Sovereignty out of the box – Kommersant

Successfully bringing a product to market, whether it’s a car, a beer, or an operating system, requires the supplier to define its USP—Unique Selling Proposition. You need to show how your product differs from existing ones: an unusual taste, a premium feel, or a unique set of features. It seems that the Russian authorities, who have repeatedly announced plans to export Russian information technologies to friendly countries, have decided on it.

In the chapter on the prospects for the development of telecommunications equipment of the project “Strategies for the Development of the Communications Industry of the Russian Federation until 2035”, a new type of product of international cooperation is mentioned – “technological sovereignty out of the box”. He, according to the authors of the document, assumes that Russia and friendly countries will jointly develop and then use telecom equipment. In fact, in this way the Russian IT sector intends to monetize its rich experience of surviving in the conditions of a technological blockade.

It cannot be said that this idea is out of time. All last year, industry experts and heads of specialized associations, answering my questions about the prospects for the export of Russian IT products, said that potential foreign partners had a request for a non-black box product that cannot function normally without the exclusive support of the vendor , but a technology that the customer can master and use regardless of the unpredictable actions of suppliers.

The time for the export of experience looks very good: the global technology sector is undergoing a process of de-globalization, trying to acquire the very “sovereignty”. The United States, under the CHIPS and Science Act, passed in August 2022, is investing $280 billion in the development of semiconductor production in the country in order to reduce dependence on global and therefore fragile supply chains. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), as Bloomberg wrote on May 11, is preparing an initiative that will oblige IT giants to store the data of EU citizens in the EU.

But for the successful export of boxed “technological sovereignty”, it is not enough to export the experience of surviving under the sanctions; first of all, we need technologies, a product that can be applied to this experience. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times write that the Russian authorities are building schemes to import electronics and components into the country bypassing sanctions. Russian producers themselves recognized in expanding contract manufacturing, including abroad. So, apparently, there is still work to be done on the technical content of the sovereign box.