Challenges and Opportunities in Forming a Digital Economy in Russia

Abstract

Challenges and risks in forming a digital economy in Russia are discussed. It is shown that they result from the fact that the country lacks companies economically and socially equipped to be leaders in the global semiconductor and radio electronics markets. Half of the global semiconductor market is controlled by US companies, which constitute the basis for the already formed “US digital economy of semiconductors,” Russia being a consumer of its products. “The US digital economy” is a project of global semiconductor market leaders, targeted at forming new global markets under the decreasing profitability of semiconductors. In the existing situation, the implementation of most of the National Technology Initiative’s projects will be based on borrowed technologies and components, endangering both Russia’s prospect to acquire any significant share of new global markets and its information security protection against growing cyberattacks. Russia can parry the challenges and risks of the formation of its digital economy through the creation of economically and socially significant IT companies, oriented at digitizing the country’s strategic industries and able to claim leadership in global markets.