EXCLUSIVE: German probe into former spy chief August Hanning has no link to Azerbaijan, sources say
An investigation into August Hanning, the former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), has no connection to Azerbaijan,...
Moscow, February 20, 2025 – Russia is intensifying its push to join the global artificial intelligence race, aiming to harness AI for both civilian and military applications and to bolster its economy despite ongoing sanctions and stiff competition from the United States and China.
In recent years, breakthroughs in AI have transformed industries worldwide. According to Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024, while AI has surpassed humans in tasks like image classification and visual reasoning, challenges remain in fields such as advanced mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning, and planning.
The report also highlights that AI has improved productivity and job quality, helping to bridge skill gaps across various industries.
While American tech giants such as Google, OpenAI, Amazon, Nvidia, and Meta Platforms continue to lead the global AI race, Chinese firms recently made headlines with the launch of DeepSeek—a low-cost model that outperforms competitors with far fewer resources. This development has raised concerns about U.S. dominance and has spurred Russia to accelerate its own efforts.
Russian companies, notably Sber and Yandex, are emerging as key players in the domestic AI field. Sber has rebranded part of its tech investments and introduced GigaChat, an AI chatbot positioned as a competitor to ChatGPT, while Yandex recently unveiled its fourth-generation YandexGPT. Other firms, including T-Bank, MTS, and VK, are also exploring AI development.
The Russian government has set ambitious targets, expecting AI to contribute as much as $110 billion to the national economy by 2030. President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order outlining the country’s AI strategy, which includes the development of integrated digital platforms in healthcare, industry, transportation, and public administration. In parallel, Russia aims to increase its annual output of AI graduates from 3,000 to 16,000, a move intended to address its persistent IT workforce shortage.
Russia is also seeking to leverage international partnerships. Putin has encouraged cooperation with China in AI research and development and, through the BRICS bloc, has helped establish an AI Alliance Network to further integrate regional efforts. However, heavy Western sanctions continue to pose significant challenges by limiting access to essential chips and hardware, forcing Moscow to rely increasingly on Chinese products and other intermediaries.
Experts note that despite these ambitious plans, Russia still lags behind the United States and China in AI innovation. The ongoing shortage of skilled IT workers, combined with restricted international cooperation due to sanctions, remains a major hurdle.
As Russia accelerates its AI initiatives, the country hopes to carve out a larger role on the global stage—while navigating a complex landscape of geopolitical tensions, technological challenges, and economic pressures.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
Russia struck Ukraine overnight in one of the biggest attacks of the conflict, killing at least 19 people, Kyiv's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Around 70 missiles were fired at Ukraine during the attack, as well as drones, the Ministry said.
Picture three scenarios: a hospital that can spot a disease before the patient feels sick, a power grid that feeds thousands of data centres and a government network that is attacked daily. All three depend on artificial intelligence, and one question matters most: who is really in charge?
OpenAI and Anthropic told Australian parliament on Tuesday they would welcome laws requiring them to report data breaches carried out by their AI agents, acknowledging the decision to notify authorities was currently at their discretion.
Most people meet artificial intelligence (AI) through a phone. It suggests the next word, sorts the photos, flags the odd charge on a bank card. But the technology has been quietly moving into places where mistakes cost more: the systems that run banks, hospitals, businesses and government offices.
A four-person crew aboard SpaceX's Crew-13 mission, consisting of two U.S. astronauts, a Canadian astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (1 October), for a long-duration science mission focused on human health and performance in orbit.
The European Space Agency (ESA), Airbus and European partners have put a six-wheeled Mars rover prototype through its paces in Spain’s Tabernas desert, simulating conditions expected on a future mission to the Red Planet.
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