Putin Orders Private Data Centers to Reserve 10% Capacity for the State

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered every non-state data center in Russia to hold 10 percent of its capacity in reserve for government use, with just 24 hours to comply once an order arrives. Reuters reported the directive. The measure follows weeks of Ukrainian drone strikes that have knocked out some of the country's largest compute facilities.

The demand is concrete. Putin told the Digital Development Ministry to inventory all available capacity and floor space at privately owned facilities across the country. A new government commission will hold the power to order the release of the reserved capacity. Third-party owners then have one day to hand it over. The temporary use of data centers located outside Russia has also been mooted, pending approval from the Federal Security Service, the FSB.

Why is the state reaching into private facilities?

Russian data centers have become military targets. In early October, drones struck Russia's largest data center, a 63-megawatt facility, in what was the second such attack in as many days. The damage was severe enough that multiple modules had to be removed from service completely. Users reported problems with Yandex Mail, Yandex Disk, Documents, Pay and Market at the time, despite Yandex claiming that key services remained running.

Two weeks later, Ukrainian drones targeted the data center of Russia's finance ministry. The facility reportedly housed the country's tax databases and other state registry data. The pattern is clear: state-linked compute infrastructure is now on the front line, and the Kremlin wants standby capacity it can seize quickly when the next strike lands.

What does the 24-hour rule mean in practice?

The mechanism is straightforward on paper:

• The Digital Development Ministry inventories private capacity and floor space nationwide.
• A new government commission decides when reserved capacity is needed.
• Non-state data center owners must provide access within 24 hours of an order.
• Facilities outside Russia may be used temporarily, subject to FSB approval.

What the directive does not say matters as much. There is no stated compensation scheme. No definition of how long the state may occupy the capacity. No clarity on whether commercial tenants displaced by an order receive notice. Private operators now carry a 10 percent capacity tax on their books, and the decree offers them nothing in return that the reporting discloses.

Are drones the only threat?

No. On the same day news broke of the capacity plan, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service admitted that cyberattacks had hit its servers and that 23 terabytes of data were stolen. The haul reportedly includes new data on Russian wartime losses marked "for official use only." The state is therefore racing to harden physical facilities while its data bleeds out through network intrusions.

Ukraine's infrastructure has taken hits too. Russia bombed Ukrainian data center facilities in September this year, cutting internet connectivity for 100,000 households. A government official noted at the time that Ukraine's network is highly decentralized, then admitted users should expect local disruptions to service. Both sides are now treating civilian compute and connectivity assets as legitimate targets.

What comes next?

The inventory order will reveal how much usable capacity actually exists in Russia's private sector, a figure the government has not published. Commercial operators serving Yandex-scale workloads now face a permanent reservation they cannot sell, and foreign-hosted capacity depends on FSB willingness to approve it. Expect the commission's first activation order, whenever it comes, to show whether 24-hour compliance is operationally real or merely declaratory.