Roscosmos CEO called the dependence on foreign software a threat to Russian national security

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that Russia’s dependence on imported software supplies is one of the key threats to the country’s national security. His words are quoted by the press service of the state corporation.

“The dependence on import supplies of software is one of the factors that negatively affect not only the information security of the state corporation Roscosmos, but also generally threatens the national security of Russia,” he said.

According to him, as part of the digital transformation, Roscosmos has developed a comprehensive roadmap for import independence in the field of information and communication technologies with the stages of its implementation.

In addition, as noted by Rogozin, the digital development department of the state corporation will form an expert council to support digital transformation processes. “Under him, a separate section will be organized to ensure import independence with the inclusion of authorized employees of the organizations of the rocket and space industry that are part of the state corporation,” the message says. It will become a platform for the exchange of experience among domestic developers.

In addition, Rogozin said that in order to obtain better products and strengthen its position as a customer, Roskosmos is joining forces with Rosatom, Rostelecom and Gazpromneft. For this, an association of the largest consumers of software and IT equipment will be established.

At the end of March, the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, announced the violations identified in Roscosmos. According to Kudrin, in the last year alone, violations of more than 30 billion rubles were revealed in the state corporation. He noted that we are talking about various violations: “Somewhere accounting, somewhere there is inappropriate [spending], somewhere there is a violation of funding standards.”

Roscosmos told RBC that the audit of the Accounts Chamber concerned the implementation of the law on the federal budget for 2019 by the state corporation.

“During the audit, the Accounts Chamber revealed violations related exclusively to the procedure for processing documents and generating reporting materials,” the state corporation said.

These violations, as noted in Roscosmos, were not material in nature, and the submission of the Accounts Chamber based on the results of the audit does not contain any conclusions about the misuse of budget funds.

Speaking at the Federation Council on March 31, Kudrin said that the audit of the Accounts Chamber did not reveal that Roscosmos had misused budget funds. According to him, the state corporation has become “much more attentive” to financial discipline, and violations mainly related to accounting and “individual procedures.”