The Economic News Agency has been asked by Nezavisimaya Gazeta to do a regular research on how efficient the performance of private and public sectors and government deputies is in terms of lobbying projects favorable for certain interest groups. The lobbying in question is the so-called civilized one that does not imply any bribe offers.

The latest update on the research was done in September 2009 using the usual method: a few scores of experts had to rank the lobbying efficiency of about 240 candidates using a five-point scale. Among the candidates were entrepreneurs, politicians, and government officials whose job involved lobbying activity of some sort. In the end, BOD Chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) Viktor Rashnikov was given the 23d position in the Leading Lobbyists/Highly Efficient category, which was actually better than what he’d scored in the previous rating of this kind.