Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, with a quarterly review by EWDN Chief Editor Adrien Henni highlighting the most notable industry facts and trends across the region. More than with tech innovations, Russia made the news this past summer by staging …
Despite Russia adopting its first cryptocurrency law in January 2021, the country’s cryptocurrency market is still largely unregulated and is associated with a lot of uncertainty, according to a local industry advocate. Yury Pripachkin, head of the Russian Association of Cryptoindustry and Blockchain (RACIB), argued that the existing Russian crypto regulations are nothing more than “half-measures” that …
Russia does “absolutely nothing” to regulate cryptocurrencies, says industry advocate Read More
Last week the Russian government and the World Economic Forum announced Russia is joining the WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (CFIR) Network. The agreement was inked in Moscow by WEF President Børge Brende and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko. CFIR Russia will be hosted by Digital Economy, a Moscow-based non-profit created by national technology leaders to facilitate …
Russia and WEF to launch ‘Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ in Moscow Read More
The Russian government has decried YouTube’s decision to delete the state-funded RT broadcaster’s German-language channels as “information warfare” and said it will block German media in Russia in retaliation. The video streaming website on Tuesday deleted RT’s DE and DFP channels for breaching coronavirus misinformation policy. “This is a real media war declared by the state of …
Russia vows “retaliation” for YouTube blocking RT’s German channels Read More
On Sept. 17 Apple and Google disabled Russian users’ access to the pro-opposition ‘Smart Voting’ app in their online stores. Just hours later Telegram, the international instant messenger whose creator Pavel Durov touts its full independence, dealt a new blow to ‘Smart Voting’ by suspending — in a selective and controversial way — bots associated with …
How Russia forced Apple and Google to block anti-Kremlin app on parliamentary election day Read More
Russian electric car drivers will be able to access toll roads at no cost starting from 2022 in a new trial experiment, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing a recently published draft government plan. The initiative, part of the new Development Concept for the Production and Use of Electric Automobile Transport signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on …
Russia to grant toll-free status to electric cars from 2022 Read More
In the run-up to Russia’s Sept. 17-19 parliamentary elections, as the authorities have been purging the field of almost all genuine opposition politicians, the battle against dissent is also raging online. In recent weeks, among other measures, the authorities barred dozens of websites linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, including his main website navalny.com. They had Yandex …
Russian tech firm Yandex said on Tuesday it had removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s tactical voting website from its search engine to comply with a government ban ahead of a parliamentary election this month. Navalny and his allies want to use the website and a separate app, dubbed ‘Smart Voting,’ to organise a tactical …
Russian search engine delists Navalny’s tactical voting site after ban Read More
Western media news websites are being hijacked by pro-Russian trolls to spread propaganda and disinformation supporting the Kremlin, according to research published by a British university on Monday. The Crime and Research Security Institute at Cardiff University said it had unearthed evidence from 32 major news outlets in 16 countries that have been targeted via …
Russia said Thursday that Google and Apple’s refusal to remove jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s app ahead of elections could be seen as interference in the country’s domestic affairs. The country is holding parliamentary elections later this month, with nearly all vocal Kremlin critics including Navalny’s allies barred from running. Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom …
Russia accuses Apple, Google of election interference Read More
Russia’s earnings from tech exports have jumped more than threefold over the last two years, according to a new report from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE). The export sales of scientific and technology services and IP-protected products reached $4.5 billion in 2020 — up 30% from 2019, three times more than in 2018, and fifteen to twenty …
The relentless Russian offensive against global online platforms doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. That poses a question: Is Russia preparing to get rid of global platforms by the end of the year? Such a development now seems highly likely, given the scale of the Russian import substitution effort in technology — a campaign which is …
Russia’s drive to replace foreign technology is slowly working Read More
