“Vlast” continues to publish a quarterly ranking of the global popularity of Russian companies. We offer a rating for the fourth quarter of 2007, calculated on the basis of mentions of Russian companies in the world press.

Gazprom and Rosneft have maintained their positions in the rankings for the umpteenth time in a row, remaining the most mentioned Russian companies in the world. And they were not always mentioned in a purely business context. The increase in the number of mentions of Gazprom, for example, was facilitated by foreign journalists' coverage of the election campaign in Russia and the nomination of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, Dmitry Medvedev, as a candidate for President of the Russian Federation.

Political motives also explain the rise in the rating of another Russian company, RAO UES. Newspapers, talking about the Union of Right Forces party, did not forget that one of the leaders of the Russian right, Anatoly Chubais, also heads RAO UES.

The story of the Russian company Severstal's acquisition of the British Celtic Resources also remained in the spotlight of journalists. The increased mention of Interros and Norilsk Nickel reflected the interest with which foreign business publications followed developments around these companies.

The high number of mentions of the MiG and Sukhoi was supported by the efforts of journalists from Asian countries interested in Russian military aircraft, primarily Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Ivan Nikolsky

1 (1) "Gazprom" 9129*

2 (2) "Rosneft" 4981

3 (4) TNK-BP 4988

4 (3) "Troika Dialog" 4699

5 (22) Aeroflot 3600

6 (6) "Dry" 3591

7 (22) "Interros" 3377

8 (11) "Norilsk Nickel" 3218

9 (7) MiG 3002

10 (10) "Alfa Group" 2897

11 (8) LUKOIL 2700

12 (5) "Severstal" 2439

13 (16) NMLK 2309

14 (18) RAO "UES of Russia" 2398

15 (19) "Evrazholding" 2367

16 (9) "Russian aluminum" 2298

17 (21) "Basic element" 2198

18 (15) "Tatneft" 2019

19 (13) AFK "Sistema" 1990

20 (14) VTB 1875

*Number of publications in which the company name is mentioned.

The rating was calculated based on materials from 100 leading newspapers and magazines in Australia, Great Britain, Germany, India, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, USA, France and Japan. In the United States, the largest national newspapers were selected, as well as leading state newspapers. Other countries are represented by newspapers and magazines whose circulation is at least 5% of the total circulation of newspapers and magazines in a given country. The rating does not take into account messages from news agencies and television and radio companies. Only articles in which the name is mentioned along with the words “Russia” or “Russian” are taken into account.

Most mentioned Russian companies