 6.3%.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2018. President of KORTROS Group Veniamin Golubitsky won the prestigious national real estate prize RREF Awards in Reputation & Trust, RSG-Akademicheskoye’s press service reports. The category applies to nominees seen as the most progressive and successful developer/real estate market leaders whose personal contribution to their business development and to the overall market’s growth truly stand out. Veniamin Golubitsky has been running KORTROS Group (known as Renova-StroyGroup before 2013) since 2005; the company deals in development projects that offer

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 16, 2018. Metallurg Charity Foundation, for which Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is the primary sponsor and benefactor, turned thirty this month, MMK’s press service reports. ‘The foundation got set up in 1988, when the drastic economic changes and their consequences hit the country’s most socially vulnerable strata (retirees and people with disabilities) the hardest. The government was unable to take care of most of its citizens, and MMK management started to look into alternative ways to offer its former employees a social safety net,’ the press

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2018. Customers based in the Urals are turning to cashless payments increasingly more often when it comes to the entertainment sector: every one in fifteen purchases paid for by MegaFon Card pertains to theater/movie/concert tickets, the company’s press service reports. ‘According to our analysts’ data, 71% of customers who bought the tickets last month are men. Some of them are true record-setters: one Sverdlovsk Region-based customer bought tickets to 57 different events in the course of one month. This is nearly three times as many as the number of events

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2018. Ural Airlines are offering their customers reduced-price tickets on Palma de Mallorca flights to be operated during the New Year break, the air carrier’s press service reports. The special-offer flights will be operated on December 29, 2018; and January 2, 5, 9, and 12, 2019. Prices start from RUR 13,100/€170 for a round trip ticket. The tickets are already available for purchase. ‘Palma de Mallorca is a great place to go to in any season. Around New Year, the island turns into one big, spectacular Christmas market. There are festive parades, carnivals,

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 16, 2018. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky took a tour of the facilities in Chelyabinsk that are now being reconstructed and improved as part of the federal-funded Comfortable Urban Improvement Program and the Governor’s Actual Accomplishements Program, Southern Urals Government’s press department reports. The Governor spoke very highly of the reconstruction projects and pointed out that infrastructure development in the local towns and villages was the government’s top priority. For one, Governor Dubrovsky went to Aloye Pole Park that is being

UrBC, Magnitogorsk, October 15, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) is about to launch its new Sintering Plant 5 with two very special sintering units that are currently unique to Russia, MMK Information & PR Department reports. The tech equipment is still being assembled for the units at the moment; the metal frameworks for the sintering plant’s building and facilities need to get put up as well. The two new sintering unit have a sintering area of 300 m2 per each sintering belt (height of the sintering mix layer: 700 mm). This is much better than the current parameters of

UrBC, Moscow, October 15, 2018. The UK refused to have the raw stuffs needed to make painkillers exported to Russia, TASS refers to Moscow Endocrine Plant’s Director-General Mikhail Fonarev as stating. ‘We depend on imported opioid substances 100% at the moment. These means that absolutely everything - morphines as well as codeine and thebaine stuffs - needs to be purchased abroad. Spain is one of our suppliers, for example. There are other countries as well, but the UK is one country that refused to supply any stuffs to Russia,’ he is quoted as saying. According to Fonarev, introducing a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2018. A students’ design office was set up in Nizhniy Tagil Tech Institute (a subsidiary of Ural Federal University). According to EVRAZ Holding’s press service, the prospective engineers can use the newly purchased equipment to practice the most advanced design and 3D modeling techniques. ‘The design office is fit for fifteen students, each of whom can use two monitors and a graphic station. There’s also a large OHP, an interactive board, and a docucam. We’ve also invested in e-textbooks, comfortable furniture, and up-to-date printing/scanning appliances. The

UrBC, Pervouralsk, October 15, 2018. The NGO Gorod Pervykh activists planted five oak trees in F.A. Danilov Park in Pervouralsk. The trees were donated to the town by one of the locals, who had them grow from acorns in her garden, ChelPipe Group’s press service reports. ‘We were very enthusiastic about this local lady’s proposal to have the young trees replanted in the urban environment. There wasn't enough room for the oaks in her garden by then. I hope we’ll see big, leafy oak trees here in one hundred years’ time, so that our grandchildren can enjoy them,’ says Gorod Pervykh

