An interview with Dmitry Krivtsov, Development Director of Omnes Imperium Group in Moscow

Omnes Imperium Group is a new member of Public Relations Boutiques International, the global PR agency network which Bridge helped found. Among the firm's areas of expertise are financial PR, government relations, corporate social responsibility and media relations. Bridge interviewed Dmitry Krivtsov, the firm's development director, about how PR is practiced in Russia:

Bridge: How and when did PR emerge in Russia?

Dmitry Krivtsov: PR activities began emerging here at the very end of the 1980s. The first PR agencies were established in '92-'93. At about that time larger businesses also started to establish their own in-house PR/information departments.

In the beginning the process was quite chaotic: companies did not quite understand how to deal with the media and their target audiences. But with time, companies realized that advertising is not the only communications tool. In the beginning of the 90s, PR agencies in Russia almost always were created as departments of advertising firms. In most cases, companies were seeking advertising services and afterwards realized that PR services also could be useful. PR became a more or less independent market in the second half of the 90's.

Bridge: How does PR in Russia differ from other countries?

DK: Russian PR is now closer and closer to European and American standards.

The time when PR in Russia meant only placing articles in the media for money are long gone.

Some specifically Russian features of PR include the fact that in Russia there are still not that many communication channels because Internet technologies are still relatively undeveloped and are not covering the whole country. Secondly, large businesses are still "looking back" at the state in their public activities (although less than they were just five years ago). Third, mid-size businesses have just begun to understand the importance of PR.

From the audience point of view, the level of trust towards information from the mass media in Russia is still very high. Many Russians still tend to take the mass media as the voice of the state even when the state has nothing to do with it. This isn't just true for the general public, but also for specific groups such as businessmen, public servants, private employees, etc.

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We will have more in our next issue about PR in Russia, including:

• A look at the competitive landscape for marketing PR and new product launches
• A short overview of the media in Russia