Putin’s Favorite Oligarch

As Russian business emerged from collapse and mafia-style capitalism in the 2000s, the surviving oligarchs set their sights on the global market. As they entered the field of global capitalism, they learned the norms and business practices of Western capital, including corporate social responsibility. One corporation, Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group, emerged as the primary corporate sponsor for Baikal environmentalism. Activists were ambivalent about the relationship, but accepted the money and donned the corporate logo. In so doing, these two generalizable power holders enacted a trade: money for virtue. Not only does such an interaction bolster the capacity of civil society, it also ensures its independence—only an independent civil sector can garner virtue and possess it in such a quantity to trade. Moreover, such a trade is superior to En+’s in-house attempt to create public will, because concern for the company’s image exceeds concern for environmental outcomes.