Tech Roundup March 28: The fight for IT talent intensifies

IT TALENT

About 30% of Russian IT-specialists are actively looking for vacancies at foreign companies. Their search is mainly driven by the need to have access to modern IT-technologies, which cannot be guaranteed in Russia due to the sanctions.  [Source: Kommersant]

Up to 100,000 IT specialists will leave Russia in April, the Russian E-Communications Association estimated. This is in addition to 50,000 to 70,000 that have already relocated to other countries since the start of the war on Ukraine. [Source: Interfax]

The Russian government has set a three-year moratorium on inspections of IT-companies. The move is part of a broad plan to support the IT-sector and encourage specialists to remain in Russia.  [Source: TASS]

PAYMENTS

Russian travel companies have started sales of so-called “card tours”. Customers travel to a neighboring country, for example Uzbekistan, where they can get a Visa or Mastercard card issued by a local bank. Visa and Mastercard have stopped servicing cards issued by Russian banks.  [Source: ATOR]

Apple shut down Russia’s Mir card’s loophole allowing Russian users to continue using Apple Pay, Reuters reported. Alphabet’s Google is also taking steps to severe ties with the Russian card payment system that is owned by the central bank. [Source: Reuters, The Verge, WSJ]

UKRAINE

Ukraine sells a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to earn money for funding its war against Russia through the “Meta History: Museum of War” project. NFTs depicting warplanes, screen grabs of news reports and a cartoon-style image of an explosion helped to collect more than $65 million. [Source: Reuters]

Ukraine’s IT industry is mobilizing a cyber army. Stepan Veselovskiy, CEO of the Lviv IT Cluster, said they’ve organized 230 specialists to date to support the effort. [Source: Ain.ua]

VC SPACE

Russian VC investor detailed how the sanctions have negatively impacted his day-to-day operations. Alexey Solovyov, the founder and CEO of the Moscow venture firm A.Partners, told Insider about the hoops even unsanctioned Russian VCs have to jump through now, including difficulties accessing Russian bank accounts and his portfolio companies distancing themselves. [Source: Insider]

Crunchbase has blocked visitors with Russian IPs. Though they can get access to the website back after signing a petition against the war on Ukraine. [Source: Crunchbase]

BIG TECH UNDER PRESSURE

Russian Internet giant Yandex is facing increasing pressure due to the war on Ukraine. The company is facing a HR crisis, censorship by the state, and restrictions on its shares traded on US stock exchanges.  [Source: Radio Liberty]

Russian mobile provider MTS is additionally hiring 500 IT specialists. Most wanted are those specializing in Java, .net, JS, Python, Golang, DevOps, cloud technologies, Data Science, Big Data, and AI. The company has ambitious goals to develop the ecosystem of various digital products. [Source: Spark]

Japan’s NEC Group, a global IT and network transformation services provider, has stopped its sales and investments in Russia due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. NEC’s subsidiary Netcracker Technology provided aid for its 700 Ukraine-based employees.   [Source:NEC Group]

Business education associations – AACSB, AMBA и EQUIS – have suspended their activities in Russia. The decisions means that accreditations of nearly 20 Russian business schools have been temporarily frozen.  [Source: Kommersant FM]

Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications regulator, has blocked Google News service in Russia. The regulator said Google News provided access for news and features containing “false information about the special military operation in Ukraine” in a statement. [Source:TASS]

STARTUPS

Russian Internet giant VK Group and Sberbank are going to sell their joint ready-to-eat food delivery service The Kitchen in the District. Their venture has not managed to break even, and the companies decided to optimize their portfolios amid a worsening economic situation in the country. [Source: RBC]

Russian students will launch at least 30,000 startups by 2030. Estimated 4,500 of the initiatives will be supported through a federal incentive program with grants of $10,000 through 2024. At the moment, only 3% of startups in Russia are born at universities versus 25% on the global average. [Source: Spark]

E-COMMERCE

Residents of the European Asian Economic Union will have the right to make nontaxable purchases at overseas online marketplaces worth $1,000 instead of $200 at the moment, according to the union’s decision. The higher threshold is targeted primarily at Russians to allow them to buy essential goods in the wake of possible deficits. [Source: RBC]

Sberbank’s clients cannot send money to wallets registered at the AliPay platform due to sanctions imposed on the bank amid the Ukraine crisis. In 2021, Russian individuals sent $1 billion from Russia to China, with Sberbank accounting for more than half of this sum.    [Source: Kommersant]

SOFTWARE

Russian banks are forced to buy cybersecurity software from bankrupt banks as Western cybersecurity companies have been leaving the Russian market, since domestic solutions cannot address all of the banks’ software needs. In some cases, these banks downloaded the software through torrents and adjusted it to their needs.[Source: Kommersant]

SOCIAL MEDIA

Leading Russian bloggers have been predictably moving to the VK social network and Telegram messenger after the Russian government blocked Facebook and Instagram. The leaders are followed by Yandex’s Zen content platform and the Odnoklassniki social network. [Source: Brand Analytics]