Last week, Sberbank conducted technological exercises amid reports of possible US sanctions restrictions on the supply of new electronics to Russia.
During the exercise, a situation was simulated in which Sber would be disconnected from the support of foreign software and electronics suppliers, including Microsoft, Nvidia, VMware, SAP, Oracle, and Intel. In addition, it was reported that Sberbank plans to purchase large batches of servers and data storage systems.
Sberbank itself did not answer the question about the exercises. They did not comment on the situation in other major banks as well, though the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation called such exercises a standard practice, noting that any large business analyzes the stability of the IT infrastructure and assesses possible risks.
Earlier, the US authorities warned microelectronics manufacturers about a possible ban on the supply of these products to the Russian Federation if Russia “invades of” Ukraine. This warning reportedly concerned the Russian government and now the Cabinet is working on possible scenarios for responding to such sanctions.
Representatives of industry associations interviewed by Kommersant consider it necessary to force import substitution of both electronics and software.
“Due to the aggravation of the foreign policy situation, we are no longer just talking about the need for import substitution, but about how much time remains for this,” the Executive Director of ARPP Domestic Software, Renat Lashin, emphasized.
In turn, the Head of the Board of Directors of Basalt SPO (the Russian software developer), Alexey Smirnov, notes that Western suppliers themselves will resist sanctions.
“They have a fairly wide range of clients in the country among private and state structures. Leaving Russia will be the loss of a fairly large market,” he concluded.
Ru-Main, 01.02.2022
Source: Kommersant
