Published on: 2026-10-30
Source: Government of the Russian Federation –
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Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova participated in a press conference dedicated to the launch of applications for the national award “Leaders of Responsible Business” 2026. Representatives of government bodies, business associations, trade unions, and businesses spoke at TASS about the scale of the project, key trends, and innovations.
Deputy Prime Minister, Co-chair of the award organizing committee Tatiana Golikova noted the growing interest in the award from the business community: last year, the number of participants more than doubled.
Tatiana Golikova paid special attention to the role of responsible business in shaping new social norms. According to her, leaders of responsible business help overcome the traditional opposition between family and career. “For a long time, family and career were set against each other, and a young woman at the start of her professional path was perceived as an unreliable candidate. It is very important that it is precisely the leaders of responsible business who are forming a new norm, where you don’t have to choose, but can simply be both a sought-after professional, an involved father, and a promising employee,” said Tatiana Golikova.
She noted that during the Year of the Family, a corporate demographic standard was developed — recommendations for supporting employees with family responsibilities. At the federal level, one-time payments to employees upon the birth of a child up to 1 million rubles are exempt from taxes and insurance contributions. Companies are already implementing this standard to some extent in 80 regions of the country.
The President of the RSPP, co-chairman of the award organizing committee Alexander Shokhin, presented the results of the previous cycle and explained the selection mechanics for 2026. According to him, in 2025, 101 applications were received — three times more than the previous year; 66 companies passed prequalification — twice as many as in 2024. More than half of the participants (36 companies) applied for the award for the first time, including Alrosa, Aeroflot, Rosatom, Gazprom Neft, Sovcombank. The participants presented about 160 corporate programs, with the greatest number in the categories of sustainable territorial development, human potential, and support for families, youth, and children.
Alexander Shokhin noted the established core of regular participants: 16 companies have participated in the award all three years, with 11 of them having become winners or laureates at least once. “A stable circle of leaders has formed – ‘PhosAgro’, ‘Norilsk Nickel’, ‘Rusal’, ‘Sibur’, and at the same time, new strong players have joined it. For example, the company ‘Alrosa’ became a winner in its very first year of participation,” he noted.
The assessment of participants in 2026, as before, will take place in three stages. At the first stage, the company’s position in ESG indices and ratings is analyzed, for companies with revenue up to 50 billion rubles the ECG rating is taken into account, independent verification of reporting is checked, participation in social partnership, as well as victories in the “Our Contribution” and “#WeAreTogether” awards. At the second stage, experts evaluate specific corporate programs by nominations. At the third stage, the winners are determined by the total points. “This approach combines the results of different evaluation systems, and therefore the title of responsible business leader is an objective, comprehensive recognition,” explained Alexander Shokhin.
The Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Central Federal District, Igor Shchyogolev, spoke about the connection between the award and the ESG rating as well as regional support measures. Award winners receive additional points in the ESG rating, creating a unified system for rewarding socially responsible enterprises.
Laws supporting responsible business, providing direct preferences to companies demonstrating best practices, have already been adopted in 60 regions.
“Currently, laws supporting responsible business have been adopted in 60 regions of our country, granting direct preferences to those companies that demonstrate the best performance in this area. This includes both a reduction of bureaucratic procedures and additional regional support measures,” said Igor Shchyogolev.
The Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), Sergey Chernogaev, emphasized the importance of the real participation of companies in the system of social partnership. He identified the presence of a collective agreement and an active trade union organization as the key criterion. “For us, it is a fundamental outcome that issues of workers’ social and labor rights are now placed on the same level as ecology, investments, and territorial development,” stressed Sergey Chernogaev. At the initiative of the FNPR, a provision regarding the existence of a collective agreement or the company’s participation in the implementation of the sectoral agreement regulating social and labor relations was included in the participant’s award questionnaire.
The press conference was also attended by Pavel Marinychev, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of ALROSA; Pavel Isaev, Deputy CEO for Relations with Business Associations, Unions, and Organizations of Severstal; Andrey Orishkevich, Managing Director of Green Garden – Our Home Group; and Yuri Akinshin, Director of Sustainable Development at RUSAL.
Applications for participation in the award are accepted until December 10, 2026 at digital platform of the award on the RSPP website. The results will be summed up at the RSPP congress in March 2027.
Annual National Award «Leaders of Responsible Business», established on the instructions of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, has been conducted by RSPP since 2023. It is open to large Russian companies that adhere to the principles of responsible business conduct and regularly produce non-financial reporting that comprehensively discloses information about the organization’s activities based on the principles of responsible business conduct.
Applications – 2023 / 2024 / 2025 – 44/33/101; participants – 36/30/66. Leading industries in 2025: metallurgy and mining – 13 companies (20%), chemistry and petrochemistry – 10 (15%), energy – 9 (14%). Winners of 2025: “RZD”, “Rusal”, “PhosAgro”, “Alrosa”, “Norilsk Nickel”, “Sibur”. Laureates: “En+”, “Severstal”, “Metalloinvest”, “VimpelCom”, “Tatneft”, MMK, “DOM.RF”.
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