The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), one of the world’s leading platforms for business community discussion of the key economic issues facing Russia, developing markets and the world in general, took place on June 1-3 in St. Petersburg. The SPIEF has been an annual event since 1997, and since 2006, has been under the patronage of the Russian President, who takes part in the forum.
The digital economy has been a traditional focus of attention at the forum, with people from leading IT companies taking part, and some forum events are held under the patronage of organizations representing the IT community.
On June 3, Director of Coordination Center for .RU/.РФ. Andrei Vorobyev took part in an IT breakfast and addressed the subject of developing Russia’s digital economy, its mobile components, and the data economy. Director of Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEK) Sergei Plugotarenko moderated at the session. The participants discussed global and Russian digital transformation trends and the outlook for digital economy development. They also looked at the impact that growing mobilization is having on the digital economy and on traditional economic sectors in Russia.
Immediately following the IT breakfast, the SPIEF held a roundtable discussion on the theme ‘Is It Possible to Develop Safe Digital Infrastructure in an Age of Global Cyberthreats?’, likewise moderated by Sergei Plugotarenko, who proposed that participants discuss the measures needed to establish and develop secure internet infrastructure.
Andrei Vorobyev spoke about the Coordination Center for .RU/.РФ. current work and shared the national domain regulator’s upcoming plans. “We are working with outside organizations that have the needed information security expertise,” he said. “Their work enables us to respond swiftly to the emergence and spread of malware by canceling domain delegation for resources containing such content. We are also in the process of setting up a reserve register of .RU and .РФ domain names, which will allow us to make the Russian internet infrastructure more reliable and stable, support the addressing system and ensure continued operation in the event of unforeseen circumstances,” he said. Mr. Vorobyev also spoke about plans to establish a reserve data storage facility. Currently, Russian ICANN-accredited registrars have to use the services of foreign data-escrow operators. Establishing a locally-based facility would enable Russian companies to fulfil all obligations under international contracts while at the same time keeping data on Russian soil with the help of Russian operators.
