While the Russian authorities’ preventive measures for coronavirus have not been as strict to date as those enforced in China, Western Europe and the USA, a number of Russian businesses have already taken action.
Thus, the end of last week saw several major tech companies invite their office employees to work from home. Yandex, the local Internet giant, presented the measure as a “recommendation” to “all office workers who can work from home,” applicable from this Monday for a week at least.
Citimobil, a taxi-haling business owned by Sberbank and Mail.ru Group, announced Friday a similar measure. Remote work, which should be “agreed with superiors,” is starting this Monday and may last until to April 1.
“Importantly, [this] must not have a negative impact on your or your colleagues’ work processes,” company founder Vitaly Bedarev wrote in a Facebook message to employees.
“We expect you to put as much effort and energy in your work from home as from office, or even more,” he insisted.
Remote work decisions have also been taken by Kaspersky Lab, Mail.Ru Group and Uber Russia, as well as online media group Rambler and Sberbank subsidiary Sbertech, as reported by Rusbase.
Meanwhile Dodo Pizza, a major pizzeria chain in Russia, announced plans to make available protective masks and hydroalcoholic gel to its online customers. The company expects to purchase large volumes of these items, resell them at wholesale cost and deliver them along with the pizzas.
“We’re ready to buy dozens of millions of rubles worth of masks and gel and quickly spread them across the country,” wrote company founder Fedor Ovchinnikov on Facebook.
“We want our large network to be useful in the current situation beyond just delivering pizzas,” he added
