RUSSIAN FEDERATION

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Russia is developing strategies and other policy documents aimed to drive the country towards AI leadership.

In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that AI is the future of Russia, and also of mankind, asserting that, ‘Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.’ Putin noted that if Russia becomes the leader in the development of AI, ‘we will share our technology with the rest of the world, like we are doing now with atomic and nuclear technology.’

In 2018, Russia’s Ministry of Defence (then known as the Ministry of Education and Science) and the Russian Academy of Sciences organised a conference intended to help outline the development of AI in Russia. It was followed by 10 recommendations, including the development of a national AI centre. Hosted by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technologies, the Center for Artificial Intelligence focuses on conversational AI, neural networks, deep machine learning, robotics, computer vision, and computing systems for AI.

The National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for the period until 2030 was approved by the president in October 2019. The strategy outlines the goals and activities designed to support the accelerated development of AI in Russia, in line with national interests and priorities, some of which are supposed to be achieved by 2024 and some by 2030. Among the main priorities are supporting scientific research, increasing the availability of data and computing resources, and expanding and improving AI-focused education and training systems. The document also notes that the implementation of the strategy is necessary for Russia’s entry into the group of world leaders in the field of development and introduction to AI, and consequently, for Russia’s technological independence and competitiveness. The government will have to provide appropriate budgetary allocations for the implementation of the strategy and submit an annual report to the president on how the strategy is put in place.

Russia is a proponent of AI for military use. As stated by former deputy defencse minister Yuri Borisov, harnessing AI will allow Russia to more effectively contest the information environment and win cyberwars. Employees of the 3rd Central Research Institute (CRI) of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation stated that Russian combat robotic systems will be able to independently recognise targets, use weapons, and also interact in groups in the future. Some of the plans for development of AI-enabled weapons include AI-powered missiles, AI assisting in analysing information for air defence systems, an AI-enabled automated control system connecting offensive and defensive airborne and stationary assets in Crimea – announced by the Defense Ministry; and, new AI-enabled missiles and drones, and an AI-enabled system to sift through vast quantities of satellite imagery for faster and more accurate analysis – announced by the Advanced Research Foundation.

Russia is also in favour of employing LAWS. It has most recently stated to the Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of LAWS (GGE on LAWS) in 2019 that ‘potential LAWS can be more efficient than a human operator in addressing the tasks by minimising the error rate.’ Russia also noted that existing highly automated military systems cannot be categorised as LAWS.

ROBOTICS

In 2014, the Russian Ministry of Defence stated that it is expected that 30% of all military technology in the Russian Armed Forces will consist of robotic hardware by 2025.

Russia has established a network of agencies that deal with robotics. The Department of Innovation Research at the Russian military’s Main Directorate of Research Activities (GUNID) exercises the authority of the Ministry of Defence in the field of state support for innovation. The Main Research and Testing Centre for Robotics of the Russian Ministry of Defense conducts applied research and testing in the field of development and creation of military robotic systems, and carries out the functions of the head research organisation of the Russian Ministry of Defence in the field of robotics. The Advanced Research Foundation, the military’s research division, has been developing combat robots. As stated by President Putin, ‘the Foundation’s projects are designed to play a decisive role in the development of key elements of the new generation of weapons, military and special equipment. They should become the basis of the national weapons system at the turn of 2025-2030 both for the Army and Navy, and for a number of other industries and law enforcement agencies.’ The Era technopolis scientists are currently conducting research and development in the area of intelligent control systems for military robotic systems.

The Russian Armed Forces have been using unmanned ground vehicles since 2018, including Skarabei, Sfera, Shtrum, Nerehta, and Uran-9 (tested in Syria). The Russian military also has more than 2100 unmanned aerial vehicles throughout its services, according to the Ministry of Defence. This makes it one of the largest fleets in the world. Russia is also experimenting with augmenting the Ratnik-3 and Ratnik-4 soldier combat gear which will feature active exoskeletons that will allow troops to carry more weapons and equipment, including personal unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. The Ministry of Defence has also announced that it will be testing the Marker UGV, Kungas family of UGVs, and in particular robot swarms, guided by humans in the first quarter of 2020.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Defence is in the process of gathering proposed tactics, techniques, and procedures for using robots in urban and coastal combat, based on three years of operations in Syria. The goal is to resolve the absence of a unified concept for the use of military robotics by the Russian armed forces.

5G

The Russian Government has put in place a policy for directing 5G development in Russia. The government developed the national programme ‘The Digital Economy of the Russian Federation’ in 2018. The programme outlines the government’s goal to establish 5G communication in 10 Russian cities with a population of over 1 million by October 2021, and by 2024 in all Russian cities with a population of over 1 million. In 2019, President Putin noted that Russia must start operating fifth-generation communications systems. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation is currently in the process of improving the draft document for the development of 5G networks.

The 5G range is allocated by the Russian State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) as well. The range of 3.4-3.8 GHz used by popular 5G equipment is designated to the Ministry of Defence and Roscosmos. In March 2020, SCRF allocated a band of 400 MHz in the millimeter range (24.25-24.65 GHz) for 5G to telecom operators and industrial companies.

In June 2019, Russia’s cellphone operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) signed an agreement with Huawei to develop 5G technology, which went live in Moscow in September 2019.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

The Russian Government is investing in quantum research. The lab of superconducting metamaterials was created at National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) in November 2011 under a mega-grant from the government. The topic of the mega-grant was, ‘Superconducting metamaterials: development of superconducting structures with unique electromagnetic features and analysis of their physical properties’. The lab developed a technology to produce a quantum computer prototype on a superconductive two-qubit circuit in 2019.

In December 2019, former deputy prime minister Maxim Akimov announced that the government will inject around 50 billion roubles (US$790 million) over the next five years into basic and applied quantum research carried out at leading Russian laboratories.

BLOCKCHAIN

The Russian Government implemented blockchain technology for the first time in 2017. The project was titled ‘Digital Interaction of the FAS of Russia with Banks and Business Entities Based on Blockchain Technology’ and was undertaken by state-run bank Sberbank and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The aim of the project was to implement document transfer and storage via blockchain.

In 2019, the Russian Federal Service for Education announced its plan to include blockchain technology in the printing and scanning of the Unified State Exam (USE), the main preliminary exam to be sat at Russian universities.

According to reports, in 2019, Moscow’s Information Technologies Department announced an auction to build an ethereum-based system that will host the electronic services offered to the city’s residents. The aim was to increase public confidence in Moscow’s electronic services through transparency by using blockchain.

In 2019, Sberbank and MTS completed the country’s first commercial bond transaction placed through the blockchain system operated by the National Settlement Depository. Sberbank was also the first bank to obtain a patent for a repurchase agreement (repo) deals solution and an execution system that utilises blockchain. Also in 2019, state-owned company Rostec proposed a plan for the application of blockchain across all governmental data systems.

In 2020, the Central Bank of Russia completed the pilot test phase of its blockchain platform. The platform will be used to issue and move digitised (tokenised) assets, such as goods, services, securities, etc. It will enable companies and entities to issue their digital tokens. The platform also enables the issuance of hybrid tokens, which combine several types of digital rights at once.

The legal status of cryptocurrencies in Russia is uncertain, as the country’s parliament has long been debating a draft law that may make the issuance and trading of cryptocurrencies illegal. According to the latest remarks by the head of the legal department at Russia’s central bank, the amended version of the bill on digital assets will prohibit nearly everything ‘crypto’ except holding. At the same time, the country’s central bank does not see the need to issue a digital bank central currency: having considered this option, the bank determined, for the time being, that the advantages of such an instrument are not clear, while the risks are numerous.