The latest Russian company to step into the ring in the battle to defeat Russia’s coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic is the state-owned oil company Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the eponymous gas company.

As part of the company’s corporate “Antivirus” programme to combat COVID-19, Gazprom Neft has begun delivering free supplies of medical PPE (personal protective equipment) throughout Russia’s regions, the company said in a press release on April 22.

“The 'Gazprom Neft for Medics' initiative will facilitate the delivery of more than 1.3mn masks and respirators, specialist isolation screens, goggles, hazmat suits and gloves to medical institutions,” the company said in a statement.

The first batches of equipment for medical professionals have already been delivered to healthcare agencies in seven regions of Russia (the Omsk, Orenburg and Tomsk Oblasts, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, and the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs), where Gazprom Neft has major industrial facilities and tens of thousands of employees that are still at work on oil and gas production and oil refining.

“Gazprom Neft will continue to provide free deliveries of medical PPE over the coming months, as well as supporting emergency services and volunteer organisations by providing free fuel throughout the company’s filling station network, which has already been supplying fuel to medical transport services at no cost in several regions of Russia,” the company said.

Several leading Russian companies have committed tens of millions of dollars to bolster the state’s efforts to contain and treat the victims of the killer virus.

Russian billionaire turned philanthropist Alisher Usmanov leads a Forbes global ranking of the most generous businessmen who have donated money to fighting the virus. Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska has also pledged to build seven hospitals in Siberia, while the owner of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin, says he has committed $143mn to a similar campaign in Russia’s Far North.

 

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