...[O]f the former gulag enterprises, Norilsk [Nickel] is one of the few that acknowledges its past, partly because its infamy as a prison camp is so well known...While both...Yuzhny Kuzbass [part of Mechel]...and Evraz...steel groups have departments devoted to corporate social responsibility projects, they have distanced themselves from the gulag labour issue...In the US, a clutch of companies has apologised for historical links to slavery, including the banks JPMorgan Chase and Wachovia in 2005. And in Germany, Siemens and Volkswagen and other companies agreed to pay Nazi-era slave labourers compensation...