6.2. Charity and Volunteering

In order to contribute and make a difference, the Gazprom Group works to address the most pressing social issues by engaging in charity and acting as a sponsor.

At Gazprom, social initiatives are governed by the Regulation on Sponsorship and Charitable Activities. When considering the allocation of funds to a project, the Group takes into account its social significance, importance and public relevance, as well as its targeted outreach. As a rule, the final decision is made by the management of the Gazprom Group’s companies.

The Group’s key tools to implement charity initiatives include:

• cooperation agreements with regional authorities;
• own social projects;
• targeted charity;
• volunteering support.

In the reporting year, the Group’s charity spending and sponsorship of indigenous minorities support increased by 37% and 19.9%, respectively.

The Gazprom Group employees are volunteers in a variety of charity projects, with volunteering now ingrained in the Group’s corporate culture.

The Equals project is a program run by Gazprom Pererabotka in St. Petersburg and aimed at providing equal opportunities for people with mental health conditions. The initiative helps raise awareness of inclusivity and contribute to developing a social environment for people with special needs. The company finances art studios at a mental health care home and supports the Special Olympics movement, the world’s largest rehabilitation program that includes year-round training sessions, competitions and art events. Gazprom Pererabotka is also working to create Russia’s first inclusive cluster called Normal Place. As volunteers, the company’s employees take part in sports competitions for adults and kids with mental health conditions, and organize workshops for people supported by the Perspectives charitable foundation.

Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy and Gazprom Dobycha Nadym provided financial support for an environmental campaign to clean up Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea, an initiative run as part of the Environment national project. In summer 2021, a team of the Russian Center for Arctic Development and volunteers worked to remove waste from the island. To do that, they dismantled dilapidated buildings, sorted metal structures collected during previous expeditions and delivered them to a temporary warehouse, collected barrels and wood, and drained fuels and lubricants from all tanks to a dedicated reservoir for subsequent recycling.

The largest social project of the Gazprom Group, Gazprom for Children helps put up sports centers, sports grounds and stadiums for kids in central and remote regions of Russia. These facilities are also accessible to children and teenagers with mobility problems. The Gazprom for Children project helps get kids interested in sports and understand how important physical activity is for a satisfying, fulfilling, and purposeful life — two aspects that in turn lay the foundation for sports achievements in the future.

⁽¹⁾ Data for the Central, North-Western, Volga, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts.

The Gazprom Group helped Russia’s Olympic team to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, organizing and holding events, projects and programs of the Russian Olympic Committee for the Russian Olympic team to prepare for, and take part in, the Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, European Games, and European Youth Olympic Festivals. The Group also helped organize events to develop professional sports.

During the last season, the 2021 Online Football for Friendship World Championship was held on a digital platform of Football for Friendship World, a free multiplayer football simulator. This was a game of mixed international teams based on the football for friendship principle. The final game was won by the team Argali, composed of kids from Aruba, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

Children from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Hungary, and the USA were recognized the best journalists as part of the International Children’s Press Center for the Football for Friendship. They put together interviews, articles and pieces that appeared in the leading sports media in various countries.

In 2021, coaches and young footballers from over 350 football academies and sports schools took part in sports, environmental, and educational activities as part of the program. At the end of the season, social initiatives of academies from Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka and Togo won the Football for Friendship International Award. Another 14 football academies in Bolivia, Canada, Columbia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Aruba, Guatemala and Mexico received grants to develop children’s football and promote the program’s values among their students.

As part of the season’s final matches, the program’s participants set the Football for Friendship’s third Guinness World Record™: the largest number of viewers at a virtual stadium (during the Online Football for Friendship World Championship).

In the 2021 season, kids shared their tips on how everyone can do their part to help the planet, launching the Small Steps to Save the Planet challenge.

Over the past nine seasons, the program has spanned 211 countries and regions, bringing together more than 16,000 participants and winning support from more than 6 million people. The project has won over 70 international and national awards in social responsibility, sports, and communications. Football for Friendship also set three Guinness World Records: largest number of ethnicities represented in a single football training session, largest ever number of participants in an online football event, and the largest number of viewers at a virtual stadium.

Projects were implemented to support children from orphanages and social care facilities, as well as children with special needs in a number of Russian regions, including St. Petersburg and Moscow and the Moscow, Leningrad, Smolensk, and Kostroma regions. Charity assistance was aimed at programs and initiatives on further education, sports and cultural events, social adaptation of children from orphanages and social care facilities, procurement of equipment as necessary, and holding celebrations for children, including the New Year and Christmas holidays.

The Company assisted in implementing the Passport for Life, a project that focused on developing individual simulation games for kids to help them plan their adult lives. Designed for youth aging out of state care, the initiative covered 180 orphans and children abandoned by their parents, helping them achieve self-sufficiency in society. The Company provided funding to create a professional education section at children’s home No. 3 in St. Petersburg to train young people in basic skills in a number of professions: computer operators, binding and printing workers, hair stylists, makeup artists, apparel production workers, designers, and archive specialists.

Ahead of the New Year, the Gazprom Group held its traditional charity campaign called Bringing Joy. In 2021, Gazprom employees donated presents for children aged under four who were abandoned by their parents when they were born or lost parental care afterwards due to severe illness or financial hardship. Around 400 presents were given to mental health children’s homes No. 6, 9, and 13 (dedicated one) in St. Petersburg — facilities that have years of track record of caring for children with neurological and mental disorders.

Gazprom Group supported the Development of Innovative Approaches to Treat Acquired Aplastic Anemia in Children project implemented by Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology. The project was part of the research to design effective methods for diagnosing and treating severe diseases.

