Authors

Discussion

The once vibrant and progressive Russian IT sector has been co-opted by Putin’s regime to enforce online censorship, surveillance, and increasingly stringent control mechanisms aimed at suppressing dissent and maintaining societal control. While foreign social media platforms have been blocked and several international IT companies have left the Russian market, domestic tech giants have expanded their reach, playing a significant role in advancing a “sovereign internet.”

This paper examines the capacity of Russia’s domestic ICT sector to replace foreign services and technologies following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It also evaluates the impact of Western tech sanctions and export controls on reshaping Russia’s IT landscape and the continued development of the ”sovereign internet.”