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 15, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy Systems allocated around RUR 2bn to get its power facilities in Western Siberia ready for winter, FGC UES Western Siberia’s PR & Media Group reports. Throughout January to September, all the scheduled repairs at substations and electric mains in Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region got completed one hundred percent. The facilities’ breakdown rate dropped 22%. ‘The repair progress got reported on during a recent meeting on FGC UES Western Siberia’s power

UrBC, Moscow, October 12, 2018. The measures the Bank of Russia has been taking to contain inflation (including a recent increase of the key rate) will result in ongoing reduction of interest rates on mortgages, the bank’s head Elvira Nabiullina believes, according to Prime. ‘As for mortgages, the interest rates did go down and reached an all-time low in the middle of summer. And the number of newly issued mortgage loans has been rising fast enough as well. Our analysis findings indicate that this has been happening specifically due to the fact that we keep the inflation in check,’ Nabiullina

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers its insurance plans (My Child and Teledoctor) in every Russian town the bank operates in, that is, in forty-six federal constituencies all in all, the bank’s press service reports. My Child is an insurance plan offered jointly with D2 Strakhovanie that covers the following: disability due to accident and temporary disability/incapacitation due to accident. The child must at least three years old on the day the contract is signed; the plan expires in the year the child turns eighteen.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 12, 2018. A representation of Southern Urals Chamber of Commerce & Industry opened in Harbin this month, the CCI’s press service reports. The CCI’s China branch will be in charge of supporting Chelyabinsk Region’s businesspeople’s visits to China organizationally; doing due diligence checks of prospective Chinese partners; coordinating meetings and negotiations; organizing tours of China-based exhibitions; helping Russian companies register as a legal entity in China; and supporting Chinese businesspeople’s visits to Chelyabinsk Region for negotiation purposes.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. Sverdlovsk Region’s migration loss figures went up by 14.6% in January-August 2018 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. The migration loss balance thus reached 1,185 people in the eight months of the year (compared with 1,358 people one year earlier): 77,134 migrants arrived in the constituency and 78,492 people left. The local depopulation rate also went up 1.7 times. 34,166 people were born in Sverdlovsk Region in January-August 2018 and 39,806 people died.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 12, 2018. 6,999,739 people flew with Ural Airlines between January and September 2018, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 14%, the air carrier’s press service reports. 3,880,528 passengers flew on domestic flights in these nine months of the year; 1,837,489 people flew internationally; and 1,281,722 people traveled to or from the CIS member states. The airline operated 47,242 flights altogether (up 13% on the year 2017), including 26,480 domestic ones, 11,766 international ones, and 8,996 flights to and from destinations in CIS member states. The

UrBC, Moscow, October 11, 2018. The Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Enforcement at Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry uncovered a fraud at FOREX’s Russian representation. ‘According to the information we have, the suspects used the name of the well-known brand to act as legitimate forex e-traders for their customers and collected private customers’ funds, promising enormous profits and ROI in return. In actuality, all the money got transferred to ad hoc accounts and stolen,’ says Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry’s official spokesperson Irina Volk. To make everything look

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. Ural Airlines are introducing a new flight from Vladivostok, Russia to Sapporo, Japan on December 4, 2018. The new flight will be operated every Tuesday and Friday, the air carrier’s press service reports. There is a special offer at the start: prices for Vladivostok-Sapporo-Vladivostok flight start from as little as RUR 7,600 (€100) and RUR 14,100 (€186) (one way and round trip, respectively). ‘Welcome to Sapporo, Hokkaido’s No.1 city! This is one of the key locations to do winter sports. The island is sometimes referred to as ‘the Japanese Siberia’; it

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers all of Samsung Pay options to the bank’s MasterCard holders. Customers who have both a UBRD-issued MasterCard and a Samsung device can pay for their shopping using their smartphones, the bank’s press service reports. ‘We’ve already launched Samsung Pay for Visa holders a bit earlier,’ says UBRD Marketing Director Alexei Merzlyakov. ‘This resulted in an increase in the number of card payments, including contactless ones. As we see customer service improvements and customer satisfaction

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 11, 2018. Federal Grid Company United Energy System’s Western Siberia branch invested in a number of new special-purpose vehicles in order to get ready for winter, the company’s PR & Media Group reports. ‘FGC UES Western Siberia is in charge of power facilities operating in Tyumen Region, Yugra, and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region. We need very specific, custom-made vehicles for this climatically challenging territories,’ the Group says. The branch currently operates 363 automobiles and special-purpose vehicles, of which about 33% are wheeled and tracked