Corporate governance violations and shareholder rights abuses in Russia continually make headlines and have a chilling effect on badly needed investment. What can Russians do to improve corporate governance in their country? And what can Western assistance do to help?

Corporate governance emphasizes the values of fairness, accountability, transparency and responsibility, and it involves a set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Effective corporate governance revolves around strong, active and independent boards of directors; laws and regulations that guarantee shareholder rights; and the presence of accepted standards of financial accountability and transparency within firms. Sound corporate governance principles can create safeguards against corruption and mismanagement, while promoting democracy and transparency in economic life. Thus, corporate governance lifts private sector issues into the broader context of democratic development.

CIPE has found an effective formula in working with grass-roots partner organizations in regions through Russia to mobilize public understanding and support. In addition, CIPE has teamed up with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank to co-sponsor a series of Corporate Governance Roundtables for Russia.

CIPE is supporting two Russian partner organizations in pioneering projects to strengthen the integrity of corporate boards of directors.

The Investors Protection Association has launched and is expanding Russia's first website dedicated exclusively to corporate governance. You can find the site at www.corp-gov.ru in Russian, or www.corp-gov.org in English.

The Investors Protection Association and the Russian Managers Association also are conducting a survey of independent directors in Russia. The survey will provide two significant findings: a comprehensive list of independent directors in Russian corporations, and a picture of how major Russian corporations understand Boards and independent directors.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Stock Market and Management, or ISMM, is working to establish professional standards for board Directors. Their project will fill a vacuum in Russia, which has no required standards or certification of Board members.

Another CIPE partner, the Ryazan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is building an umbrella council of local stakeholders to forge a consensus on corporate governance best practices, and to help local companies adopt those practices. The national chamber has told us that it would then like to use the Ryazan chamber as a model and follow up with other chambers around the country.

For more details on these and other projects, see CIPE's Corporate Governance Work in Russia.

We welcome your comments and questions. You can reach Senior Program Officer Stephen Deane at sedeane@cipe.org.