Russia data center operators move to harden infrastructure as drone strikes expose cloud risks

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Russia data centers drone risk

Highlights

President Vladimir Putin's November 2 decree mandates that Russian data center operators reserve 10 percent of capacity for emergency government use and allows selected foreign data center access.
Drone strikes have forced Russian operators like Rostelcom and Yandex to consider underground facilities after attacks disrupted data centers supporting services from Yandex, Sberbank, VKontakte, and the Finance Ministry.
Centralized data center models in Russia have suffered major outages in payments, banking, and digital services, while Ukraine's decentralized cloud approach, using European cloud regions and Starlink, has proven more resilient under repeated attacks.

Underground plans and emergency capacity orders

As reported by Ars Technica, Russian companies are scrambling to shield digital infrastructure after strikes disrupt data centers linked to major online services. State-owned telecom operator Rostelcom is discussing the possibility of moving some facilities underground with mining company Norilsk, while Data Center Dynamics points to a proposal from a regional governor to place data centers inside open-pit coal mines and cover them with public parks as camouflage.

On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signs a decree requiring Russian data center operators to set aside 10 percent of available space and capacity in case the government needs it for emergencies. The decree also allows a special government commission, in consultation with Russia's Federal Security Service, to authorize the use of foreign data centers, marking a notable shift from Russia's earlier Sovereign Internet policy that limits reliance on infrastructure outside the country.

Recent Ukrainian strikes are described as hitting or degrading facilities used by Yandex, Sberbank, VKontakte and Russia's Finance Ministry. Yandex also relocates all three of its main supercomputers after attacks target the AI data centers where they were originally housed.

Centralized cloud model faces wartime test

Russia's push for a sovereign and increasingly closed internet leaves key digital services concentrated among a small group of domestic technology companies, increasing exposure when major facilities are hit. Disruptions have spread across payment tools, digital banking apps, e-commerce platforms, video streaming services, ride-hailing networks and food delivery apps used by millions of Russians.

By contrast, Ukraine's more decentralized digital setup appears more resilient after years of drone and missile attacks. The government disperses key energy and telecommunications nodes, moves more supporting infrastructure underground, and shifts critical digital resources to cloud regions elsewhere in Europe with help from Amazon and Microsoft after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine also uses SpaceX's Starlink terminals as a backup communications system, with support paid for by the United States and European countries including Poland and Germany. The contrast highlights how wartime infrastructure strategy is becoming a competitive factor for cloud reliability, digital public services and national data security.

Our earlier coverage of sovereign resilience in a higher-rate environment examined how persistent geopolitical tensions and elevated public spending are raising borrowing risks for governments, especially in emerging and frontier markets. We noted that the Russia-Ukraine war is among the key shocks pushing up energy and food prices, sustaining inflation and tightening fiscal headroom as refinancing costs rise.

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