The key facts

  • At the Delovaya Rossiya forum, Putin called the strikes on Wildberries and Ozon a surprise and said Russia has begun responding
  • He also mentioned strikes on energy facilities and data centers; Agentstvo notes this was his first statement on data centers, but it is unclear whose strikes he was referring to
  • In September Russia attacked Ukrainian data centers, and on October 14 Putin held a meeting on cybersecurity

Speech at the Delovaya Rossiya forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Delovaya Rossiya forum-congress, said that the Ukrainian side had carried out strikes on the Russian marketplaces Wildberries and Ozon, and that Russia had not expected this. 'We have faced our opponent's actions against our platforms — both Wildberries and Ozon. To be honest, we should have anticipated such steps, but we thought they would not go that far,' he said, reacting, according to Kun.uz, to a speech by Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim about Ukraine's strikes on the company's warehouses.

Statement about the 'response' and energy

Putin said that after Russia 'began responding,' the Ukrainian side 'runs to its patrons' with requests to influence Russia and stop it. According to him, a similar situation repeated itself with energy facilities: he stated that the day before there had been attempts to strike some oil refineries, there had also been strikes 'now in some places,' but 'there is no serious damage.' 'They took the first step, and we began responding. Now they are complaining about energy and other facilities, including data processing centers. They started it themselves. They should not have started it. Before taking this step, they should have thought carefully about its consequences,' Kun.uz quotes him as saying.

Uncertainty around the data center topic

The outlet Agentstvo noted that this is Putin's first statement about strikes on data processing centers, but it is unclear from the context whose strikes are meant: the Armed Forces of Ukraine's attacks on Yandex and Sber data centers, or Russian retaliatory strikes. In September, Russia attacked several data centers in Ukraine, and the Russian Defense Ministry threatened Kyiv with a 'digital detox.' On October 10, after the AFU began attacks on Yandex, Russia struck the data center of the provider Tenet in Odesa and the 'Ukrsibbank ATM' in Kyiv.

Meeting on cybersecurity

On October 13, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the topic of attacks on data centers in Russia had been discussed in the government. The next day, Putin held a meeting on cybersecurity issues. In the public part of the meeting, he said he expected participants to offer proposals 'that make it possible to raise the level of digital security,' and stated that against the backdrop of a 'direct and hybrid external aggressor,' cyber threats are entering a new stage. However, he did not mention data centers at the meeting.