INFORMATION SECURITY AS A FACTOR OF STRATEGIC SOVEREIGNTY IN THE GREATER EURASIA

Eduard Budantsev, President of the Diktatura Zakona Bar Association,
Chairman of the IOEC Board of Trustees

Economy is a primary foundation of modern society and international cooperation. Although politics has often taken precedence over economy in recent years, imposing its priorities and attitudes on states, ultimately no one can ignore economic interests. At the same time, amid growing geopolitical tensions associated with changes in the world order, the likelihood of threats to violate an international security and peace is increasing.

In order to maintain the leadership a number of dominant countries are implementing their policies in serious and deliberate violation of international law, and their aggressive nature is leading to the undermining of international stability Such policies are implemented also with the use of the latest information and communication technologies
(ICTs). They can be used to undermine the foundations of economic and digital, as well as cognitive sovereignty. And this leads subsequently to the ultimate loss of political autonomy.

Therefore it can be stated with certainty that one of the key threats to the formation of sustainable foundations
of the new world order is the growing power of information weapons, both in the economic sphere –
where they are used to commit various types of fraud and crimes using ICTs – and in the ideological and political spheres. Russia was the first country to emphasize the need to discuss international information security (IIS) issues in the global agenda.

In 1998, Russia proposed a draft resolution on international information security at a meeting of The United Nations General Assembly First Committee. This document has laid the foundation for the international discussion, and since then the UN General Assembly has annually considered a report containing the positions of the UN member states on the issue.

Nowadays information security issues have become a key concern for ensuring national sovereignty. It also takes an important part in the activities of international organizations such as the UN, OSCE, SCO, BRICS, CSTO and CIS.

The growth of information challenges has made it necessary for Russia to form a new national strategic priority, namely information security. The new strategic priority is reflected in the updated 2021 version of the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, in 2021, Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, approved the Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the field of international information security.

The implementation of these documents will guarantee sovereignty in the information space. Russia’s approach to the information security is comprehensive, with the objective to strengthen the national sovereignty in economic, social and political spheres. This includes the prevention of large-scale psychological manipulation of the population with the aim to destabilize society and the state.

The unprecedented digitalization of all spheres of life due to the rapid development of ICTs has become increasingly associated with new opportunities for the world economy, as well as with a number of significant threats, particularly in the area of cybersecurity. The UN and other international organizations are actively engaged in discussions on how to overcome these challenges.

The first international treaty to combat cybercrime was the Convention on Cybercrime, which was adopted by the Council of Europe in Budapest on 23 November 2001. To date, the document has been signed and ratified by 66 countries, but Russia is the only member of the Council of Europe that has not yet signed the document. This is due to the existing fundamental disagreement with approaches to ensure digital sovereignty.

In particular, Article 32 of the Convention allows cross-border access to computer data stored on the territory of national states without their official notification, which Russia considers a threat to national security. In 2016, Russia put forward its own proposal in the form of the draft UN Convention on Cooperation in Combating Information Crime.

This alternative would exclude the interference of the third countries’ intelligence services in national computer systems and provide for mechanisms to protect national sovereignty. In addition, in 2021, Russia submitted to a special UN committee the first ever universal convention on combating the use of ICTs for criminal purposes. The document was already reviewed in January 2022.

The lack of consensus within the international community on the IIS has made it more challenging to combat the misuse of ICTs for purposes that are contrary to the objectives to maintain international security. This underscores the need for enhanced international legal frameworks and the formulation of unified principles to address this issue more effectively. The long-standing conceptual confrontation between the views of, in particular, Russia and the United States on international information security issues, as promoted within the framework of the Group of Governmental Experts reconstituted by the Americans and the Open-ended Working Group launched at Russia’s initiative, has led to the adoption of radical steps in search of a modus vivendi.

In 2021, a significant historic step and diplomatic breakthrough were made with the joint resolution of Russia and the United States, “Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security, and advancing responsible State behavior in the use of information and communication technologies”. The document was submitted to the UN General Assembly in October 2021 and was adopted unanimously on December 6, 2021.

The document is intended to promote international dialogue in the field of ICTs. The resolution notes that capacity-building in the field of ICTs is essential for co-operation among States in combating the criminal misuse of information technologies and building confidence in the areas of security. It should be noted that the document is of a voluntary nature and implies the possibility of developing additional legally binding regulations in the future.

Unfortunately, the Eurasian continent remains disconnected, or more accurately, split into numerous large and small fragments. This is evident in the areas of Eurasian security, the continent’s political space, and its economy, science, and culture. There is currently no unified “Eurasian identity”, and attempts to construct one have not yielded promising results.

The lack of consensus among the international community on the IIS issues predetermines the strategic nature of close cooperation between allied countries to ensure, among other things, their ideological leadership in shaping thefoundations of the world order and information space. In these conditions, the role of multilateral regional cooperation is growing, where the authority of such platforms as the CIS, CSTO, SCO, BRICS, ASEAN and the ASEAN Regional Security Forum (ARF) is in particular demand for the countries of the Greater Eurasia.

Cooperation between countries within the framework of the Eurasian integration is of paramount importance to the participants and can be considered as a necessary requirement for integrating their external geoeconomic and geopolitical interests into the global agenda, including in the ICT sphere. Under these conditions, it seems justified and relevant to start discussing international information security issues within the framework of well-known integration formats, as well as new ones, such as the Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP). We believe that it is possible to start using the potential of the GEP to promote joint initiatives developed on the basis of joint statements and declarations in the field of information scurity and digital sovereignty in the international arena.

The experience of the EAEU is worthy to note, given the significant progress already made towards establishing a unified digital space. In 2016, they established a working group to discuss the digital agenda for five countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation). The digital agenda has become an independent area of focus within the broader framework of Eurasian integration.

The EAEU has already established a framework for financing digital initiatives and projects, as well as selection and process of them. It comprises projects of digital traceability of goods, the ecosystem of digital transport corridors, cross-border data circulation, and digital industrial cooperation. The tense situation in the cyber-sphere is linked to the shortcomings of the current system of international cooperation. It is not limited by inflicting the enormous damage globally, but it also undermines trust in technology and ability of states to ensure their national security in the face of such rapid digital change.

Today, given the rapid evolution of digital technologies and the pace of life the speed of information exchange, even between national authorities, is not fast enough. Information share and response are crucial to the timely mitigation of cyber-attacks. Currently, legal acts and strategic documents of various states have different degrees of involvement in international information security issues.

As a rule, they have heterogeneous objectives and, accordingly, views on the fundamental issues of the IIS architecture. Acts in the form of strategies, doctrines and frameworks on the issues of cooperation between the countries of Greater Eurasia in the field of IIS are lagging behind the needs to respond to information threats at the level of economic and ideological integration. It is essential to facilitate a systematic dialogue and exchange of views and practices in the development of joint mechanisms and tools for the implementation of the information agenda across various Eurasian platforms, including the GEP.

It will ensure a solid foundation for timely, coordinated decision-making when it is required. The dialogue is necessary and justified to develop a timely strategy to respond to global threats to information security. Today we can state with confidence that international information security is a critical factor in achieving strategic independence around the Greater Eurasia region. The efforts of all stakeholders are requested to ensure it. In the context of globalization and the information technologies development, the protection of information is becoming a task of growing importance for states and organizations.

The information security requires action at all levels: state, corporate and individual. States should develop a legislation that will regulate the use of information technology and protect the rights of users. Companies are required to invest in data protection technologies and train their employees in security rules. And every user should be aware of the risks using the Internet and need to take precautions when handling sensitive data.