December 8 witnessed the announcement of prizewinners at "The Company of the Year 2004" national awards.

It was the sixth time that RBC had held the award ceremony, with such renowned public and political figures taking part as Viktor Gerashchenko, a former Chairman of the Central Bank; Arkady Dvorkovich, the head of the presidential expert department; lawyer Mikhail Barshchevsky; deputy Sergey Baburin; Ella Panfilova, the head of the President's Committee for Human Rights, and others.

Black ties and tuxedoes didn't prevent businessmen, industrialists and bankers from participating in the joint painting of a large picture on canvas. "The work testifies wonderfully to the fact that we can give flesh and blood to our most daring ideas if only we combine our efforts," General Director of RBC Yury Rovensky pointed out. "A successful business cannot operate in a vacuum. It requires efforts made by thousands of people - associates, partners, clients and, ultimately, competitors. Business demands an environment; it needs a certain atmosphere. To this end, "The Company of the Year" award has been contributing to improving the business atmosphere in Russia for six years now."

An informal festive atmosphere of the event, held at the Moscow House of Music, was jointly created by actors and performers, and its general sponsor Jonnie Walker, who treated the ceremony's guests and prizewinners to its wonderful beverage.

As tradition would have it, the awards had three major categories: "Finance", "Industry" and "Services". In addition to these, 16 more companies were honored with special category prizes.

The Russian Development Bank was named the bank of the Year 2004. The awards' expert council pointed out that in 2004, the Russian Development Bank had considerably increased its loan portfolio and had become one of the leaders in the development of retail banking services. The rapidly expanding network of the Russian Development Bank's Minibank branch offices had become a unique retail banking project that enjoyed a successful start last year. A successful development strategy provided for business expansion, with accessibility attained through high-quality service. As former Central Bank chief, and incumbent YUKOS Board Chairman, Viktor Gerashchenko stated, "An award received during the year of a banking crisis is no doubt more significant than one received during a good year."