In spring 1998 CAF Russia conducted a survey of company giving by 115 foreign companies working in Russia. Two years later they carried out a second survey. One thing they discovered was a massive fall-off in the number of companies supporting NGOs, from 41 per cent to 5 per cent, and a correspondingly large shift towards supporting projects for the needy such as children’s homes and homelessness shelters.

The financial crisis of August 1998, the resignation of President Yeltsin and the start of a new Chechnya war all happened in the period between the two surveys. These events may at least partially explain these startling results.