State corporation Rostec and IT holding Citadel have announced an agreement to launch a joint venture which will create corporate IT products based on military developments in the field of information security.
As reported by Russian business daily Kommersant earlier this month, the JV will mainly focus on cryptography, quantum calculations, machine learning, Big Data storage, as well as telecommunications standards and their security. The JV will also attract investment to commercialize the solutions developed by the defense industry.
According to Sergey Sakhnenko, Director at the radioelectronics cluster of Rostec, Russian military developments in the field of information security have significant potential of civilian use and even export.
In particular, the JV might be in a good position to address the market needs related to the new Russian legislation on electronic communications (known as “Yarovaya law” or “Big Brother law”), as well as the demand from state organizations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The two partners did not disclose their respective stake in the JV, but they announced their intention to inject four billion rubles (nearly $64 million at the current exchange rate) “at the initial stage.”
A major, government-backed Russian technology group, Rostec operates in a variety of areas, from military equipment, to pharmaceutics, to medical equipment, to aircraft and motor engineering.
Citadel, a holding with connections to state security services, is a major developer of information security and online investigation systems. It provides solutions to implement the legislation on electronic communications.