Gazprom partnered with the National Underwater Research Center (NURC) to carry out an engineering survey of the Neva River’s bottom within the boundaries of St Petersburg with a view to detecting hydroacoustics anomalies. Other joint initiatives with NURC include launching a project to create a virtual 3D museum of artefacts raised from the bottom and publishing of several books on historical facts uncovered by NURC researchers.

Friends of St Petersburg is part of PJSC Gazprom’s large-scale restoration effort in the city involving renowned restorers and architects, social activists, urbanists, local history specialists, as well as art experts and historians.

The project is a great opportunity for students and young professionals to take part in protecting and restoring the city’s cultural and historical monuments and use this unique experience to develop St Petersburg’s school of restoration. Over the course of the project, over 300 students and young professionals participated in offline events and more than 3,000 were involved in online activities.

The project activities are held as part of PJSC Gazprom’s large-scale restoration effort in St Petersburg and cover the city’s leading museums — Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site, Peterhof State Museum Reserve, and the State Russian Museum.

In 2021, the Gazprom Group conducted 18 project activities with media representatives also attending:

• a workshop on interior restoration of the Zubov Wing of the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo;
• Workshops at the State Russian Museum — Historical Landscape: Preservation Issues Based on the Gardens of the Russian Museum and Digital Technologies in Museums: the Multimedia Centre of the Russian Museum;
• A workshop Immersive Theater as a Conversation Between Generations by the creators of Somnum. Mental Cinema about St Petersburg, and a visit to the show’s premiere;
• an information workshop at the Alexandrinsky Theater on Modern Construction in the Historical City Center: the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater;
• Subcultural Landscape, a special project for young artists with the support of the North-Western Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Stieglitz Academy and leading specialists of the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. In line with the world’s best practices, the project successfully combines contemporary art, educational programs, and local government support to develop and improve the urban environment.

PJSC Gazprom took part in the Mission to Preserve international festival. As part of the event, a special prize was established on behalf of the Friends of St Petersburg project. The participants of the festival were invited to come up with cultural heritage protection projects to be implemented in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Over 200 school and university students took part in the event, with a Gazprom representative in the jury.

In 2022, Friends of St Petersburg will be expanded to involve more educational and discussion platforms and new interaction formats with the audience.

In 2021, PJSC Gazprom supported the State Hermitage Museum’s project to create a Russian Culture in the First Half of the 18th Century permanent exhibition. It marks 300 years since proclamation of the Russian Empire, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Nystadt, and the 350th birthday of Peter the Great. The exhibition highlights Russia’s art and culture during the reign of Peter I and his daughter and successor to his cause, Empress Elizabeth.

In 2021, PJSC Gazprom and the State Hermitage Museum signed a Letter of Intent at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum to continue their cooperation.

In the reporting year, PJSC Gazprom and the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site signed an Agreement at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum aimed at the cultural heritage protection and development of the museum.

Gazprom is sponsoring the restoration of the plafond and icons of the Resurrection of Christ Church at the Catherine Palace, lost during WWII. Of the original 114 icons only four have survived to date. The plan is to fully restore the iconostasis by the end of 2022.

The large-scale reconstruction of the Lyons Hall at the Catherine Palace was completed in March 2021, with the opening attended by Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova. Following the restoration, over 120,000 people visited the hall in the second half of the year alone.

In 2021, the Company continued supporting Private Space of Catherine II, a major restoration and information project, which seeks to reconstruct the interiors in eight private rooms of Catherine II at the Zubov Wing of the Catherine Palace. The work includes purchasing appropriate artefacts and is scheduled for completion in 2023. The restored private rooms will become a part of a new Catherine Palace tour.

In the reporting year, PJSC Gazprom signed a Cooperation Agreement with the Peterhof State Museum Reserve aimed at the cultural heritage protection and development of the museum.

In 2021, PJSC Gazprom continued financing the restoration of the Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum, with two more halls opening to the public — the Stucco Room and the Small Chinese Salon. Currently, 12 out of 17 interiors at the palace are open to visitors. Work is ongoing in the Big Chinese Salon and the Small Antechamber, to be followed by the Chinese Bedroom, the Dressing Room, the Portrait Room, and Catherine II’s Study. The project will be completed by 2024. In the summer of 2021, over 42,000 people visited the Chinese Palace.

In 2021, the Lendok film studio hosted the presentation of Chinese Palace: Legacy of the Empress, a virtual reality film combining the genres of historical drama and documentary, created with the financial support of PJSC Gazprom. The film can be viewed on the Oculus online platform and at the Peterhof State Museum Reserve with the possibility of arranging off-site screenings.

In 2021, PJSC Gazprom came up with the initiative and supported the creation of the SOMNUM. Mental Cinema About St Petersburg immersive performance. The historical streets of St Petersburg, many of which had been renovated by Gazprom, became the stage of this innovative theatrical performance. The show marked the emergence of a new genre combining the theatrical, educational and virtual reality formats and became an important event for the theater and arts communities.

As part of its efforts to promote theater, Gazprom sponsored the tours of St Petersburg troupes to Moscow to celebrate Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 200th birthday by staging shows based on his works: The Brothers Karamazov, Liturgy Zero, Crime and Punishment.

To popularize documentary films, the Company supported In Love With Art festival of documentary, feature and animation films.

In 2021, Gazprom Group financed the operation of 88 Eternal Flame memorials in hero cities and cities of military glory across Russia. The Company also sponsored renovation and repairs of military burial sites in Russia and Latvia.

To promote geographical knowledge and interest in Russia’s geography, history and culture, Gazprom partnered with the Russian Geographical Society to support the Geographical Dictation international educational campaign and the Most Beautiful Country photo contest.

Gazprom Group sponsored the 24th St Petersburg International Economic Forum, one of the world’s largest and most influential business platforms for discussing global and regional economic issues.