Yury Nagornykh: “A Strong, Sovereign Economy Is Impossible Without Strong, Predictable and Secure Digital Infrastructure”

Yury Dmitrievich Nagornykh, director for communications at Russian Railways (RZD) and head of its Department for Relations With Federal and Regional Authorities, spoke to IT Russia about why a strong economy is impossible without reliable digital infrastructure, how trust in and the manageability of digital solutions affect business, and why digital sovereignty matters to a country.

– Transport and infrastructure are drivers of the economy. It is now impossible to make economic calculations without taking transport and infrastructure into account. The same is now happening in the digital sphere. A strong, sovereign economy is impossible to imagine without strong, predictable and secure digital infrastructure. For the railway industry, this is not an abstract issue: placing transportation orders, handling documents and payments – an enormous flow of operations – managing transportation processes and technologies, developing personalized services, and so on.

That is why the main issue is trust in and the manageability of digital solutions. Business is clear about this: it needs predictable timelines, transparent pricing and resilient supply chains. In the digital environment, that means transparent protocols, secure channels and domestic platforms that do not depend on external solutions.

The task of large businesses is to make sure that every major agreement leads to a clear and predictable result: functioning infrastructure, modern services and a clear logic for the customer. This can be achieved only when the country’s entire digital environment is under our control rather than someone else’s. Only then can digital sovereignty become a practical tool for development.