For a country to achieve genuine sovereignty in AI, it needs sovereignty over its data and its own infrastructure, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin said at the 2nd Global Digital Forum.
“Only two countries have achieved genuine sovereignty across these parameters, coming close to full sovereignty: the United States and China. Russia is close to these levels, lagging slightly in technological sovereignty in the field of microelectronics,” he noted.
Maxim Oreshkin also said that Russia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world.
“Russia currently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, if not the lowest, at 2.2%, according to the latest statistics,” he said.
He attributed this in part to the development of digital platforms, which create additional employment opportunities and enable economic activity to reach even the country’s most remote areas.
Maxim Oreshkin also discussed the development of artificial intelligence. He noted that Russian AI models rank third on average in many tests, behind their American and Chinese counterparts, which are among the world’s leaders.
He stressed that only a few countries have the expertise needed to develop such models, adding that developers at Sber and Yandex are achieving good results.
In his remarks, Maxim Oreshkin devoted particular attention to educational platforms. He said that, in the future, these platforms would make it possible to effectively manage a person’s entire educational journey, from basic education to professional training. They would also be able to recommend individual development pathways based on personal data. This makes data sovereignty in education crucial.
“If you do not have your own platform solution, developed either independently or in partnership with a third country willing to share such sovereign solutions, and if your data is not stored locally, all this information will be accessible to a third country, which may use it for its own purposes. These could range from security‑related purposes to identifying the most talented students in schools and universities and enticing them to leave your country,” Oreshkin concluded.
