Izvestia: «Forty million euro to be spent on info security for 2014 Sochi Olympics»
A government investment commission has endorsed the French company Atos.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has held the government foreign investment commission’s final meeting for this year. Its members set a record by approving eight major deals in just 20 minutes.
One of the deals concerns information security for the Sochi Olympics and the world football championship. The International Olympic Committee’s long-standing partner – the French company Atos – was charged with this task. Participants in the meeting told Izvestia that the French are unlikely to limit themselves to these two events, especially as Russia will host a number of major world competitions over the next few years – from Formula One to the world hockey championship.
“This is a good example of mutually beneficial cooperation in high technology,” Putin said. “This is an example of ‘smart’ investment as opposed to capital simply coming to Russia.”
The commission approved the deal between Atos and the Siemens IT affiliate in Russia. Andrei Tsyganov, the deputy head of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, told Izvestia that Atos will have invested a total of 40 million euro in Russia by 2014. It has not yet specified its investments in the football championship in 2018.
At the Olympics, Atos will be fully responsible for information security – from printing passes to storing competition results and information about visitors to police and migration services.
“The company is interested in the high-tech market of sports competitions,” Tsyganov told Izvestia. “Work at major sports events is not a one-off deal and if they gain a foothold they will get interested and will be unlikely to leave. The experiences of most companies investing in Russia bear this out.”
Putin has prepared a long list of activities for the French company – the world hockey championship in 2016, Formula One, the world martial arts contest, and the Student Games in Kazan, just to name a few major international sports events.
Atos has been involved in information security at the Olympics for several years, but they are preparing new software and the data storage protocol. All in all, Atos will send more than 3,000 of its employees to work at the Olympics in 2014.
Putin noted that the commission was holding its last meeting under the old rules. Amendments facilitating foreign investment will come in force in December. The main concession concerns subsoil management deals. The commission will review only those transactions whereby a foreign company purchases 25% of the shares in a Russian firm with a mining license. Earlier, the threshold was 10%.
Bankers will also have an easier life. Foreign banks will be able to enter the Russian market without Russian founders. International financial organisations like the International Financial Corporation and the EBRD will enjoy concessions as well.
Anastasia Novikova
