Russia’s VK, Yandex, Sberbank, Rostelecom to Develop Mobile Operating System
A mobile phone 
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian social media platform VK, tech giant Yandex, banking giant Sberbank and state-run telecom provider Rostelecom intend to establish a company that will develop a new mobile operating system based on Android and a platform that can replace Google Mobile Services (GMS), Russian newspaper reported, citing a government source. A consortium of developers from the Russian Digital Ministry will join the domestic operating system development, the source told the Russian news outlet. Another source familiar with the initiative told the newspaper that VK and Sberbank show particular interest in developing an analogue of GMS. The source added that such a platform was “needed by anyone who wants their applications to have adequate functionality.” Kommersant recalled that the Russian government included Rostelecom’s project to create a national mobile ecosystem based on the Russian open mobile platform, the Aurora operating system, by 2030 in the New General System Software roadmap. The project, which includes the production of 70 million devices, is estimated at 480 billion rubles ($6.6 billion), but the funding source has yet to be approved. The government source noted that the development of the new operating system did not contradict Rostelecom’s plans, specifying that the Aurora operating system would be used in the corporate and public sector, while the new operating system would target the consumer segment. After Russia launched the military operation in Ukraine on February 24, the domestic IT industry faced a number of challenges. Most of the major Western vendors have left the Russian market. Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on Thursday that Russian IT developer MyOffice would create an analogue of the Microsoft Outlook corporate mail system by the end of 2023.