RT-Inform, a firm owned by the Russian non-profit state corporation Rostec, announced, on June 9, the creation of a protected instant messenger (IM) application designed for use by Russian companies and state agencies (gosstruktury) (Rbc.ru, June 8). The financial details of this initiative are being kept secret, but Sergey Kravtsov (the owner of OMMG Technology and the inventor of the cloud messaging service “4talk”) presumed that between $2 million and $5 million may have been spent. According to official reports, the messenger is part of the government’s import-substitution strategy and also aims to protect Russian cyber space (Realnoevremya.ru, June 7).
Yet, …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation