Key facts
- Russian tech companies are scrambling to harden and hide data centers underground after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged facilities, per Ars Technica.
- Putin signed a November 2 decree ordering data center operators to set aside 10 percent of space and capacity for government use, Meduza reported.
- Rostelecom raised the possibility of moving some Russian data centers underground in talks with Norilsk, Vedomosti reported.
- Yandex relocated all three of its main supercomputers after strikes hit the AI data centers housing them, Meduza reported.
- The decree allows a government commission to authorize foreign data centers in consultation with the Federal Security Service, per Meduza.
Russian technology companies are seeking to harden and hide their data centers underground after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged facilities housing AI supercomputers and disrupted cloud services for millions of Russian users, according to a report published November 3, 2026 by Ars Technica. The report said the Kremlin is requiring data center owners to reserve computing capacity for emergency state needs and has authorized possible use of foreign data centers.
The strikes have degraded or knocked out data centers operated by Russian tech company Yandex, state-owned bank Sberbank, social media site VKontakte and the Russian Ministry of Finance, the report said. State-owned telecommunications company Rostelecom raised the possibility of moving some Russian data centers underground in talks with nickel and palladium mining company Norilsk, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, as cited by Ars Technica. The industry publication Data Center Dynamics pointed to a proposal by a Russian regional governor to build data centers within open-pit coal mines while planting green public parks above as camouflage, the report said.
On November 2, Putin signed a decree ordering Russian data center operators to set aside 10 percent of available space and capacity in case the Russian government requires it, according to independent Russian news publication Meduza, as cited by Ars Technica. The decree also allows a special Russian government commission to authorize use of foreign data centers in consultation with Russia's Federal Security Service, the report said, a change from the Sovereign Internet Law that had blocked Russian companies from using cloud infrastructure outside Russia.
Yandex relocated all three of its main supercomputers after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the AI data centers where they were originally housed, Meduza reported, according to Ars Technica. The report said Ukraine's decentralized digital services have proven more resilient, aided by Amazon and Microsoft helping migrate government resources to cloud regions elsewhere in Europe after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and by Starlink satellite terminals paid for by the United States and European countries including Poland and Germany.