Five Data Centers Down — Russia "Set Far Behind in the AI Race"

Описание: "This effectively sets Russia far behind in the AI race." That is Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society, describing Ukraine's October drone campaign against five Russian data centers — three Yandex facilities (Sasovo, Kaluga, Vladimir), Sberbank's data center and AI hub in Balakovo, and VK's server facility outside St. Petersburg, struck between October 8 and 18. Replacing the destroyed gear could take months — if not years.

AP reported on October 22 that banking, e-commerce, geolocation, ride-hailing, Yandex's Alisa assistant and multimodal AI chatbots suffered lasting disruptions; arbitration courts canceled sessions after losing database access. Reuters (October 23) confirmed Yandex's Kaluga facility was partly disabled and its Sasovo hub hit; OSW's October 19 analysis documented Yandex acknowledging two centers' operations fully suspended. None of the three companies has confirmed the extent of the damage.

The bottleneck is hardware: a global shortage of high-end chips plus sanctions blocking their delivery to Russia — Klimarev says repairs may not be possible "in half a year, a year, or even at all." So what: Ukraine has opened a digital second front — every taxi app, every payment, every search is now a battlefield.

Sources: AP via New Indian Express (Oct 22) https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/202... | Reuters via starent.co.za (Oct 23) https://starent.co.za/data-centres-the-bat... | OSW Centre for Eastern Studies (Oct 19) https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analy...

Music: Five_Armies by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — CC BY 4.0

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