The Right of Every People: Russia Will Help the Global South Build Digital Ecosystems
Digital sovereignty has become a key factor in national resilience. On October 9, participants at the 2nd Global Digital Forum discussed how Russia can help countries in the Global South build their own digital ecosystems. The High-Level Plenary Session, “Digital Sovereignty: From Resource to Export Asset,” explored ways to achieve digital sovereignty.
At the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergey Kirienko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, delivered welcoming remarks to the participants.
He recalled that Russia had come a long way toward achieving technological sovereignty and had effectively reached that goal. Russia’s experience had shown many countries that no one could take their ability to protect their domestic affairs for granted, and that every state must defend its own interests independently.
At the same time, Russia remains open to foreign companies that comply with Russian law. It is also ready to cooperate constructively with any country.
“We believe that access to digital technologies and digital sovereignty is an inalienable right of every people and every sovereign state. We are ready to be full-fledged partners, not imposing our own solutions as replacements for other global platforms, but helping partner countries build a fully developed industry and achieve genuine digital sovereignty,” Sergey Kirienko emphasized.
Drawing on its experience in the nuclear industry, Russia is ready to do more than sell technology. It wants to help build entire industries, including research, education, infrastructure, manufacturing and operations, as well as establish joint ventures, share expertise and develop workforce training systems.
Maksut Shadaev, Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, explained how Russia had weathered the departure of Western vendors. Russian solutions have already been introduced across most management and production processes.
“Over the past six years, our IT industry has doubled its contribution to the country’s GDP,” the minister said.
Veronika Nikishina, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian Export Center, said Russia had assembled a broad portfolio of digital technologies ready for export. These include cybersecurity, smart-city technologies, artificial intelligence, unmanned systems and digital platforms. She stressed that dependence on foreign platforms creates technological risks. Russia is prepared not only to supply ready-made solutions, but also to share the expertise needed for other countries to develop their own.
“Sovereignty is by no means isolation. It means complementing one another,” she said. The key to preserving technological sovereignty, she added, is to stay ahead and keep developing.
Yury Maksimov, Co-founder of the Cyberus Foundation and Positive Technologies, spoke about Russian advances in cybersecurity, a field in which dependence on imported solutions is unacceptable. Russia offers a distinctive model for transferring intellectual property rights and expertise, above all by helping other countries train their own people to think like hackers.
Participants from other countries also shared their experiences. Despite more than 60 years of economic blockade, Cuba has developed a national public services platform and Cecilia, a sovereign generative AI system.
“Despite these barriers, Cuba has learned through hardship and adversity that technological sovereignty is achieved through resilience and creativity. We are also convinced that these restrictions have pushed us to move forward using our own resources and to develop solutions even under the most unfavorable conditions,” emphasized Pablo Julio Pla Feria, Deputy Minister of Communications of the Republic of Cuba.
Algeria is implementing a digital transformation strategy through 2030, including the construction of data centers and the digitization of public services. Nigeria is focusing on commercializing research in digital development. All these countries are ready to cooperate with Russia and exchange technology and expertise. Russia, in turn, can become a reliable partner, helping the Global South build its own digital ecosystems.
In the view of the session participants, digital sovereignty is not isolation, but the right to make independent choices and the opportunity to cooperate on equal terms. The more countries achieve technological independence, the more stable the global digital world will be.
