President of Oil Company RussNeft OAO Mikhail Gutseriev became the Laureate of the First National Public Premium in the field of charity and patronage of art having received the Big Gold Medal of the Maecenas Order, First Class. According to the statement of RussNeft press service, the decision on the presentation of the Medal to the company’s President came from the members of the Premium’s Social Council including Culture and Mass Communications Minister Alexander Sokolov, Chechnya President Alu Alkhanov, Chairman of Khakasia’s Government Alexey Lebed’, prominent public and political figures, scientists and clerisy representatives. The competent jury recognized the valuable contribution made by Mikhail Gutseriev in the course of reviving the traditions of Russian charity and highly appreciated his personal collaboration in a number of large social and charitable projects of a federal level.
The Premium has been raised by the International Charity Fund “Maecenases of the Century” and is adjudged by the Social Council basing on the information received from the administrations of constituent entities of the Federation, the Commerce and Industry Chamber of this country, regional mass media and consulting agencies. The main criteria applied to the contenders of the contest to determine its laureates are their contribution to the development of our home economy, level of their social responsibility, collaboration in various environmental projects, and the activity aimed at maintaining and increasing our intellectual, moral and cultural values.
The Social Council of the Premium paid special attention to the following social and charitable initiatives of RussNeft headed by Mikhail Gutseriev – construction of a modern lyceum-school in Grozny, construction and restoration of churches in the Republic of Udmurtia, KhMAO and Ulyanovsk region, sponsoring of Lomonosov Moscow State University and other higher educational institutions, construction of a big children’s sanatorium-preventorium in the Bryansk region, aid to all the children’s homes in the Tomsk region.