The impact of sanctions and other factors of the modern macro environment on communication activity of companies (on the example of the metallurgical industry of russia)

Анотація

The subject of the research is the communication activity of Russia's largest metallurgical companies – Severstal, OMK, MMK, Metalloinvest, Nornickel, and Rusal – under the cumulative impact of contemporary macroenvironmental factors in 2022–2026. The authors attribute these factors to a multi-layered sanctions regime (including European Union quotas on imports of Russian steel semi-finished products until 2028, U.S. countervailing duties on palladium, and sanctions lists targeting companies and top managers), a prolonged industry-wide crisis marked by a 5% decline in steel production and a 14% drop in domestic consumption as of the end of 2025, and the transformation of the domestic media landscape: YouTube speed restrictions, mandatory registration of public pages with more than 10,000 subscribers in the Roskomnadzor registry, and audience redistribution toward Telegram, VKontakte, VK Video, Rutube, and Dzen. The methodology relies on qualitative content analysis of more than twenty corporate special projects, the case method, comparative analysis of industry media-presence rankings (Kommersant/Medialogia, SCAN-Interfax) and Brand Analytics data, as well as a synthesis of existing approaches in the literature to the typology of anti-crisis communication strategies. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that, for the first time using the material of Russian metallurgy in 2022–2026, the evolution of corporate communications has been systematically traced from a shock reaction to a "new normal" mode, and an original typology of three strategies has been proposed – "smart silence," "positive content," and "enhanced control" – along with a three-part classification of communication special projects (internal success, sociocultural events, internal milestone projects). The findings of the study confirm that the sanctions agenda is receding into the background, giving way to the ESG narrative, the theme of technological sovereignty, and social investment in the regions of operation. At the channel level, a profound reorientation toward the domestic digital infrastructure has taken place: Telegram and VKontakte have become the core platforms, while video content has migrated to VK Video and Rutube. The results obtained are applicable to designing communication strategies in industries facing heavy sanctions pressure.

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