Policies

Russian fund IIDF teams up with billionaire Arkady Rotenberg to invest up to $50 million in edtech startups

April 27, 2017

The Russian textbook publishing house Prosveshchenie (‘Enlightenment’ in English) has agreed with the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian)  to jointly launch an accelerator for edtech startups. The publishing house — of which Russian billionnaire Arkady Rotenberg is chairman and a shareholder — intends to invest up to 3 billion rubles (approximately $48 million …

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Russian spycraft: How the Kremlin hacked its way into a crisis

December 29, 2016

Last Friday the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) publicly named the Russian government for directing “the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.” It claimed that the disclosures of hacked emails “on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are intended to interfere with …

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How countries like China and Russia are able to control the Internet

October 7, 2016

China, Iran, and others are known to regularly censor content and cut off sections of the internet. This is because, when the physical routes traffic takes are severely limited, it endangers the free flow of information the internet was supposed to provide. Researchers at Harvard attempted to identify these choke points, and determine how easily a …

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Russia begins search for decryption of online messengers

October 5, 2016

Russian companies have begun searching for ways to fully decipher intercepted messages on popular platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, the Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday. Decryption of messages is a key provision of the recently-passed anti-terror law authored by conservative lawmaker, Irina Yarovaya. As part of the wide-ranging law, all companies providing online communication are …

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Russia considers restrictions to foreign capital ownership of online video companies

October 4, 2016

Russian industry lobbies and lawmakers are preparing changes to the legislation on online video content. According to an advanced draft bill analyzed by Kommersant, the owners of independent online streaming companies with over 100,000 daily views will be required to reduce the share of foreign capital to 20% or less by March 1, 2017. A …

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EBRD might resume activity in Russia next year

September 29, 2016

The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering to resume operations in Russia starting from next year, according local media reports. The bank’s shareholders might take their decision (positive or negative) in December or January, online publication Gazeta.ru wrote last week, referring to “an unnamed source close to the bank.” Contacted by …

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Moscow city drops Microsoft on Putin’s call for self-sufficiency

September 28, 2016

Moscow city will replace Microsoft Corp. programs with domestic software on thousands of computers in answer to President Vladimir Putin’s call for Russia’s authorities to reduce dependence on foreign technology amid tensions with the U.S. and Europe. The city will initially replace Microsoft’s Exchange Server and Outlook on 6,000 computers with an e-mail system installed by state-run …

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Cryptocurrencies can destroy Russian economy, says state official

October 3, 2016

According to Paul Livadniy, the deputy director at the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitrong), cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin threatens the Russian economy and could lead to its destruction. As reported by Russian publication Lenta.ru, Livadniy compared cryptocurrencies to traditional currencies. While the latter are issued by the state — providing greater controls such as …

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New US sanctions target Russian electronics companies

September 16, 2016

Just one week after the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on 37 Russian companies and individuals, including subsidiaries of Gazprom and Bank of Moscow, additional measures were announced this Tuesday by the Department of Commerce, affecting 11 Russian electronics companies. This new blacklist include three entities of the Angstrem group, a major manufacturer of integrated circuits; NPC Granat; Research and …

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Russia’s budding virtual reality market thinks big

September 5, 2016

Russia should focus on developing its VR/AR market, Yevgeny Kuznetsov, the acting head of RVC, the Russian fund of funds for innovation, said last month. “Right now, the new VR/AR market is being discussed within the National Technology Initiative,” a state project that aims to create the conditions necessary for Russia to become a global …

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US officials suspect Russia behind computer hacking in two state election databases

August 30, 2016

U.S. officials suspect Russian hackers were responsible for breaking into two state election databases earlier this month. “This is the closest we’ve come to tying a recent hack to the Russian government,” one official told NBC News on Monday. The FBI has not identified the two U.S. states whose data bases were attacked, but Yahoo News, …

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Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation could cost telecom operators even more than expected

February 28, 2017

Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation adopted last month could cost mobile operators up to 10 trillion rubles (approximately $154 billion at the current exchange rate), RBC reported today. The online business publication cited an estimate from Denis Neshtun, General Manager of data storage company RCNTEC. The cost to mobile networks could be significantly reduced if the law’s requirements were softened and/or if the price of the required …

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