The Russian government has given data centre operators temporary permission to use computing resources located outside the country, after Ukrainian drone strikes on Yandex facilities in October disrupted some services.

Companies will require permission from the Federal Security Service (FSB) to form such links with foreign companies, according to a Monday decree by the presidential administration posted on the government’s legal information portal.

Capacity reserve

The decree also obliges Russian data centre operators to reserve 10 percent of their capacity for supporting government information resources.

Companies can continue to use the reserved capacity, but it must be made available within 24 hours upon request, the order said.

In October Ukrainian drones targeted three data centre facilities operated by Yandex, temporarily disrupting some services and forcing Yandex to relocate its three supercomputers, news agency Tass reported at the time.

Data centre damage

Yandex said on 26 October that it had relocated its Lyapunov, Galushkin, and Chervonenkis supercomputers to new facilities, adding that they weren’t damaged during strikes earlier in the month.

“They have been moved out of the locations where they previously were and are now being deployed at new computing sites. The supercomputers will continue to serve as infrastructure for Yandex’s services and for training foundational language models,” Yandex stated.