The impact of the pandemic on the Russian companies’ ESG priorities

Introduction. The purpose of this study is to analyze changes in the socially oriented activities of the largest Russian companies in 2019-2021 in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to find an answer to the question of how the pandemic affected the implementation of ESG strategies by Russian businesses.

Materials and methods. Lukoil, Uralkali, ROSNEFT, SIBUR, Russian Railways, Aeroflot and PhosAgro were chosen as representative cases, which was due to the leadership of these companies in the Indices of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for 2020 "Responsibility and openness" and "Vector of sustainable development". Leading positions in these ratings allow us to assert a high degree of social responsibility of these representatives of large businesses, which, first of all, implies a strategy for the mutually beneficial development of companies and the environment in which they work.

Research results. Based on the non-financial reports the authors come to the conclusion that even before pandemic the Russian big companies were more focused on the social sphere, and now as a result of the new conditions this trends are significantly more vivid. On the other hand, companies from different industries show various ESG strategies that surprisingly are not correlated with financial losses from pandemic.

Discussion and conclusion. Speaking about the impact of the pandemic on the priorities of the companies, it should be noted that in resource-oriented companies, the priorities have not changed much. Rather, it is about a change in the direction of increasing the share of social goals. This trend is especially noticeable in Rosneft and Sibur. And nonoil companies have significantly reduced the total amount of funds allocated to finance the sustainable development goals. The situation in transport companies is quite different. In all the cases considered, a radical turn towards socially oriented programs is obvious.

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