The Russian state plans to revamp its computer services using Linux in a bid to reduce its dependence on Microsoft and better monitor computer security. According to AFP the Russians will spend about 3.5 million eurosto develop a national software system based on Linux.

Russian deputy Ilia Ponomarev warned that the devil was in the details which are still to be worked out in a December meeting headed by vice-prime minister Sergei Ivanov. The idea is that the country will become independent of Windows ... but it risks becoming an unthinking implantation of Linux, he warned.

Similar concerns about achieving technological independence prompted the Russian military to create the GLONASS satellite navigation system in the 1980s, to compete with the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and competition in the future from Europe's Galileo.