Zoom’s decision to ban the sale of access to its online service to government agencies and state-owned companies in the Russian Federation confirms the need to develop its own platforms. On Wednesday, April 7, the deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maxim Parshin told Izvestia about this.
“Zoom’s decision to restrict access for Russian government agencies is another confirmation that we need to develop our own technology platforms. After all, a significant part of activities in the field of education, medicine, culture, business depends on their work today, ”he said.
Parshin pointed out that the department has repeatedly signaled the risks of dependence on the decisions of foreign companies and international politics. He also added that within the framework of the federal project “Digital Technologies”, comprehensive work is being carried out to develop import substitution and Russian digital solutions.
According to Parshin, there are currently at least five competitive Russian video communication systems in the register of Russian software that can be a worthy alternative to Zoom.
The day before, the media reported that Zoom had banned the sale of access to the online conference service to government agencies and state-owned companies in Russia and the CIS countries.
At the same time, Zoom Video Communications in the United States clarified information on the suspension of sales to Russian government agencies. It was noted that this information, presumably, was disseminated in the media because of the company’s partner agency. It was also emphasized that at the moment Zoom is conducting an audit in connection with the dissemination of inaccurate data.
In turn, the Federation Council urged not to make a tragedy in the potential ban on the sale of Zoom services to Russian government agencies, since there are alternatives. According to Senator Irina Rukavishnikova, only imported services should not be called the best, since Russian solutions are often not inferior to foreign ones in terms of the quality of providing remote communication.
At the same time, Vyacheslav Nikonov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and Education, said that Russian universities should abandon the use of Zoom and switch to domestic counterparts as soon as possible.
In March, it became known that Digital Education, a joint venture between Mail.ru Group and Rostelecom, had launched an analogue to the Zoom platform for Russian schoolchildren – the video-conferencing platform Spherum.