Outgoing 2019: a good year for Russia
Residents of Russia often do not notice the positive things that are happening in the country. It is generally accepted that Russia is for the sad. Perhaps, taking into account the boundless sparsely populated open spaces and the climate that is not suitable for a comfortable life, the existential longing, which is characteristic of many Russians, is becoming clearer. But even in our latitudes, a lot of positive things are happening, including in areas that we are constantly blamed for. For example, the Russian economy is not as bad as it is often described to us. In Russia, industrial production grew in 2019, large infrastructure facilities were built, and new ships were laid.
Russian industry is even capable of local miracles. One of them was revealed to us by AvtoVAZ, which had long since corrected its karma and in 2019 released the 400th Vesta, which for several years has been successfully competing in its price segment with cars of popular world brands.
Do not forget about the successes of Russian schoolchildren and students in the international arena, it is they who in the future will take Russian business and industry to a new level. Young Russians regularly become winners of international competitions in a variety of subjects, including computer science. So news very little attention is paid, although each such victory is very important for the future of the country.
Below we will talk about the good things that happened in our country in 2019. Some of them, concerning infrastructure facilities and industrial achievements, of course, are not absolutely certain. The world did not suddenly become black and white and never was, life is a huge number of shades and nuances of interpreting the same events. In this regard, we can advise all of you to pay more attention to the information received. It is often very difficult to understand the information stream that is falling on us today, but it is necessary to understand it. This is very important if you yourself want to assess the events that are taking place, and not broadcast the opinions of others. Read different sources, study the questions you are interested in, use all the features of the Internet, study like our student prizewinners.
The largest infrastructure projects in 2019
A new Gagarin Airport opened in Saratov
The largest project that was implemented in 2019 as part of a public-private partnership was the new airport opened in Saratov, which received the name "Gagarin". Built from the ground up modern aviation the complex took its first flight on August 20, 2019. Unlike the old airport, the new one received a 3-kilometer runway and the ability to receive almost all types of existing passenger aircraft, while the old Tsentralny airport was designed only to accept regional aircraft. The new passenger terminal “Gagarin” with a total area of 23 thousand square meters is able to serve 570 passengers every hour, the annual passenger flow of the airport can reach 1 million people. Between August 20 and November 19, 2019, 173 passengers have already taken advantage of the new airport in Saratov.
In Russia, completed the highway Neva M11
On November 27, 2019, a new M11 Neva highway was put into operation, which connects Moscow and St. Petersburg. This toll road with a length of 669,8 kilometers is an understudy of the free M10 highway and runs through the territory of Moscow, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions. The total cost of the construction of the new highway amounted to 520 billion rubles, of which approximately 148 billion accounted for off-budget sources of financing. The motorway of the highest category of roads in Russia, IA, has over the entire length from two to five lanes in each direction and a central dividing lane. The estimated speed of the road is 150 km / h. It is expected that in stages the maximum permitted speed on the Neva highway will be brought to 130 km / h. The road passes bypassing hundreds of settlements, so the promised travel time between cities will be 6-6,5 hours.
Passenger trains went to Crimea
Officially, on December 18, 2019, all construction work on the railway part of the Crimean bridge was completed, and on December 23, railway traffic opened on the bridge connecting the Crimea with mainland Russia. The bridge connecting Crimea and Krasnodar Territory is the longest in Russia, its length is 19 kilometers. Last year, automobile traffic was opened on the bridge, and this year the first passenger trains went on it. So far, passengers have access to only two routes in the directions Moscow - Simferopol and St. Petersburg - Sevastopol and vice versa. Soon, you can also go to the peninsula from Kislovodsk, Murmansk and Yekaterinburg. The launch of freight trains is expected in the summer of 2020.
Industrial production is growing in Russia
In the Russian Federation, there has been an increase in industrial production. In January-October 2019, the growth of this indicator amounted to 2,7 percent. According to specialists from Rosstat, this is a good indicator against the background of other sectors of the Russian economy, which added only 1,1 percent for the first three quarters of this year, as well as against the backdrop of world achievements in this area. It is noteworthy that growth in Russia is noted not only in the mining industry, but also in the production of technological products. At the same time, industrial production in Russia looks favorably against the background of other countries. For example, in Brazil, Italy, the UK, Japan, and the Federal Republic of Germany, according to the results of three quarters of 2019, industrial production showed a negative growth. The worst situation was in Germany, where industrial production fell by 4 percent.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service, out of 24 aggregated product groups of Russian industry, only 2019 was in the negative zone following the results of January-October 7. The most successful growth was in the category “production of medicines and materials used for medical purposes” - 18 percent for 9 months. For individual products, we can distinguish a significant increase in the production of buses weighing up to five tons - 1,7 times, medical equipment and devices - 1,4 times, diesel locomotives (+ 26%), freight cars (+17,2 percent), paints and varnishes (+ 14,8%), timber (+ 14,3%), cheeses (+ 9,7%).
400th Lada Vesta rolled off the assembly line in Izhevsk
In December 2019, the 400th Lada Vesta left the assembly line of the Lada Izhevsk production site. The production of this model of the Volga plant began at the car factory in Izhevsk in September 2015. According to the press service of the manufacturer, the jubilee car was a bright blue diving sedan with an 1,6-liter engine (113 hp) and an automatic continuously variable gearbox in Exclusive configuration. It is worth noting that every day more than 500 new cars come off the assembly line of the Izhevsk Automobile Plant, which is engaged in assembling the entire line of Vesta cars.
The car, which changed the opinion of many Russians about the Lada brand and made many skeptics change shoes, has been produced since September 2015 and continues to show positive sales dynamics. According to the results of 11 months of this year, Vesta car sales in Russia grew by 4 percent and amounted to 100 501 cars. In 2018, cars under the Lada Vesta brand for the first time became the best-selling new cars in Russia. The car surpassed its direct competitors in the B-class: KIA Rio,
Hyundai Solaris and Volkswagen Polo. Apparently, at the end of 2019, the state of affairs in the Russian automotive market will continue, and the appearance in November 2019 of a model with a full-fledged CVT instead of Robot, only stimulates sales of Vesta.
43 new trawlers are being built in Russia
Domestic shipyards, which have not built new fishing vessels for almost four decades, received a shaft of new orders in 2019. It's all about changes in legislation. Fishermen are required to acquire new ships in Russia in order to preserve part of the fishing quotas. Such measures led to the fact that Russian shipyards received a huge increase in orders and now they are building 43 fishing trawlers for a total of 160 billion rubles. Nothing of the kind has been observed either in the Soviet Union or in Russia over the past 40 years.
According to the head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, Russian fishery companies have concluded contracts for the construction of 43 different trawlers and 25 factories processing marine products. The total amount of concluded contracts is estimated at 180 billion rubles, of which the lion's share falls on ships - 160,5 billion rubles. The implementation of these orders will allow for the foreseeable future to update 65 percent of specialized ships operating in the Northern Basin and approximately 25 percent of ships in the Far East of Russia (in terms of capacity, not quantity).
Russian students won the International Olympiad in Informatics
Russian students once again proved that the country is very strong in exact disciplines and computer science. At the International Olympiad in Informatics, which was held this year in Baku, the Russian team became the best in the unofficial standings. The tournament for young programmers, which was held from August 4 to 11, 2019, brought four gold medals to our students. Nobody won more gold than Russians at IOI 2019 (International Olympiad in Informatics) in Baku. Second and third places with three gold medals were divided among themselves by schoolchildren from the USA and China. Students from South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam secured two gold awards each. Gold awards for Russia were brought by Ildar Gainullin (Kazan), Alexander Morozov (St. Petersburg), Vladimir Romanov and Yegor Lifar (both Moscow).
Russian schoolchildren also successfully performed at the International Natural Science Olympiad of Juniors in Qatar, which ended in December 2019. The Olympics was held for the 16th time and brought together schoolchildren no older than 15 from 70 different countries. The Russian team of six people won two gold and four silver medals. Gold medals were won by Vadim Erin and Daniil Zhitov, silver: Artyom Gulyaev, Vasilisa Kislitsina, Matvey Muravyov and Ilya Prosyany. All six participants were winners of the All-Russian Olympiad of students in physics and chemistry. Note that Russian schoolchildren regularly succeed at the international level without any doping, but on TV, in the news stories of online publications and in the print media, we learn almost nothing about it. Meanwhile, such young winners are our future and the main asset of the country.
OCSiAl estimated at a billion dollars
OCSiAl, an international private company founded by four Russian scientists and entrepreneurs, was valued at one billion dollars, becoming the first unicorn company in the Rusnano portfolio (unicorns are companies that have received investments from one billion dollars or more). Currently, 17,3 percent of the company's shares belong to Rusnano, another 47 percent plus voting control are concentrated in the hands of Russian entrepreneurs Yuri Koropachinsky, Yuri Zelvensky and Oleg Kirillov, as well as academician of the RAS Mikhail Predtechensky. All four are friends and alumni of NSU.
The company, built by Russians from scratch, has a main office in Luxembourg, and the main production site will also be located there. Such a decision is not dictated by the lack of patriotism, but by the need to work in a global world and protect intellectual property in the English legal system, and this decision is largely dictated by the desire to be closer to consumers. Half of the company's products today are consumed by Europe and the USA, one third are China, while Russia accounts for only two percent so far. It is worth noting that OCSiAl is the world's first manufacturer of high-quality graphene nanotubes. At the end of 2018, the company occupied 95 percent of the global market with its product. In Russia, a unique industrial startup is cramped, the company wants to change the whole world no less. At the same time, up to 60 tons of nanotubes per year are already produced at the OCSiAl industrial site in Novosibirsk. According to the founder of the company Korpachinsky, competitors of the company will be able to achieve such output volumes no earlier than in 5-7 years.
Unique floating nuclear power plant launched in Russia
In 2019, a unique floating nuclear power plant was launched in Russia, this is the first such facility in the world. The floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) is a project of the Rosatom state corporation. On December 19, 2019, the station generated its first electrical energy. The new power station is located in the port of Pevek in Chukotka. Next year, the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP is going to connect Pevek to the heating systems, putting the station into commercial operation. A unique industrial facility will become the northernmost nuclear power plant on the planet.
Experts say that in the future, the new Akademik Lomonosov nuclear power plant with a displacement of 22 thousand tons will completely replace the capacity of the technologically outdated Bilibino NPP, as well as the large coal Chaun TPP, becoming one of the most important infrastructure elements in the Russian Arctic. The nuclear power plant, which consists of two 35 megawatt power units, will help and the development of the infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route, which every year should play an increasingly important role in the Russian economy.
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