SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE RUSSIAN BUSINESS: GOOD WILL OF MANAGEMENT OR NECESSITY OF MARKET ECONOMY?

Today, the International Council of Guardians of the Russian-British programme “The window into Russia” is holding in Moscow its round table on social responsibility in business. The aim of the round table is to draw public attention to the problem of social responsibility of business in Russia. The meeting is designed to overcome the current cooling of relationships between Western and Russian businesses which is one of the tasks of the above programme. The following problems are on the agenda: social responsibility in business: good will of the authorities or the necessity of market economy?, the forms and practice of the materialization of social responsibility in business. Russia’s Vice-Premier Valentina Matviyenko and Labour Minister Aleksandr Pochinok are to read the opening address. Among those attending also are Michael Carter (World Bank), Aleksandr Zhukov (Duma’s budget committee), Mikhail Khodorkovski (Yukos), Vladimir Potanin (Interros), Semyon Kukes (TNK), Matthew Robin (Business School of the Princeton University), Teodor Shanin (rector of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences), Vyacheslav Shtyrov (Almazy Rossii-Sakha), Igor Yurgens (Union of Insurers), Valentina Pivnenko (Duma’s north affairs committee), and also top managers of 50 largest companies of Russia, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.