russia Helps Autocracies Fight Internet Freedom

In early February 2025,  russia’s annual information security forum openly emphasized the strengthening of ties between the russian government and the country’s cybersecurity industry, the kremlin’s continued desire for a sovereign Internet that would be as independent as possible from Western technologies, and the interest of other authoritarian states in russian-style digital sovereignty projects.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the main participants of the forum, positive technologies (pt), which has recently been actively promoting its services in the “near abroad” countries. positive technologies is under US sanctions, so it is more interested in its own developments rather than Western modern programs. For example, it acquired cybersecurity technologies belonging to the russian company Group IB after its founder  Ilya Sachkov was arrested and charged with treason in July 2023. Jointly with the russian company “yadro”, which owns the Deep Packet Inspection internet surveillance technology (used by the russian state),  pt has  tapped into belarus’s sizable information technology sector.

The russian cybersecurity business has quickly adapted to the current political realities in the cis countries, in particular to the ideology of the belarusian authorities, which views freedom on the Internet as a threat to its own existence. belarus’ “presidential election” in January was marked by belarusian providers blocking international access to the country’s internet infrastructure and interruptions to virtual private network (VPN) services. minister of communications of the rb subsequently accused Google of election interference and stated that minsk is currently developing a legal basis for the creation of a communications authority modeled on russia’s communications authority (roskomnadzor).

As Internet freedom in the region has been effectively lost,  the “achievements” of positive technologies will soon be felt throughout Eurasia. The company has obtained licenses to provide services to the authorities in Kazakhstan. In Uzbekistan, the firm sponsored the “positive tech day”, a conference that brought together the country’s IT industry and government regulators. The company is also working with universities in Uzbekistan to offer information security training programs, similar training is also sponsored by the firm in Kyrgyzstan.

positive technologies has been successfully cooperating with the iranian presidential strategic management centre in Tehran. Here, the company subsequently produced extensive reports on the country’s cyber risk landscape, along with recommendations for iran’s private sector. The company is also actively seeking markets in other BRICS countries.

Countries that lack the funds for modern licensed information security technologies may accept a cheaper alternative from the rf. However, this will only strengthen the kremlin's influence on their information space.