According to this NYT source, technocratic agencies, including the Ministry of Digital Development, are in conflict with the FSB’s “notoriously political-police unit”; in an Agency Telegram post retelling the publication, the link leads to a message about this quote. He clarified that this likely refers to the FSB’s Second Service.
The official said that the FSB did not take part in creating digital tools and prefers old analog methods of surveillance and control, even if that means destroying technologies on which technocrats have spent billions. According to him, this is also tied to the security service’s desire to preserve its influence, since artificial intelligence could undermine the rationale for a sprawling apparatus that relies on human labor.
The publication says that digital and силовые agencies are competing for Vladimir Putin’s attention and favor. According to the NYT, the President of Russia has demanded that the government develop artificial intelligence while simultaneously shielding it from Western influence.
In April, at a meeting on AI development in the Kremlin, Putin said: “Our ability to keep pace with global change determines sovereignty and, in the near future, without any exaggeration, the very existence of the Russian state”.
The Washington Post previously wrote, citing sources in Russia and analysts, that amid the war a split is growing at the top of the Russian state, including between civilian officials in the presidential administration and the FSB. One of WP’s sources said that the escalating confrontation ahead of the State Duma elections resembles a power struggle in the Kremlin on the eve of Boris Yeltsin’s reelection in 1996.
In April, The Bell reported in an investigation into internet blockages that the Ministry of Digital Development had tried to soften restrictions. According to the publication, the launch of Max and targeted blocks made it possible to postpone large-scale restrictions on foreign internet services by about 15 months, and it was possible to avoid fines for using VPN through Gosuslugi.
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