Russian data centres may reserve 10% for whitelists

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry wants to set aside a tenth of data centre floor space and power for information systems on a “whitelist”. Minister Maksut Shadaev told operators about the reserve at a meeting on 6 November 2026.

Three sources told Vedomosti that his words were reported accurately: a participant in the meeting, a person at a cloud provider and a representative of an industry association. All three are following the discussion on how a presidential decree is to be carried out.

According to them, data centre owners could be required to switch off low-priority customers to free up resources for services from the whitelists. Two things are on the table at once: the 10% reserve and the possible cut-off of some clients.

In Russia, a “whitelist” is a list of services that keep working when mobile internet is shut down in regions. The data centre reserve is meant to keep exactly those systems running.

Source: Хабр