Putin launches a national AI group to break technological dependence on the West.

Russia announced Wednesday the creation of a national task force to coordinate the development of artificial intelligence technologies. The order, issued by Vladimir Putin, speaking at the AI ​​Journey 2025 conference in Moscow, seeks to reduce technological dependence on the West amid sanctions.The initiative aims to expand AI to all industries, consolidate centralized command, and increase the sector's contribution to Russia's GDP by 2030.

Putin declares AI a matter of national sovereignty and accelerates domestic control

Russian President Vladimir Putin elevated artificial intelligence to the status of "state, technological and values ​​sovereignty"In a statement marking a strategic shift in the Kremlin's digital policy, Putin, speaking at AI Journey 2025, ordered the creation of a centralized working group responsible for supervising and coordinating all AI projects in the country.

The instruction includes the preparation of a national plan for the implementation of generative AI in all industries and regions of Russia. The Kremlin intends, according to the president himself, for AI to contribute more than 11 trillion rubles (136.000 billion dollars) to the Russian GDP by 2030, becoming a structural engine of the digital economy.

Putin repeatedly stressed the need to break with dependence on foreign models. According to the official Kremlin transcript, he stated: "We cannot allow a critical dependence on foreign systems. The entire spectrum of models must be trained and supervised by Russian specialists at every stage."

The argument is not only economic, but also geopolitical. The president emphasized that major language models play a crucial role in shaping public opinion and that relying on tools from other countries amounts to "ceding cultural and political sovereignty." Therefore, Russia wants to develop domestic alternatives capable of competing with the American and Chinese systems.

Putin then toured an exhibition showcasing the advancements of the Russian ecosystem: from the chatbot GigaChat From Sberbank to a domestically produced humanoid robot, including the virtual assistant Alice from Yandex. The presentation aimed to show that, despite sanctions, Russia maintains a vibrant domestic development in AI.

To sustain this growth, the president announced a massive energy plan: the construction of 38 nuclear units in the next 20 years, primarily in Siberia, the Urals, and the Far East. According to Putin, the electricity consumption of data centers more than triple in this decade, and only a nuclear expansion will guarantee the necessary capacity to train advanced AI models on a national scale.

Sanctions, lack of chips and alternative alliances: the limits of Russian advance

Russia's progress in artificial intelligence is deeply conditioned by the geopolitical context. US and European Union sanctions have severely restricted Moscow's access to advanced microchipsespecially the Nvidia and AMD GPUs that typically power the most complex models.

German Gref, CEO of Sberbank, openly acknowledged that Replacing Western chips is one of the biggest challenges for the Russian technology sector. The sanctions prevent the import of critical hardware for training next-generation models, affecting both private companies and state laboratories.

This limitation is reflected in international indicators: Russia currently occupies the ranked 31st out of 83 countries In Tortoise Media's Global AI Index, Brazil lags far behind the United States, China, and even BRICS partners like India and Brazil. A lack of advanced infrastructure, private investment, and high-performance chips largely explains this shortfall.

To circumvent these obstacles, Russia has intensified its technological cooperation with China. In 2024, both countries promoted the creation of a AI Alliance Network with BRICS members, which brings together 17 industrial associations from 14 countries with the aim of developing models, sharing research and establishing regulatory frameworks that are alternatives to Western ones.

This approach seeks to create a parallel ecosystem that allows for the development of AI without relying on US standards, chips, or cloud infrastructure. However, experts warn that even China—a leader in high-performance hardware—faces its own restrictions due to Washington's export controls, which could limit Russia's ability to scale its models.

Another difficulty lies in the fragmentation of the Russian technology industrywhere companies like Yandex, Sberbank, VK, and Rostec operate independently and compete with each other. The new working group ordered by Putin aims to centralize efforts and avoid duplication, but it also reinforces the role of the state in a sector that is globally advancing thanks to decentralized innovation.

Finally, doubts persist about the real impact of the 38 announced nuclear power plants. Although increasing electrical capacity is essential, experts point out that the bottleneck is not energy, but rather access to advanced chips, the lack of specialized talent and international restrictions on the flow of knowledge and technology.