Key facts
- Putin's November 2 decree requires Russian data centers to hold 10% of capacity for state agencies.
- A newly established government commission can claim reserved capacity, accessible within 24 hours of notification.
- Russia's Digital Development Ministry proposed on October 25 building data centers underground with drone defenses, state media reported.
- Yandex's data center in Vladimir Oblast, about 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was targeted by Ukrainian drones on October 16.
- Yandex said operations at the data center were completely shut down after strikes on October 11.
- Russian strikes in late September hit Kyiv data centers and internet providers, disrupting about 100,000 households.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on November 2 ordering Russian data centers to reserve 10% of their capacity to support state IT infrastructure, Reuters reported. The order allows state agencies to quickly use privately owned data centers, with a newly established government commission empowered to claim the reserved capacity. The capacity must be made accessible within 24 hours of the government's notification.
The decree follows a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian data centers. On October 16, Yandex's data center in Vladimir Oblast, around 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was targeted in an overnight operation. After strikes on the same site on October 11, Yandex said operations at the data center had been completely shut down. That strike was the third near-consecutive day of attacks on Yandex data centers, following confirmed strikes in Ryazan and Kaluga oblasts on October 8 and 9.
On October 25, Russia's Digital Development Ministry proposed building data centers underground, camouflaged from aerial detection and equipped with drone defenses, according to Russian state-controlled media. The strikes on Russian data centers followed President Volodymyr Zelensky's threat to hit such facilities in retaliation for Moscow's strikes on Ukrainian internet infrastructure. In late September, Russian strikes hit multiple data centers and internet providers in Kyiv, disrupting service for around 100,000 households.