Safe City Project Cost Rises by 50 Percent
The implementation of the “Safe City” project, which aims to launch a unified industrial and urban security system across Russia, will cost 152 billion rubles over ten years, according to Kommersant citing the financial and economic justification for the corresponding federal law. The document was developed by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) and has been posted for public discussion.
The project is to be funded by regional budgets and interbudgetary transfers. Previously, it was planned that 97.1 billion rubles would be needed for the project by 2030.
According to the document, all Russian regions must implement a specific set of urban security systems (such as video surveillance, including facial recognition; traffic accident monitoring systems; platforms for monitoring public utilities infrastructure, etc.) and connect them to the “Safe City” hardware and software complex. Currently, regions do this voluntarily.
A source familiar with the situation told Kommersant that interdepartmental coordination of the initiative is underway: “The most difficult discussions are with the Ministry of Economic Development, as they believe the project will place too much strain on the federal budget, regions, and businesses.” This ministry has initially taken a critical stance toward the EMERCOM project.
A source at a major technology company emphasized that increasingly strict Western sanctions could further complicate the project’s implementation: “For example, there is a problem with the lack of computing power required by this system. Foreign supplies have stopped, and it is currently impossible to fully localize the production of all server or data storage system components in Russia.”
He believes that under these circumstances, it would make sense to change the Safe City rollout plan and focus on “basic infrastructure tasks”: building fiber optic lines, computer, and electrical networks. “If, after completion, the situation with computing power does not improve, the concept of edge computing could be applied,” the source noted. “For example, shifting primary computations from data centers to end devices could reduce the need for computing power.” However, the supply of “end devices” and their components is also severely hampered by sanctions.
The government has already begun preparing for problems related to computing power shortages caused by sanctions. For example, it is proposed to simplify the process for contracting with commercial data center operators for rental, as well as to confiscate data centers from companies that have left Russia.