Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, will remain fully in charge of Russia’s ambitious $150 million e-government program for at least another two years, Russian business daily Kommersant reported last week.
Seven months after the operator’s contract expired, President Vladimir Putin of Russia is reported to have personally decreed the prolongation of the Cabinet’s co-funding of Rostelecom’s already three-year long e-government effort.
The President thus dispelled rumors of a possible sharing of responsibilities between the operator and the Russian Post, a move championed since the spring of this year by the federal Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. The government watchdog has repeatedly censured Rostelecom for “monopolism.”
In the early fall, a special report by the Russian government shed light on how “abysmally behind schedule” parts of Rostelecom’s e-government project were at that time.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Russian Cabinet source with knowledge of the president’s yet-unofficial resolution told the Russian business daily Kommersant that the outcome of the months-long bickering between Rostelecom’s friends and foes “could be regarded as lobbying for a specific company.”
