Russia approaching tech self sufficiency
Grudging admission in the fervidly anti-Putin partly foreign owned Moscow Times.
There is actually a lot more to say about this subject. For example Russia's Yandex has now bought up Uber's Russia franchise.
Russia is the only country I know of which has a comprehensive range of tech platforms which both duplicate and successfully compete with US platforms. Japan has some platforms but not the whole range of platforms that Russia does. China of course does have a comprehensive range of platforms, but they do not have to compete with US platforms within China because of the effect of China's Great Firewall. The Russians by contrast are methodically and successfully building up their platforms whilst still allowing Russian consumers in Russia itself to access US platforms.
Of course Russian tech companies (as Moscow Times says) are getting massive help from the Kremlin, which includes a great deal of arms twisting, but still, it is interesting that they are proving so successful on their home market, and shows that they must be delivering a good and even superior product.
The Russian effort is also backed by hardware, and this side the Moscow Times article does not discuss at all. Partly that is because the Russians are very cagey talking about this aspect. However one senses that this has increased on a big scale, with the Russian military and Russian government institutions apparently using Russian made hardware which uses exclusively Russian chips.
Much to say about that with Rostec - the giant state own conglomerate, which some are increasingly comparing to Samsung, and which runs Russia's MIC - playing the central role, but that is for another day.
Of course it all began when the US began its sanctions war, and started to use its tech companies as instruments of policy, but that too is for another day.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/26/russias-drive-to-replace-foreign-technology-is-slowly-working-a74908
