Public participation is increasingly considered to be a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Most of the international CSR soft law regulations include at least some
elements of participatory rights. The aim of this article is to evaluate the
extent to which participatory rights can, as a part of CSR, complement
insufficient participatory rights granted by an illiberal state such as the
Russian Federation. We use case studies from different parts of Russia to
scrutinize how different oil companies have included public participation in
their CSR policies. 

Russian environmental and other legislation offer few opportunities for local people to get
information on forthcoming natural resource projects and participate in
decision making. Therefore, we presumed that participation as a part of CSR of
oil companies could bring benefits to the local people. However, the present
case studies show that the oil companies working in Russia rarely inform the
local people or arrange consultations with them unless Russian legislation so
requires. There seems to be significant public participation only when an
international bank is included in the project financing. Otherwise, the
requirements of the international CSR regulations to which the Russian oil
companies have committed themselves – such as Global Compact and Global
Reporting Initiative – are too vague for public participation, having no effect
on stakeholder relations of the oil companies in Russia. However, public
participation can be and is advanced on different regulatory and governance
levels in Russia  in spite of the
reluctant attitude of the Government.