The Russian government has been characterized in recent years by maintaining a dangerous obsession with the operating systems it regularly uses. This obsession is due to the fact that each and every one of them comes from the United States, be it Windows, iOS or Android. To try to avoid that dependency and be able to know for sure that they are not being spied on Through the possible back doors that these operating systems may have, the Russian government has launched several campaigns to make use of Linux in its different versions. These campaigns are heavily funded by the government and appear to be starting to bear fruit.
A few weeks ago the Russian government changed the default application used by the Russian government to communicate via email, leaving out the almighty Microsoft Outlook. This pilot test is currently being carried out in 6.000 jobs, but if it offers the promised results, little by little it will be the only application used by the Russian government institutions to communicate via email.
To communicate through mobile devices, both Android and iOS are completely ruled out, in favor of Sailfish OS, an operating system created by the Jolla company, founded by former Nokia employees. Sailfish has just received certification from the Russian government as an alternative to Android within the institutions dependent on the country's government.
In this way Sailfish OS will be the base on which to start building a open source operating system to be customized according to the needs of governmentsSince Russia is not the only country interested in keeping the communications of its top officials safe. China, South Africa, India, Brazil are some of them countries that also plan to switch to Sailfish OS in the not too distant future.