Russia is softening its stance on hosting data abroad, with a decree from Vladimir Putin now authorizing a special government commission to approve the use of foreign data centers. This shift comes as Ukrainian drone strikes have targeted key Russian data centers.
The decree stipulates that this commission acts in consultation with the Federal Security Service (FSB). The change is significant, as Vladimir Putin and the Russian parliament had previously passed the sovereign internet law, which prohibits Russian companies from using cloud computing infrastructure located outside Russia’s borders.
The drive to build a sovereign and increasingly closed internet has resulted in a highly centralized system, reliant on a few Russian tech companies, including Yandex. This system has proven vulnerable in wartime. Ukrainian drone strikes against major Russian data centers have caused widespread disruptions to payment and digital banking apps, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, and ride-hailing and food delivery apps.
Yandex also had to relocate its three main supercomputers after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the AI-dedicated data centers where they were initially hosted, according to the media outlet Meduza.
A more resilient Ukrainian infrastructure
In comparison, Ukraine’s decentralized digital services have proven significantly more resilient, despite years of Russian drone and missile attacks. The Ukrainian government has taken steps to disperse critical energy and telecommunications nodes and to bury more support infrastructure underground.
Significant support came from American giants Amazon and Microsoft, which helped Ukraine migrate government resources and other essential digital services to cloud regions located elsewhere in Europe, shortly after the launch of Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022. The Ukrainian government also uses SpaceX’s Starlink satellite terminals as a backup communication system. These terminals were funded by the United States as well as European countries like Poland and Germany.
