The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), a lobby group based in Moscow, promotes the interests of business in Russia. It has over 1,000 members, including both private and state-owned companies, factories, and foreign and Russian plants. The RSPP represents the successor in the Russian Federation of the previous USSR scientific and industrial union[1] founded in the summer of 1990.
The current president is Alexander Shokhin.[5] The current vice-president, Igor Yurgens, a graduate of Moscow State University, has served as an adviser to UNESCO and to the Trade Unions Council, and chaired the General Confederation of Trade Unions in 1996. Yurgens is sometimes interviewed by Western media on issues concerning Russian industry.
At a meeting of the lobby in July 2009, telecommunications executives portrayed the most popular VoIP programs like Skype and ICQ as encroaching foreign entities that the government must control.[6]