Russia’s digital authoritarianism: the Kremlin’s toolkit, 4 September 2023

New report by International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Global Diligence LLP explores Kremlin’s system of digital authoritarianism – the use of digital technology by authoritarian regimes to track, repress, and manipulate domestic and foreign populations. The report analyses key repressive technologies, used by Putin’s regime, namely: facial recognition and the Smart City Programme, the System of Operative Investigative Measures (SORM) and the sovereign internet or Ru.net project. The document explains how these technologies work and who stand behind supply, maintenance and operation of digital authoritarianism systems. The report concludes with recommendations to the international stakeholders, including European Union and its Members States, governments of the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada...

Digital technology described in this report relies heavily on the import of components, such as semiconductors, from outside Russia. The report concludes with a series of recommendations addressed to the European Union and its Members States, other western governments and their allies and partners aimed at undermining the supply chains that support the manufacture and supply of these technologies to Russian authorities.