Status and Prospects of Import Substitution in the Russian IT Industry

Today import substitution became actual for Russia again. Economic sanctions and geopolitical risks are the main reasons. Dependence on import has particularly manifested itself in IT industry. This issue requires the analysis and the solution as information technologies are the basis of modern society. In this regard, the role of the state implementing protectionist policy in relation to the national companies has increased. Import substitution in the Russian IT industry is the subject of the article, and the analysis of the status and prospects of this process is its objective. The paper seeks to solve two tasks: to analyze procedural and legal base of import substitution and to analyse technological capabilities to decrease dependence on foreign software and hardware. As a result it is revealed that the Russian authorities actively work on amendments to the existing and adoption of the new laws providing preferences to the Russian IT companies. Business sector is involved in the development of strategic plans for IT industry. There is a big set of the Russian brands which aren’t software and hardware producers in the full sense of the word. The small share of the Russian IT companies has their own production facilities, and the share of the Russian software developers exceeds the share of hardware producers. Russia has chances to solve the designated problem successfully It is important to consider trends of the global IT market. It is necessary to begin with implementation of free software and replacement of the western hardware decisions with Asian, developing national production capacities in parallel. Production of goods competitive in the world market, for example, software and hardware, is a strategic objective for Russia.