Russian software is unlikely to be able to fully replace foreign products at the moment, but this is an important issue from the point of view of sovereignty in cyberspace, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2018) Russian software is unlikely to be able to fully replace foreign products at the moment, but this is an important issue from the point of view of sovereignty in cyberspace, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
Earlier in the day, Vedomosti newspaper reported that government organizations have to plan for switching to Russian software by 2021. A representative of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov confirmed to the newspaper that the minister had signed a program on gradual switch of government companies to Russian software.
"First of all, this is the issue of the cybersecurity, and I would even say cybersovereignty. You see, we are living in a period when global services can be turned off or there can be threats to turn them off for political reasons ... This is why we need to switch to our own software," Peskov told reporters.
The presidential spokesman added that such threats would be unacceptable and it was important to "maintain independence in key situations."
"Can Russian software fully replace [foreign software] at the moment? I do not think so. Although, we should look at the opinions of the experts, especially in the government, which is looking into this issue," Peskov said.
The spokesman added that some Russian software needed additional "perfecting," and this might take time, although some steps on setting deadlines for this were being taken.
Peskov said he believed that Russian software would be able to replace foreign alternatives eventually.
