East-West Digital News

‘Hack For Peace” invites developers, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to create anti-war tech products (Oct. 21-23)

August 15, 2022 August 16, 2022

Sigma Software Group, a Swedish-Ukrainian IT company, and Tech Nation, a UK platform providing support services to forward-looking leaders and founders, have teamed up to host‘Hack for Peace.’ This cross-European hackathon aims to support the creation of anti-war tech products. The organizers welcome aspiring newcomers, advanced coders, professional entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and all others who …

‘Hack For Peace” invites developers, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to create anti-war tech products (Oct. 21-23) Read More

Russian digital giant VK hit by second quarter loss

August 11, 2022 September 14, 2022

VK, previously known as Mail.ru Group, owner of Russian social network VKontakte, reported a second-quarter net loss of 3.4 billion roubles ($56 million). The loss is partly due to a 14 billion rouble ($231 million) foreign exchange hit. The VKontakte network, often compared to Facebook, has emerged as a key player in the race to …

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Business Insider: Western tech majors tested or used controversial Russian face recognition technology

August 5, 2022 August 5, 2022

According to a report published last week by US publication Business Insider, a range of western tech firms are users of FindFace, a controversial face recognition technology developed by Russian startup NtechLab. FindFace matches faces against social media accounts, regardless of privacy rights, among other facial recognition capabilities. Its approach is similar to that developed by US …

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Russia fines Apple, Snapchat, Tinder, WhatsApp for data storage law violations

July 28, 2022 August 5, 2022

A Russian court fined U.S. tech giants WhatsApp, Snapchat and Tinder on Thursday for refusing to store the personal data of Russian users inside the country, as stipulated by the demanding local legislation, U.S. company Meta, the owner of messaging service Whatsapp, was ordered by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court to pay 18 million rubles (nearly $300,000 at …

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From 4G to 6G: How Russia seeks to develop mobile networks amid shortages of domestic frequency and foreign equipment

July 27, 2022 August 5, 2022

The Russian government intends to spend more than 30 billion rubles ($375 million at the pre-war exchange rate, $500 million at the current rate) on an R&D program to deploy 6G until 2025, reports business daily Kommersant. Skoltech and the Radio Research Institute could conduct the project, which will include the development of equipment prototypes as well as research on electromagnetic …

From 4G to 6G: How Russia seeks to develop mobile networks amid shortages of domestic frequency and foreign equipment Read More

Russia fines Apple for violating personal data law, Google for failing to remove “fake news”

July 18, 2022 August 4, 2022

On Monday Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles (some $263 million at the pre-war exchange rate, $360 million at the current rate) for repeatedly failing to remove prohibited content on its YouTube video platform. Censorship on the Russian Internet has been on the rise over the past few years, reaching totalitarian heights since the beginning …

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Moscow business school develops pioneering solution for remote courses

July 14, 2022 July 14, 2022

Russian edtech has been growing fast over the past years, as witnessed by variety of solutions developed in the country. One of the latest examples is an immersive online-offline platform for remote courses, which was presented earlier this month by the Moscow State University Business School (MSUBS). Touting this solution as a “unique digital model” …

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How the war in Ukraine led Yandex into a trap

July 12, 2022 August 5, 2022

All Russian businesses have been affected by the fallout from the war and Western sanctions, but “perhaps the most dramatic events have unfolded at Yandex,” writes TheBell, a respected Russian online publication, in its English edition. While founder Arkady Volozh and head Tigran Khudaverdyan were sanctioned by the European Union, “compromises with the authorities have …

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Report: Lessons learned from cyber operations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

July 8, 2022 July 12, 2022

What key lessons can we draw from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine about the role of cyber operations in military conflict? How do Russian cyber operations differ in wartime compared to peacetime activity? And what cyber activity can we expect in the months ahead? On 30 May, the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI) …

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Pro-Russian authority in Kherson cuts access to Instagram and YouTube

July 7, 2022 July 7, 2022

The authority installed by occupying Russian troops in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson announced on Wednesday that access to Instagram and YouTube is now blocked locally. Officials acknowledge, however, that the American social networks are still available through VPNs. Occupying forces in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions disabled mobile Internet service by Ukrainian telecoms back in late …

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Russian kicksharing service Whoosh raises $17 million in bonds

July 4, 2022 July 20, 2022

In late June Kicksharing service Whoosh raised 13.5 billion rubles in bonds (around $17 million at the pre-war exchange rate), making its debut on the Moscow stock exchange. Launched in 2019, the company is a market leader in Russia with 8 million claimed users across 45 Russian cities. Among Whoosh’s backers are Ultimate Capital Fund, …

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State fund invests 520 million rubles in edtech platform Profilum

June 30, 2022 July 6, 2022

Earlier this month VEB Ventures, the venture arm of state-owned development corporation VEB.RF, announced a 520 million ruble investment (some $6.5 million at the pre-war exchange rate) in edtech platform Profilum. This deal was one of the most sizeable ones of the past months on the local venture scene, which has entered a semi-hibernation phase since …

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