Putin Signs Presidential Decree No. 802: Russian Non-State Data Centers Must Reserve 10% of Computing Power
Russian President Putin signed Presidential Decree No. 802 on November 2, requiring all non-state data centers in the country to reserve 10% of their site area and computing power within 10 days after the decree takes effect, equivalent to keeping one out of every ten servers on standby. The reserved computing power is still used by the data centers themselves in normal times, but once the government's special task force committee makes a decision, the data centers must provide it within 24 hours, and the requisition decision must be agreed upon with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), with service fees not exceeding the cap set by the committee. Russia's Ministry of Digital Development has been tasked with taking stock of the idle site space and computing power of non-state data centers nationwide, and the decree also allows the use of overseas data center computing power under certain circumstances.
Why read this
AI score 58
The decree requires non-state data centers to reserve 10% of computing power for state requisition within 10 days, allowing readers to understand Russia's administrative control over computing infrastructure.
Topics
Body · AI translation
On November 3, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Presidential Decree No. 802 on November 2, requiring all non-state-owned data centers in Russia to reserve 10% of their site area and computing power within 10 days after the decree takes effect. This means that out of every ten servers, one must be ready at all times to stand by for state tasks.
According to the details of the decree, this locked-down computing power will still be at the data centers' own disposal for normal use. However, once the government's special ad hoc committee makes a decision, the data centers must provide these resources to the state within 24 hours to safeguard the operation of Russia's information infrastructure.
At the same time, any invocation resolution must be agreed upon in consultation with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), and service fees must not exceed the cap set by the ad hoc committee.
To implement this policy, Russia's Ministry of Digital Development has been tasked with taking stock of the idle site space and computing power of non-state-owned data centers nationwide. Meanwhile, the decree also permits the use of computing power from data centers located abroad under specific circumstances, with the official justification being to respond to "unfriendly actions by certain foreign countries" and ensure the continuity of Russia's information resources.
From the perspective of the technology industry, this administrative directive will directly compress the flexibility of Russia's commercial data centers. With 10% of computing power locked down for the long term and subject to requisition at any time, cloud service providers will be unable to use this portion of resources for market sales. Allowing the use of foreign data centers, meanwhile, preserves an overseas backup channel for enterprises after domestic computing power has been administratively reserved.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Russia has intervened in the data center industry. There have already been proposals requiring data centers to switch to Russian-made server hardware, and this mandatory reservation of computing power further strengthens the state's control over critical computing infrastructure. Under the dual pressure of external sanctions and internal compliance, the computing costs and uncertainty facing Russian technology companies are rising in tandem.