Page 100 - RusRPTDec19

9.1.7​ TMT sector news
Russian State Duma in the third reading passed a law on pre-instalment of domestic software on smart devices sold in Russia, ​such as smartphones, computers, and Smart TVs. The law will be effective as of July 1 2020. The law is favourable for Mail.ru and Yandex internet majors, and might mark the favourable turnaround of the regulatory environment for both companies. After Yandex has agreed to change its governance structure, the potentially harmful bill on foreign ownership in internet companies has been called off​. The type and list of devices and software to be preinstalled will have to be determined by the government. The law is seen as targeting Apple in particular that never pre-instals third party software.
Russia’s largest bank and digital innovation frontrunner​ ​Sberbank announced creating an Artificial Intelligence alliance ​including the state-controlled bank,​ ​Yandex​ and​ ​Mail.ru Group​ internet majors,​ ​Mobile TeleSystems​ (MTS),​ ​Gazprom Neft​ oil company, and the​ ​Russian Fund for Direct Investment​ (RDIF), ​Vedomosti ​and Tass reported on November 8 citing the CEO of the bank German Gref.
Russian State Duma voted in a bill that will oblige all smartphones, personal computers, and smart TVs to come with pre-installed domestically developed software ​if they are sold in the country, ​Kommersant daily reported on November 6. The bill was previously supported by the government in October, seeing it as promoting domestic developers on the market. A similar initiative was also developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The analysts surveyed by ​Kommersant​ still see no clarity on how the bill will be enforced, which devices and which types of software will be involved. For Apple devices, complying with the new rules would be particularly challenging, they note.
Russian state atomic energy agency Rosatom has started the development of a quantum computer ​costing RUB24bn ($376mn), Vedomosti d​ aily reported on November 7 citing representatives of the company. By 2024 Rosatom plans to developer four types of quantum computing machines by 2024 with the capacity of 50 to 100 qubits or quantum bits. Currently Russian developers were able to create systems of up to 2 qubits, while machines of 50-70 qubit capacity were developed by the US and European scientists. ​Vedomosti r​ eminds that in October 2019 Google announced that its quantum computer was able in less than four minutes to perform a calculation that would take the world’s largest supercomputer Summet about 10,000 years. Currently in the global rating of supercomputers two Russian machines are features (on the 93rd and 365th spot). Analysts surveyed by ​Vedomosti b​ elieve that creating a domestic quantum computer prototype by 2024 was realistic, noting that machines with qubit capacity of above 50 have are of interest.
100​ RUSSIA Country Report​ December 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com