The traditional Educational Day of the Russian Internet Governance Forum took place on April 6. As part of the event, Anton Gorelkin – First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT, and Communications, and also Chairman of the Board of ROCIT (the Russian Non-Profit Center for Internet Technologies) – gave a lecture for HSE students on how cybertechnology legislation is made.

Anton Gorelkin spoke to students about the transformation of the Russian internet from a segment of the global network to an emerging independent digital infrastructure. This shift is driven both by external pressures and by improvements to the national legal framework – including the law on a sovereign Runet, the so-called “landing” of IT giants (the requirement for foreign tech companies to establish a local presence in Russia), personal data protection, and others.

He offered a strategic analysis of this ongoing transformation, noting that Russia’s internet segment was initially created as an integrated part of the global network. However, tensions that emerged in the 2010s and subsequent events made it necessary to build a sovereign digital infrastructure. To that end, several federal laws were passed – for example, requiring foreign IT companies (such as Facebook) to open representative offices in Russia, and mandating the localization of personal data.

The speaker paid particular attention to the development of technological competition. In his view, Russia still lags behind global leaders in areas such as AI and robotics, remaining at the stage of prototyping and searching for effective solutions. The market, he explained, is split into two poles: on one side, Boston Dynamics with its Atlas robot – technologically advanced but far from mass-market affordability; on the other, Chinese manufacturers offering very low-cost, stable solutions for the general market. Russia, for now, has only prototypes that show considerable potential but remain in early-stage development, uncompetitive in terms of mass production or cost efficiency. The strategic priority for Russian manufacturers, he stressed, is not simply to create a technologically sophisticated prototype but to develop an affordable and efficient platform. Whoever is first to bring such a solution to the market will gain a decisive advantage.

“The key task today is not copying other people’s models, but finding our own niche for intensive growth – where accessible, mass-market technologies become the foundation of competitiveness,” Gorelkin added.

The lecture was organized by the HSE Department of Digital and Biolaw, together with the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.

For reference: The Russian Internet Governance Forum has held Educational Days since 2018. On these days, RIGF speakers and experts meet with students and young people in various cities, delivering lectures on a wide range of topics related to internet governance, its structure, security, and international relations.