Last year Russian Railways announced that China agreed to provide a 400 billion-ruble ($6.2 billion) loan to build a high-speed rail project between Moscow and Kazan, a city 800km east of the Russian capital. According to Russian news agency Sputnik, which cites The China Daily newspaper, this project is scheduled for completion in 2020. The trains will be able …
Starting January 1, foreign companies selling e-content via the Internet in Russia are required to register private offices in Russia, submit information on their sales in the country, and pay a 18% value-added tax. The tax applies to the following types of content or services: selling and giving access to e-books, audio and visual content, images …
Russia’s Association Financial Innovation (AFI) released a “roadmap” for improving the regulation of the National Payment System (NSPK in Russian) that includes using blockchain technology, according to Plusworld, a Russian news source. Following discussion, the proposal is to be submitted to the Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service and the …
Blockchain considered in proposal to improve regulating Russia’s National Payment System Read More
On Monday, the online wallet service Yandex.Money announced that it would stop allowing online transfers of money to individuals for political purposes in order to comply with Russian election laws—a decision many see as aimed at undermining opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is using the service to crowdfund his 2018 presidential campaign. In a blog post published on Monday afternoon, …
Political crowdfunding by individuals no longer allowed in Russia Read More
Russia’s cyber army ranks fifth in the world, reports the Kommersant business daily, citing a study prepared by ZecurionAnalytics. “The analysis is based on data from published sources — military budgets, opinions of experts and officials, background information from international organizations, and etc.,” said Vladimir Ulyanov, director of ZecurionAnalytics’ analytical department. The company does not publish information about financing and …
Amid concerns in Moscow that Russian Internet users face the threat of isolation from the World Wide Web, a prominent Internet authority is arguing that nothing short of banning electricity could rob Russians of their access to global cyberspace. According to Mikhail Yakushev, a regional vice president at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and …
Russia would have to ban electricity to isolate the Russian Internet, says ICANN VP Read More
By voting amendments to the legislation on the provision of services earlier this month, the Russian parliament sounded the death knell for the Universal Electronic Card (UEC) project. A tangible manifestation of Russia’s all-embracing e-government ideas, the UEC was originally intended to incorporate or replace virtually all existing identifying information, from ID cards to student IDs and …
Maria Zakharova, the colorful spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, accused Facebook administrators of working for the Islamic State, after the network temporarily unpublished one of her posts on Monday. Shortly after Moscow formally confirmed the death of Andrei Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Zakharova posted a photograph on Facebook, showing Karlov standing in front of …
Spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry accuses Facebook of working with ISIS Read More
Today Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, and Panasonic, a world leader in electronics and system solutions, agreed “strategic areas” for their business cooperation in 2017. The agreement was signed in the framework of the Russia-Japan Business Dialogue during the visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin in Japan. The parties intend to “make an …
Skolkovo expands R&D partnership with Panasonic as Russia and Japan seek to bolster ties Read More
On December 6, 2016, President Vladimir Putin ratified Russia’s new Information Security Doctrine to replace a document that was in force since September 2000. This official document defines the main sources of threats against Russia in cyberspace and offers solutions to deal with them. The document was part of Russia’s national security strategy, which was …
Russia, demonized as the biggest cyber-villain in the world in the wake of the U.S. election campaign, must now take special care of its own information security. Its adversaries don’t just possess powerful cyber-spying and offensive capabilities — they suspect Russian involvement in every incident, and that makes Russia vulnerable to all kinds of retaliation. After it …
IT Park, a major Russian tech park, has announced the launch of the ‘OIC Startup Platform’ with the support of the Secretariat of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (IOC). The initiative is also supported by Oxademy, a UK-based online business education provider operating in eight countries, and Selet, an educational initiative in Tatarstan. The acceleration …
