🎙 Excerpt from Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov's speech at the 20th International Forum "Partnership between the State, Business and Civil Society in Ensuring International Information Security" (Moscow, 24 September 2026) 💬 Information and communications technology, while becoming an invaluable support to us, have simultaneously evolved into instruments increasingly exploited by malicious actors. These technologies facilitate and accelerate cyberattacks and intrusions, amplifying the damage inflicted upon states, businesses and ordinary citizens. Certain governments actively enlist criminals, under the guise of so-called “IT armies”, to conduct hybrid operations against other states. At the same time, military and political threats arising from the misuse of information and communications technology, including artificial intelligence, are increasing. This includes cyberattacks, intelligence gathering, espionage, operational planning and targeting. All of this is carried out in close cooperation with the private sector: major developers that present their products to the world as ostensibly secure solutions, in practice act as contractors to military establishments and intelligence services. In essence, we are witnessing a new form of colonialism, in which digital metropolises attack some states while making others dependent on their technologies, embedding themselves within key sectors of client countries and gaining access to sensitive data. As a result, developing states find themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position. We are convinced that the most effective means of making the information space more secure and stable lies in the development of common “rules of the game” applicable to all, capable of regulating the conduct of states and their companies within the digital environment.