The standoff pits the Digital Ministry against the Second Service of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the unit responsible for political investigations, The New York Times reported, citing a Russian official involved in building digital infrastructure.
According to the newspaper's source, security officials who have access to modern digital tools prefer older analog methods of surveillance and control, even when doing so disrupts technological infrastructure that cost billions of rubles. The official attributed the FSB's position to a fight for influence: widespread use of artificial intelligence could raise the question of cutting the security service's bloated apparatus and thereby weaken its role.
The New York Times noted that both the digital agencies and the security services are ultimately competing for the attention of Vladimir Putin, who demands faster AI development while also shielding domestic technology from Western influence. At the same time, Russia faces a shortage of equipment and infrastructure to develop advanced technology on its own, the newspaper reported: Western sanctions have restricted access to modern microchips, and many high-level specialists left the country after the start of the war against Ukraine. The two leading Russian AI models, from Sber and Yandex, rely heavily on Chinese open-source architectures, according to the newspaper.
The Moscow Times, citing The Bell's sources in the telecom industry, reported that in the summer of 2025 Putin handed the FSB's Second Service control over the Russian internet. After that, it secured restrictions on foreign messengers and VPNs and made decisions to shut down mobile internet under the pretext of ensuring security. The head of the Second Service, Alexei Sedov, promised Putin to "put the internet in order" and received carte blanche, according to the newspaper's source.
Political analyst Ilya Grashchenkov, in a comment to The Moscow Times, suggested that as a result of the confrontation between the security services and the technocrats, the authorities will try to combine Russia's isolation from the outside world with accelerated digitalization at home — he called this approach the creation of an "external digital perimeter." The state is already actively using AI technology to surveil the population: in Moscow, about 300,000 cameras are equipped with facial recognition, and with their help the authorities identify protest participants as well as draft evaders, monitoring conscription for military service.