Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered privately owned data centres in Russia to reserve 10% of their floor space and capacity, so the state can direct that space to keep Russian information resources running, decree No. 802 of 2 November 2026 says.
The decree also allows the temporary use of computing capacity outside Russia to support Russian information resources, if a new government subcommission decides so with the agreement of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The key insight: Russia’s decree No. 802 of 2 November requires private data centres to reserve 10% of their space and capacity within 10 days and hand it over within 24 hours when a new government subcommission decides, and it allows temporary use of computing capacity abroad with FSB agreement, the decree says.
Owners of data centres located in Russia must reserve 10% of their existing space and capacity no later than 10 days after the decree takes effect, the decree says. It applies to owners that are not federal, regional or local government bodies, or state or municipal enterprises and institutions.
The reserved space keeps being used by the data centres, according to the decree. When the new subcommission decides, it must be handed over within 24 hours to support information resources in Russia. The fee for that space cannot exceed a ceiling the subcommission sets.
The decree takes effect on its official publication. It was published on the government’s legal portal on 2 November, which puts the 10-day reserve deadline at 12 November, by our arithmetic. Ten days is 240 hours, 10 times the 24-hour hand-over window.
What Russia’s decree No. 802 of 2 November 2026 requires of private data-centre owners: reserve 10% of space and capacity within 10 days, hand it over within 24 hours of a subcommission decision, and temporary use of compute abroad with FSB agreement. 240 hours vs 24 is our arithmetic.
Why It Says It Was Issued
The decree’s preamble says it responds to the need for urgent measures in response to unfriendly actions by some foreign states, to support information resources owned by Russian citizens and Russian companies.
In October, data centres of three Russian companies were hit by drone attacks, Interfax reported on 2 November. Three Yandex data centres were affected and two were stopped, causing outages at Yandex services and other Russian websites, according to Interfax; data centres of VK and Sberbank were also attacked, but their services were not disrupted. We covered the Yandex incidents in October.
Who Runs It
The government must form a subcommission on the uninterrupted operation of IT and communications facilities under its commission on digital development, and approve its rules and the procedure for its decisions, the decree says.
The digital ministry, Mintsifry, must take stock of free space and capacity at data centres in Russia that are not state-owned, and approve mandatory reliability requirements for owners of information resources, according to the decree.
Digital minister Maksut Shadaev had said that protecting IT infrastructure is handled together with the defence ministry, and that his ministry would work out support measures for building data centres by the end of the year, Interfax reports.
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As we read the decree, it turns a share of privately owned data-centre capacity into a reserve the state can call on at a day’s notice, while leaving that capacity in commercial use until it is called.
As we read it, the foreign-compute clause runs the other way: it gives the subcommission a route to keep Russian information resources running on capacity outside Russia, subject to FSB agreement, after October’s attacks on domestic sites reported by Interfax.
Decree No. 802, 2 November 2026 (Russian original)
FOR DATA-CENTRE OPERATORS Private owners must reserve 10% of space and capacity within 10 days and hand it over within 24 hours of a subcommission decision, at a fee capped by the subcommission, according to the decree.
FOR THE GOVERNMENT The government must form the subcommission and approve its rules, and Mintsifry must take stock of free private capacity and set reliability requirements for owners of information resources, the decree says.
FOR RUSSIAN INTERNET SERVICES Interfax reports that October drone attacks stopped two of three affected Yandex data centres and disrupted services; the decree adds a route to temporary compute abroad, subject to FSB agreement.
What Is Not Established
The decree does not say how much capacity Russia’s private data centres hold in total, so the size of the reserve in megawatts or racks is not known. It does not name the members of the subcommission, set the fee ceiling or list which foreign locations could be used. Bloomberg’s report on foreign data centres was readable to us only as a headline; the foreign-compute rule here is taken from the decree itself.
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Under decree No. 802 of 2 November, private data centres in Russia must reserve 10% of their space and capacity within 10 days and hand it over within 24 hours when a new government subcommission decides, and computing capacity abroad may be used temporarily with FSB agreement.
A note on sourcing. Requirements are from the official text of decree No. 802 of 2 November 2026 (Russian; read from the published PDF), translated by us; the October attack details and the digital minister’s remarks are from Interfax’s 2 November report. The 12 November deadline and the 240-hour comparison are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
