Abstract
The article is an analytical state-of-the-art review of the Russian Federation’s critical infrastructure policy, starting from the 1990s but zooming in on the current situation. The article discusses what does critical infrastructure mean in the Russian context. It explores the country’s threat scenarios in this field, and asks what part is played by cyber security threats in this context. Further, the article elaborates the issue whether Russia’s policy is focused on critical infrastructure protection, or has the country adopted the more recent concept of resilience that puts emphasis on adaptive measures and recovery. Finally, it is considered who are the actors in Russian critical infrastructure policy and, in particular, how does Russia deal with the fact that the respective infrastructure operators even in Russia usually are not directly state-owned entities, but private companies.
Highlights
Critical infrastructure (CI) has since early 2000s gained importance in the European Union (EU) and its Member States (e.g. Pursiainen 2009, 2018; Aradau 2016; Lazari 2014)
This article took on the task of drawing a state-of-the-art picture of the CI policy in Russia
It started by asking what CI means for Russia
Summary
Vulnerable infrastructure has naturally existed in Russia for a long time, yet this was—as in most Western countries—traditionally discussed with more generic concepts and policies rather than the more recent concept of CI. I, 6), national security entails the protection of ‘the individual, society and the state from internal and external threats’, ensuring the implementation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, a decent quality and standard of living, independence and territorial integrity, as well as sustainable social and economic development This is almost the same as ‘civil defence’, a Soviet-era term which in Russian use strongly resembles the way that the same concept was used in some Western countries during the Cold War. The Yeltsin-era Federal Law on ‘Civil Defence’ dates back to 1998 (Federal’nyj zakon 1998), revitalised by the Putinera presidential decree from 2016. The timing suggests that it might be 9/11 that triggered Russia’s interest in CI protection, as it had done in the USA and the EU
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